Finishing the Flooring

Last weekend, we sanded and oiled our pine beetle kill wood floors. We used both a small hand sander on small rough spots and a rental sanding machine on everything. I only did one room with the large sander because it was so heavy, it only wanted to go toward the right and I had a hard time keeping it from doing anything but that or moving in any other direction. So, I sanded our big bedroom by walking in circles, to the right, until I got to the very center of the room. And that was the last room I sanded ;) We used tung oil to finish them, which we also used on the dining table and coffee table Curt built last year. It should protect the wood a bit (not quite as effective as a poly sealant but hopefully better than nothing and a lot more environmentally friendly) but it also brought out the blue colors pretty intensely. More tung oil was delivered today so we can do a second coat this weekend.

I feel a little bit like it’s Christmas Eve because when we drive to our house tonight, our tile floors will be done! We bit the bullet and paid someone to finish the tile floors in the entry, kitchen and adjoining pantry, mudroom and wine room. My last tile job in the basement bathroom wasn’t instilling any extra confidence in my tiling abilities, not to mention the layout was going to be pretty tricky. There was also a high spot where the backerboard didn’t get drilled down far enough and I was worried about tiling over it and making things as even and flat as possible. So we had the guy who just finished a few of our showers go up there this week to finish the rest of the tile floors (and our master tub). He sent us a few photos but tonight we get to see it in person.

This means we can hang our range hood and hook up our oven and fridge! It means our kitchen is mostly complete (backsplash and DIY island to come later). It means I might get to cook a meal on something other than our grill, which we tested with a frozen lasagna last weekend to mixed results (we were just sick of hot dogs, burgers and grilled chicken breasts). I can’t wait! But if I have learned anything, it’s not to assume everything will go as smoothly as it seems in my head. After our well snafu last weekend that unexpectedly left us without running water again, I will just be thankful if we can flush our toilets. The person who put in our well and pump came to our house yesterday and found rocks inside the lines to the well, which caused our tank to drain and empty completely multiple times, the fuse to blow and the water to stop running. So hopefully since that’s fixed, we will be in business. Cooking, cleaning, flushing, washing business.

The last areas of our flooring that need to be finished are the stairs (more pine beetle) and the two upstairs bedrooms (carpet has been bought, we just need to put it in). Then we will start putting in what seems like miles and miles of baseboard trim. I've started painting the trim but have a long way to go with that. Luckily it's not required for COO :)