We're Kitchen Up!

We finished the floors just in time! The last coat of polyurethane went on around midnight, and the kitchen guys showed up at 9:30 am!

We applied the the polyurethane using a "T-bar" and lambskin roller which worked really well. Jake went ahead of me and poured it on with a watering can and I just kept "pulling" a puddle as I walked. 

This morning we noticed a couple of spots that will need to be sanded down and touched up, but not too bad considering how exhausted we were applying the final coat!

The finish is SO beautiful and it's hard to believe that we did this!  We love them! They're better than I'd imagined them to be, but everything I had hoped for! 

Before the kitchen guys got here this morning we laid down some Tank Board we bought at Home Depot to protect the floors as much as possible. It's basically a thick piece of cardstock/cardboard. 

Just as we finished putting the Tank Board down the truck I've been waiting 6 months to arrive backed in! OUR KITCHEN!!!!

 They started bringing all the pieces in and I wanted to jump up and down I was so excited!

The kitchen started to take shape pretty quickly! 

The pantry/desk wall got started today, although it's not exactly what we were expecting. We wanted the microwave hidden in the pantry, but it ended up being showcased in a pantry... We're going to discuss options to change or hide that tomorrow morning. I hate dealing with this stuff... I always feel bad. But at the same time, it's not what we wanted. 

See the opening in the middle? It's where the microwave goes, which is fine. I'd just prefer to have it behind closed doors. 

This is the drawing, and I love the symmetry. 

We also got the first glimpse of the island colour today too! Jeff, the "kitchen guy" admitted to me today that he thought I was crazy for picking it for any cabinetry let alone the center of our kitchen. But now that he's seen it, he likes it. Or at least he says he does ;)

We love it, and that's all that matters! It's very subtle, and looks almost white. Not the best picture, but you'll be able to see it more once it's installed!

Our bathroom vanity install has begun as well. 

They'll all be Benjamin Moore "Pewter".

Looking forward to the progress tomorrow!

Totally Floored & Disappointed

Well... The last 24 hours have been HELL!!!  We wrecked our floors!!

Our kitchen is scheduled to begin install on Monday at 8am, so it was crunch time to get these floors done. We didn't have a second to waste. I don't even think I can write all the issues we've run into in the last couple days, but I'll try! 

We loved the natural age and patina of the old barn boards so we decided to initially do a light sand (120 grit sand paper with orbital sander) over the entire floor before vacuuming and applying the polyurethane.

It was a lot of work. We sanded, vacuumed, vacuumed again and mopped, mopped again. The floors looked great!! 

Kitten approved!

Then we applied the polyurethane and HATED them!! They turned out so dark, and the light pieces were so stark. We went to bed hoping for the best... But they still looked awful in the morning. 

 

Just awful. 

So we sanded them again. But first we had to pick up some coarser sand paper. We also picked up 10 gallons of a different polyurethane because we used way more than we thought we would and the stuff we started with could only be purchased in Kitchener or Toronto and we didn't have time for that!  

We started resanding with 80 grit until the paper kept gumming up. We made it 1 full length of the "big room" using 2 pieces of sand paper. And each piece of sand paper for this machine is $10, as Jake would remind us often ;)

So Jake just did 1 quick pass using 120 grit again and it seemed to be ok. 

We made an executive decision to stain the light pieces in hopes of having them blend in a bit more. I ran up to the local hardware store, where they actually know us by name now, and grabbed a light stain. I knew that I didn't want them to match exactly, just something to age them a bit more. But this put us back by a full day. 

They looked good! We were so thankful that Jake's dad and friend came to help because it turned out to be a big job. We went to bed exhausted but happy that things were back on track and we'd still be able to get 3 coats of polyurethane on before Monday morning. 

At 3am I got up to pee and to my surprise, the stain was still wet. What the hell?! It had been 6 hours! We were planning on getting up early and putting the 2nd coat of polyurethane on so I felt kind of panicked. I grabbed some paper towel and started scrubbing the floors hoping they'd dry some but it was like a waxy finish and the paper towel kept sticking. Nightmare!!! Jake also came up to pee to find me on my hands and knees scrubbing. 

After an hour and a half of dealing with this mess, we gave up.  

Before going back to bed at 5am Jake had the brilliant idea of reading the can... Here's a lesson for EVERYONE, read the F$*#%! directions!! In giant font, it said not to let the stain sit for more than 5 minutes and to wipe dry. We did not do this. We slopped it on thick and left it to sit for a good 6 hours. Oops. Big oops. 

After reading countless forums and blogs for possible solutions, we decided to try using paint thinner. I set my alarm for when the hardware store opened and we went back to bed. 

With our fingers crossed we brushed on some newly acquired paint thinner and started wiping away. To our surprised, IT WORKED!!! 

It took us the majority of the day, but we got the sticky waxy texture off hundreds of square feet of stained floor. 

Things were finally starting to look up. 

Being that we were now 1 and 3/4 days behind schedule we didn't want to take any more chances of messing things up so we decided to give the floors one more quick sand. 

Then I carefully vacuumed every last speck of dust and we FINALLY put our second coat of polyurethane on. 

We have redeemed ourselves!! The floors look AMAZING!!! We are once again thrilled with our floors! 

The floors are still wet here. I rolled myself out the door and snapped a pic before closing the door. The polyurethane we went with is actually a matte finish so it will be interesting to see how it looks in the morning. I'm kind of nervous... 

Here's a comparison of 1st vs 2nd coat. Huge improvement!

Wish us luck for the morning!!! 

Knot All Fun and Games!

Our floors are all installed! One seemingly large step forward... Except now we have even more work to do!

Today we filled knot holes. We are leaving the nail holes and small knot holes as in for that added character. Just basically filling the toe stubbers. 

We made a few test fillers out of glue, sawdust, paint, wood filler and every combination possible using all or some of those ingredients. 

We settled on a glue, saw dust and paint combo. It was our favourite look, and it dried the fastest. 

On our test boards we used a puddy knife. It applied well, but when it came time to sanding, we realized how big of a pain it would be to get the glue off of the edges. So I thought we should try piping the filler in as if we were icing cupcakes. And it worked beautifully!

Photo credit goes to Tatum!

Piped in

Smoothed out with a puddy knife. 

We have our rented sander all lined up and are picking it up today. We also have the fancy little application tool we'll need to apply the polyurethane called a T-bar. We decided to go with the same finish my dad used on his floors at the cottage.

 

I have never finished hardwood floors before, and it's slightly overwhelming. But we figured that if our floors could withstand 100+ years of Canadian weather, they can withstand our attempt to finish them!  I've watched a YouTube video a few times, so I should be good, right?! 

I'm not sure if you remember, but we had decided a while ago to use the same hardwood in our master bath. After we almost ran out of flooring, we switched to tile and had it installed this weekend.

We really like it. And feel a lot better about it requiring less care and attention than wood in the bathroom. We didn't quite run out and now have an extra 3-400 square feet of reclaimed flooring piled in the garage. 

They're still dirty from the grout, but they're just matte black 12"x12" tiles laid in a diamond like our mudroom. 

We also got our first "pop in" compliment today! A man stopped in to ask who our builder was because he loved our house. I used to stop in and do this to people all the time, so it was nice seeing I'm not the only one who does that! He's building a house near by so we're going to send him some of our contacts and colour choices. I wish I offered to contract it for him :)

 

Where have we been?!

Other than hiding out in the basement, there hadn't been a ton of progress on the house. We were (im)patiently waiting for our flooring to come out of the kiln and then be planed (all to the same 3/4" thickness) and tongue and grooved. 

I am happy to report that most of our flooring is done! Jake and I picked it up in 4 trips... There's no fancy boxes or packaging with this floor! Just random widths and lengths all piled into a trailer and carried into the house 3-4 pieces at a time.

Our installer was here bright and early Saturday morning and this morning (even with the time change!) and the "big room" consisting of the kitchen, dining and great room is all installed!

We LOVE it!!!

We are so happy with the random width look. There are a total of 6 widths ranging from 3"-10" and lengths from 4' to 14'. 

We've left the knot holes, worm holes, nail holes and some minor cracks to keep the character that we love so much. Before we sand the floors we'll fill the bigger knot holes with a coloured epoxy so there are no tripping hazards! 

That's about it in terms of progress on the house! We've been painting trim and doors for what seems like forever... But we're almost done! And once the floors are in, all of our trim work can be finished. It would be kind of nice to have a door on the bathroom! 

We have quite a bit of touch up paint to do before we move everything in too. Tatum has already managed to write on 3 of her bedroom walls with an Allen key! I really thought she would have grown out of this by now... I guess not!

Wooden want anything else!

Our hardwood floors are in the kiln! Well half of them! They'll be there for at least a week, maybe even 2 depending on the moisture content. 

I went to see them while they are drying. I already love them!

The flooring manufacturer is going to make us up a few samples out of these pieces here

Once they're dry, they'll be tongue and grooved and ready for install!  We plan to do a very light sanding. We want to keep as much of the age spots and patina as possible, and then finish with a clear coating to protect them. 

The other half of our floors are here:

Still on the barn! They'll be coming down next week and going into the kiln too. I love the idea of using reclaimed wood. I am by no means a treehugger, I throw the occasional pop can into the garbage, oops! But I do have a fascination and love for old things. I am amazed at the construction and level of detail given the lack of modern technology. 

We had a few big beams milled into flooring too... Here are some of the pieces. There's a few pieces of cedar mixed in there that aren't ours. 

Anyway... That's the update on our floors. I plan to go watch/help and take pictures of the actual milling and tongue and grooving process. More on that later!

  

Reclaimed wood, claimed kitten.

We've known what we wanted for hardwood flooring forever, we just didn't know how we were going to get it in our budget! 

What we wanted:

- wide planks

- reclaimed

- lots of colour variation/patina

- affordable

What we're getting:

- wide planks but varying widths

- 100+ year old hemlock reclaimed from Southern Ontario barns

- lots of colour/variation

- affordable!

- 1 free kitten

Meet Samantha, our newest family member. Named by the girls, in case it wasn't obvious!

We are quite pleased with ourselves for finding the exact flooring we wanted, and within budget. Even if it means now having a cat! 

There are a ton of reclaimed hardwood flooring options out there. But you're paying at least $10-15/square foot, plus install, plus finishing. When you're putting hardwood throughout almost your ENTIRE house, that's steep!

Once I realized the cost of reclaimed floors, I started looking for barns being demolish or barns that are on the verge of falling over to source the wood myself. I was willing to do whatever I had to do to get them. Thankfully we came across a man who demolishes barns and sells the lumber at a reasonable cost. Waaaay easier than tearing down someone's barn and carting it home in the Jetta! 

Once he gathers enough barn boards in decent condition, he'll take them to a mill to be denailed and planed flat and to equal thickness. After that they get sent to another man to be kiln dried and tongue and grooved, turning it into flooring. 

Kiln drying removes excess moisture, and BUGS!!

We will have our own installer install the floor at this point. Because the planks will be wide, they'll need to be glued and nailed down. Some planks will be over 10" wide and they could have a tendency to cup with humidity, which is the reason for using both nails and glue. 

When it first goes down it will still be fairly rough looking. We want a rustic look, but we also want the age and patina to be visible. We'll be hiring someone to do a very light sanding and finishing. We don't want to stain the floor because we like the natural look of aged lumber so we're going to go for an oil finish. 

It is kind of risky picking flooring without actually being able to see what the finish product will be... But it's worth the risk if you ask me!

I'll be sure to keep you posted on the many steps it's going take to get the perfect floor!  I'm hoping to be able to see our cabinets in production sometime in the next couple of weeks too.

I love seeing how everything is made! 

Timbers & Tile!

IHola! We took a little Christmas vacation from the blog... And we also didn't have a lot of action going on at the house to really blog about. Until this week that is!

All of our rough-ins for electrical, plumbing and HVAC are done. Woohoo!

It's hard to really see what's going on when it's pictures of a bunch of studs (but Jake wasn't in any of those pics? Kidding, kidding!)

One thing you can definitely see as soon as you pull up to the house is the timber frame front porch!

I'm in love!! They will be working on the back timbers this week... I can't even tell you how excited I am to see them up. 

We also picked all of our tile for the floors and tub and shower surrounds over the holidays. I'll try my best to explain what we're doing. 

The main bath is going to have 7" hexagon tiles in white. 

We love the retro look of hexagon floors, but thought the giant version might be kind of cool. 

The tub in this bathroom is going to have white 4"x16" subway style tiles laid in a brick pattern. 

We wanted to do a border, but nothing flashy because we (ok I) have some big plans for this little space. So we decided to sandwich one row of tiles with white 1" square tiles... Confused yet? 

We made a big decision for the flooring in the ensuite bathroom this week... We are going to continue the hardwood flooring from the bedroom right into the bathroom. Hardwood in the bathroom? Yes, you read that right. We researched it, and we're willing to give it a shot. We've promised each other that we're going to be diligent at wiping up water and running the fan. 

So that just leaves the tile in our shower. Again we decided on the same white 4"x16" brick pattern. But this time we're going to do 1 row (about 6' or 7' off the ground) in gray, and we're going to sandwich the gray tiles with black 1" tiles. 

Here's a rough (really rough!) idea of what I'm talking about.

I think it will be a nice touch and hopefully simple enough that we won't get sick of it too quickly! I'm not sure if you remember that there's a 16"x16" alcove in the shower wall for shampoo and stuff? We're going to use the white 1" tiles in there as well. 

I'm hoping we made good, smart decisions. It was a bit of a challenge concentrating and imagining how everything would look with 2 crazy kids running around. I have learned not to give my  kids hot chocolate and expect them to sit calmly while I picked "boring old tile".

There's not a whole lot going on at the house this week. Once our back porch timbers are up we'll be having our framing inspection (again) and hopefully pass so we can start insulation and drywall. Siding, soffits and fascia will start going up on January 5th. 

Thanks for checking back in... We'll have an update on our hardwood flooring this week!