I'm still struggling to find a decent balance between doing renovation and blogging about it. I think it'll be better when we're entirely out of our apartment, and not spending half the evening commuting between where we live and our new house. We've been taking loads of stuff over every time we go to the house, and we're SO CLOSE to being done. We should be completely moved by this weekend. There comes a point in every move, however, when you've moved enough of your possessions out that it no longer feels pleasantly minimalist, and has gone straight into creepily empty. We hit that point last night. Yikes. It echoes.
Luckily, Pecan is ever so helpful when I'm disassembling furniture. I have such weird cats.
SO. Where were we? Doors, that's where. After almost a month of getting sidetracked by other urgent projects, the garage doors are finally done!
The day I finished them (Monday) we had the craziest, most monsoon-like thunderstorms I've ever seen. As soon as I stepped outside to nail a board in, a torrential downpour would start, so I'd have to take refuge back inside the garage. Once we get a series of dry days, I'll caulk the edges and apply a coat of Polycrylic, but in the meantime...it's mostly waterproof. And it looks SO MUCH BETTER than the old tarp.
Before and after. Now the rest of the garage looks even worse.
I'm really very pleased with how it's turned out.
The other huge amazing development is the FLOORS. Our contractor (who I'm absolutely convinced is a magical wizard) started on Monday, and finished the installation of the new wood upstairs much faster than we expected.
We chose a prefinished white oak in "coffee" stain, and it's warm, but not too red. It'll go very nicely with the original fir downstairs. I grew up with wood floors, but I've never had any experience with prefinished hardwood, and honestly, the finish is so smooth and shiny that it feels a little...plastic. I know there's real wood under there, and it's not laminate, but it's going to take me awhile before I get used to it.
The big thrill yesterday was coming over to move a bunch of furniture into the house, and discovering the crew had finished sanding all the grime and paint off the original fir. I almost cried. It's so gorgeous. The variegated colors are absolutely beautiful, and it's everything I could have possibly hoped for. I'd really hoped it looked good underneath the gross patina, but I didn't dare hope it would look this good. I can't wait to see it after the finish is done.
I love the brown freckles and red stripes. This wood has so much personality!
The contractors called us on Tuesday in a panic. They'd started interlacing the salvaged wood into the existing boards, and it was taking them forever. They'd already exhausted the repair section of our budget, and there was still so much work to do. We're less concerned with perfection and more concerned with budget - and also with moving in as soon as possible - so we said to go ahead and just patch the rest without interlacing. I think it's a fantastic decision. The worst and most obvious damage right inside the front door has been interlaced, so it's absolutely invisible, and the butted patches are an interesting visual reminder of the house's former layout. The join on the right side of the above picture - either the original kitchen or porch - had a very significant lip to it, a full half inch from one board to the next, and our contractor was regretfully adamant that sanding it down that far would damage the wood's tongue. He must have figured something out, because it's perfectly level now. Like I said, these guys are magicians.
With the fir sanded and ready to finish, the whole house seems so much lighter and brighter.
At some point, I'll add a transition between the tile and the fir. (And, um, vacuum.)
We're really hoping the finish will be done by tomorrow night, so we can be completely moved in by Saturday. Our contractor said the Swedish finish they're using - what is it, Swedish or Finnish? - will be walkable after twenty-four hours, and we just need to avoid putting rugs down for the first ninety days or so to let it properly cure. We could be sleeping here by Saturday night!
In the meantime, this weekend is also the annual Eastmoreland Garage Sale. Who needs cheap, fantastic furniture? Us. Who is having a giant neighborhood garage sale? Eastmoreland. It's going to be awesome.
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