Been A Long Time

I kind of disappeared off of the map, things get busy, no other excuse. But the work hasn’t stopped, it slowed for a while, but it is actually looking like a livable house these days. Ill update some stuff this week.

Staining the Floors

We got the floors sanded , filled and stained yesterday. One of my good buddys came over and put his skills to work running the sanding machines. He did an amazing job and has quite the touch. We than layed down a coat of wood filler , sanded one more time then screened the floor for the final run. We put down nutmeg stain by hand and the results were dramatic. The stain brought out the quartersawn characteristics better than I could have imagined. tomorrow another one of my buddies is coming over to work his magic for the finishing coats. He owned a hardwood business for years and has an amazing eye for detail when it comes to the finishing work of wood floors. Until then, take a look.

Floors Are Down….Ready to Sand

I have been real busy lately and have not had much time to update our progress, or for that matter get much done on the house until recently. These pictures are not great because they are off my phone, but here they are. We finally made it over a big hump, the floors are completely layed throughout the house. I have a small amount of drywall work to get done and then it is on to sanding.

Structural Post is Gone

This is one of  the things I have been wanting to do for a while, and today it came time to knock it out. I am far enough on the floors now that I needed this post out of the way. This area of the stairwell was the eyesore of the main part of the house. It was very obvious that it was not original how the post and beam were layed out and finished with drywall. It also made for a very tight squeeze between the stairs and the small hallway to the bathroom.

Anyways we jacked the house up on screw jacks to take the temporary load of the second floor. We then removed the post and the double 2×8 beam above it. This was not installed right in the first place. It was only sitting on one stud on the left side, and on the right side only one out of the two 2x8s was even sitting on anything. Needless to say it was twisting from the weight. After we removed the beam and fixed the pockets they were going to sit in, we replaced the beam with a new double 7 1/4 versa lam beam. These are much stronger and are more than rated for this short span. Because of that we could remove the post making this area much less congested and also more appealing to the eye.

Cabinets make the difference

I had a great craftsman in town build my cabinets. He did a wonderful job and was great to work with. It is becoming more difficult to find people who care about their quality and pride themselves on attention to detail. They turned out great and really make the room feel like it is coming together. With a great amount of time and thought put into each step, I believe it is starting to show in the outcome. Obviously the kitchen has the most modern upgrades in the house, but I have tried to get the small details right, in an attempt to make it carry some of the same character and craftmanship that is found in rest of the home.

Quartersawn White Oak Floors….Amazing.

I got one solid work day in, and was able to lay the new wood floors in the kitchen and three quarters of the front room. My main focus was to get the kitchen knocked out so I can get the cabinets going. I will finish laying rest of the house later and finish them all at one time. The wood grain and quality are amazing. I am extremely happy with them and its really starting to bring the house together. I need to thank my buddy Jer for giving me a hand and showing me some of the tricks of the hardwood floor trade.

Crown Molding Is Up And Finished.

I was able to knock out the crown molding a couple days ago and my wife sprayed it the following day. It really made a clean finished look for that gorgeous ceiling. I will do a write-up later when I have time going over some of the things I learned and the amazing use of coping joints, and jigs that are made for that reason. We went with a three piece crown, which requires a little more work, but the dramatic look is worth it. By spraying it once it was in place, the finished look blends the ceiling and the crown together as if they were one. Now things are starting to get exciting around here with some finsih work being done.

The Wood Floors Arrive

I have been behind getting a couple updates up, so here they are. The wood floors arrived a couple weeks ago, and they are amazing. I was nervous about my choice, but the quartersawn white oak was even better than I had expected. From what I’ve read, many times when you order quarter and rift saw floors you get a very low percentage of actual quartersawn wood. I was pleasantly surprised when I found a very high percentage was truly quartersawn. The wood has sat for a couple weeks in the house to ensure the proper moisture content, and I will put them down as soon as I can.

The Tin Ceiling!!!

The tin ceiling is up, and it is gorgeous. We started this process a few weeks ago when my wife setup the paint booth in our garage so that she could prime and paint 36 panels. With these panels being made from real tin they need to be sealed and painted with an oil base paint. We did one coat on them before installation and we will finish another coat after the crown molding is installed.

We ended up ordering our tiles from American Tin Ceilings. They were better quality compared to others and are still being made from the original 1800s presses. We also went with the nail up tiles, they have a more authentic look than the newer technology of snap lock tiles.

When laying out your grid, chalk lines will be your friend. It is a good idea to start by marking center on all 4 walls, this will give you a straight reference point, in what is usually not even close to square walls.

By staying true to your original line the patterns come out in a nice clean finish. you want the overlap seams to face the most unseen sides of your room. One thing I plan on doing for a finishing touch is using painters caulk to lay down a thin bead on the seams. This makes the seams almost completly undectable. I learned that little trick over at www.ourvictorianhouse.com .  Finally I will install the three piece crown molding and caulk where needed as it meets the tiles. Then we will give a final coat of paint with our sprayer over both the ceiling and the crown. This should give us a nice seamless finish between everything.

Mudding and Texture

We were able to get the walls taped, mudded, and textured over the last few days. I have to hand it to the guys who came over and worked their magic. I am a very big DIYer, but what comes along with that is experience and wisdom. If I have learned anything over the years of fixing up old houses, is that I hate taping and mudding. I also know if their is something worth paying someone to do, its mudding. The speed, and skill they have from doing it every day is impressive. Now I would not be out on doing this myself again if I was doing a small job around the house, but when I have spent so much time and effort into this room, I want the finish work on the walls to look awesome…..Rant over.

Anyways, with this done it really brings a nice and clean finished feel to the walls.