Poor Jamie - after three weeks painting walls, he's now Colonel Sanders.
Two days so far and we're still not done. I say we - Jim sanded and I went surfing for three hours. Neither of us could move by the end of the weekend.
It took waaaay longer than we thought, and we're still not done!
We started here - that awful orange varnish!
And now we are kinda here. It's taken a LOT. @ericvancewalton , I am very jealous of your lovely hard wood floors. Whilst the pine should look good when it's done, and we're happy to live with it, dammit, I would have liked fresh new hardwood.
We tell each other it's sustainable, tells a history, is characterful - all whilst secretly wishing we were rich, and could afford a big house and all the trimmings. You know, a view, two bathrooms, some tradespeople to do the work for us. Sigh.
See all that grey in the photo above? That's where the laundry used to be, and that's water damage. I set to it with oxalic acid. The instructions are to neutralise it with something like bicarb soda, which I duly did. Then - disaster. Everything went green. Have you ever seen the Father Ted episode where Father Ted tries to repair a car with a hammer? The more he hammers, the more dents appear, which means he has to hammer more. The more I tried to 'neutralise' the green, the more the water bled into the floorboards until I had a fucking disaster in front of me. Panic stations!
Honestly, if you haven't seen it, watch the clip.
Here's a photo - unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the extent of the disaster as I was too stressed out, but even this gives you an idea of what we DIDN'T want the floor to look like!
Never fear though, Jamie to the rescue. More oxalic acid and the green disappeared. The floor still isn't perfect. Jamie was threatening to rip up the floorboards in this section and get new ones, but that' smore money and remember we were embracing characterful? Plus, more work - honestly, I'm so tired and fed up!
Then there's also the abyss - a big line in the floor where the wall was and the pine boards don't quite meet each other. Jamie cut it with a saw and we will have a characterful pine insert running the other way.
More to come.
With Love,
Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here
Oh I feel your pain…
Characterful works and with all the work and love you guys put in it, it will look awesome.
Trust the process. That was my slogan while doing the pine floors. It took me weeks and weeks.
Good luck.
!HUG
It's terrible! We still are struggling with a section where the stains won't come out .. they are grey. Oxalic acid removed a lot but won't get the rest! Any tips?
Crazy… I nornally try with bicarbonate soda. A thick paste with water but not to thin. Soak in for 10 minutes. Rub in fir a while after… if needed repeat.
They are the worst stains to get out. Hope you manage.
Hm, the bicarb reacted with the oxalic acid and made it green, so we had to go over again with oxalic acid. Jamie's going to try a bleach solution tonight. I really don't want to replace boards. What a pain of a job!
Your chap looks so serene with the mask and earmuffs, and the machinery of abrasion. It is almost like the perfect analogue of the nuclear conflict-riddled family as depicted on American TV.
'The machinery of abrasion' - I'm going to use that az a euphemism for small talk...
Everything has abrasive qualities. The male tongue is generally one such force in the universe. I'm all proverb-y today
Don't get me started on men today. You're the only marginally acceptable one and it's only because I can switch you off at whim.
Just hang on, in a couple of weeks you can enjoy your hard work - doing these things yourselves saves so much money and not everyone can do this, well done 👍😊
It's coming along great! You guys are brave for taking on a project like that. When you have wood floors you really having to embrace the "character marks", dents, and scratches. Each imperfection tells a story.
Our hardwood floor installation has turned out to be a shit-show of epic proportions. I haven't shared the story yet on Hive but the crew destroyed our baseboards, parts of our staircase, and did a really shoddy final finishing job on the floor (some unfilled cracks, divots, unsanded/buffed corners, drips/uneven topcoat). A new crew is coming out in a few days to fix the trouble spots and we're basically going to have to stain-match/replace all of the baseboards and try to salvage the damaged parts of the staircase. Thankfully the contractor is cooperating with the fixes but it eats into their profit and delays us putting the house back together. I guess that's the downside of hiring someone else—so few take pride in their work these days.
On a brighter note, I'm looking forward to seeing your finished floors!
Your account of the technical details, the disaster with the oxalic acid, and your perseverance in leaving everything as good as possible without giving in to the temptation to take the easy way out is quite interesting. Although every imperfection has its charm and will become part of the history of the house, it will also be a great topic of conversation. Congratulations, I'm sure it will be a satisfying job and all the effort will have been worth it.
Thanks. It'll look beautiful in the end I'm sure and I'lll be sure to post about it!
Congratulations @riverflows! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP