Construction Week 4 - Overdue Update

Here it is. The post about week 4 progress, rather lack of progress. Regress even? Sorry for the poor photo quality below, none of them are edited and some are iphone photos.

Anyway. Monday was Memorial Day so nobody was there.

Tuesday and Wednesday Al spent the entire day sanding.

Wednesday night they made me make a final decision on the stain - yikes! Let me walk you through my decision making process....

As I mentioned in my go green post - we decided to go with Vermont Natural Coatings alternative Poly to finish our floors. We also wanted to stain them. Our builder isn't fond of stain so he told us to pick one and he'd do it if we REALLY wanted. Keeping that in mind, I called VNC to see what type of stain I should use. They told me all about their new "tinting" stain they're selling now. They sold me on its green-ness and ease of application (simply pour it into the poly and paint it on).

They sent me a sample (one I already posted on the blog) and I didn't like it. I drove to their factory and worked with them to pick a color I did like. I came home with these boards - I'm comparing them to my magazine picture I love here.

Here they are on top of the raw floors.

I loved them. Matt loved them. We were DONE with this decision - hooray!

Wednesday night Ted wanted me to make sure I still liked it. I got scared and told him to go half strength in case they came out too dark. He painted underneath where the cabinets would go.

Yikes. Looked too dark to me. He added another gallon of poly to the mix so it was now 1/3 strength.

That looked a bit more like my sample.

Although they look TOTALLY different than the first 2 pics I showed right? Or is it just me?

OK. Thursday the stain went down. Poor Al was there late finishing up. He and Matt deliberated a bit over how the stain was "going down" during the day and he decided to switch applicators. Here is how it turned out.

I liked the color, but not the dark spots. We were assured by Vermont Naturals that those would dry overnight and it would look more even.

Nope. The next day they still looked like this - see the brush strokes?

They told us that "buffing" would take those out. It didn't.

To make this long story a little bit shorter - Friday and this past Monday were spent re-sanding the floors. Ug. We felt so bad about it that Matt even jumped in to help :)

I picked a new (non-natural) stain to use. The only other eventful thing was the movement of our refrigerator down the stairs.

Would you want to live here?

So there you have it. That was last week. I escaped one night with Nug and hiked at our favorite place :)

We love Mt. Philo!

On Saturday, we checked out the lake house.

After walking over we decided Matt's truck could make the journey. HOORAY!!! HOORAY!!!

Months of neglect showed most in the yard. It was a jungle out there.

We got things under control and now have the chance to enjoy the sunshine :)

And Sunset.

And even a Champ sighting - do you see him?

What a nice change to finally have the opportunity to spend a little time out of our house and out of the way of construction. We're still back and forth - but it is nice! Coming up next - Barrow's favorite - the first garden update this year!

xoxo