Construction Number 5 - getting closer

Finally, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. All of the flooring is down and ready to be stained. This is what it looked like early Friday evening (12/11). Before we applied the stain, we had to clean the floor really well. It was swept, vacuumed, and mopped.

Before we started staining, Tony tried out the color on a spare piece of wood. We both were taken aback by the color. That is not what we wanted! That didn't look anything like the sample we had! It was 10 o'clock at night and we were determined the first coat of polyurethane was going down Saturday a.m. so just do it... And we just did it. We didn't leave it on the full amount of time the can said to, I wiped it off pretty quickly. And, by the way, how did I get that job? He is standing up mopping stain onto the floor and I am on my hands and knees with a towel wiping it up. I guess it is a pretty fair tradeoff since I did not nail even one piece of wood down. No not one!

I think the color was a little scary because it looked so dark next to the untreated wood. Once we got the whole floor stained, we (I) loved the color. It brought out the grain in the wood and filled in the knot holes beautifully. And, it matched the steps perfectly.

Long weekend ahead!