Slowly it goes...

More varnish, more green paint, more priming, more wainscoting, more wainscoting painted.  You've seen it all here before.  At least John installing the ceiling fan is a little bit different...

Toppings...

P1 - Sort your way through the clutter (will it never stop!?) and you'll see four stained boards leaning against the wall.  These frame the steps down to the sun room, see P3, that as of today has its wainscoting.  P2 is more of it going up.  P2 also shows another topping board that's been freshly rounded and sanded and cut to size from an old 12 inch plank in the barn.  (I admit I miss-measured the first go around but the second board we used was better than the first so I guess all that was lost was a little time.  Aren't retirees supposed to have lots of that?)  John informs me he's almost out of painted wainscoting so I guess its back to that little task soon...

A blue & white day...

P1 - Until today, the pantry had pretty much been unaffected.  But... the one last receptacle that needed installing could only be done by drilling through the bottom of the pantry cupboard.  At least that one section got cleaned before everything got put back.  P2 - the new white receptacle on a white wall.
P3 - Wainscoting being replaced in the kitchen.  P4 - And going up in the new room.  P5 - A fresh coat of paint on the white wall.
P6 - Check out Gus's back foot.  Does this kitty think he's for sale?

Reflections...

For lack of a better idea, we built a form and John poured a "new addition" to the old foundation that showed in the sunroom.   Somehow straight seemed more appealing that irregular stone work.   Now we let that sit for 48 hours.

P2 - Put on the second coat of sealer and it does shine.  May use the tiny bit we have left to touch up in places tomorrow.  It's a new day.  We'll see what strikes our fancy.

And, lest I forget, I primed a cazillion more feet of wainscoting guessing that someday soon we might be ready for it over the "reflecting pond".

A little of this, a little of that...

P1 - Up early, John put on the second coat of plaster to repair the kitchen side of things.
P2 - The plank that's destined to become our "desk".
P3 - Some of the window casings got primed.
P4 - Exposed... One last (I hope) repair job in the sunroom.
P5 - Upside down Bertha is sending Happy Birthday wishes to my mother who's 91 today.  Way to go Mother!!!
P6 - We applied the first coat of floor sealer on the concrete this morning.  The photo did weird things but it's actually looking pretty good.

It worked!!!!

This time around the stain "took".  Rinse...
Neutralize...
Rinse...
Rinse...
Dry...
Then wipe with a white rag (or in our case, a white cat).  If nothing comes off it's ready to seal.
Gus gave it a good kitty rub down and managed to stay white.  Bertha was calico on white to begin with so wasn't as good a tester but wanted to be involved.

In suspense...

The additional stain we needed for the concrete floor finally arrived.  This morning we were back at it again giving it one last chance.  (John did pick up floor paint samples just in case...)

We scrubbed, this time with a commercial scrubber (rather than using yours truly, the scrubber woman/photographer).
Rinsed.
Scrubbed.
Rinsed.
Scrubbed.
Rinsed.
And rinsed again.
Let dry.
Applied stain.

Will it "take" this time around?  Stay tuned...

Going aerial...

Please look up (rather than the sorry state of affairs the kitchen is in at the moment...).  The small rectangle above the opening is the outlet for our TV.  The plan is to hang it, securely of course, up there so it will be out of the way.  The wider shelf (a 16" board from an old cabinet we once had) is also up top in the right hand corner.  This will hold the satellite receiver.  In truth we may not like it when we get done but we had to give it a try.  Oh yes, the photo is to show we got the trim in place above the opening between the two rooms.

P2 is another old board we salvaged.  Like the soon to be stair treads, it also formed the wall of a shallow closet in our upstairs and is probably 200 years old.  The first coat of many coats of varnish went on it today.

Still pluggin' away...

Wait.  Isn't that the kitchen side of the opening?  John thought it was just easier to take down the beat up dry wall above the opening and replace it.  So we did.

Meanwhile we continue to resurrect old boards and put up trim. Will it never stop? Someday...

Subtle changes...

Notice the changes?
There's now a sheen to the window ledges - only one more coat to go.
The clapboard wall was scrubbed and is ready to be painted.
And there's a light bulb dangling from the ceiling (hopefully this is not a permanent installation).  The light bulb only took part of yesterday and all morning.  I suspect it had something to do with a 60+++ brain doing the rough wiring and thinking it would remember what it did a month later.  Luckily there's a little gizmo that helps detect where the electricity runs... and where it stops.  The one problem with it is that it runs on batteries and, you guessed it, it doesn't work if you don't remember to turn it off.  (Or is that just another excuse to return to your favorite hardware store?)

More...

More wainscoting...
More trim...
But no "miss-cuts" today - Yeah!

Measure twice, cut once...

You would have thought after all these years of building stuff that we'd be able to follow the old sage advice and have perfect cuts every time.  But no.  By the end of the day it more like measuring 5 or 6 times and hoping to cut only twice.  (Where is cousin John when you need him?!)  However, we did manage to get up some of the trim and apply two of the window ledges.  Gus has checked them out and found them to be wide enough for kitty sitting.

A different look...

The wainscoting I painted yesterday (in the heat - let's hear those violins...) started to go up today (temps weren't quite so hot thank heavens!).  The broken tiles in the sun room floor were replaced today and we've started work on the trim.  Those of you who like recycling (that's you, right?) will be pleased to know we're using the boards we took down from the ceiling for the trim.  It takes a bit longer to rip them down to size but what's a bit more time?  Sure is a lot cheaper!

Thanks for the suggestion from someone yesterday re: using muriatic acid to clean the concrete floor.  However the company is supposedly shipping us more cleaning fluid to use and we've located a floor scrubber to rent.  I think we'll be all set once it comes.  Everything seems better when it's not so hot.

Good news & bad news...

The good news re: our floor staining project is that it can be salvaged.  The bad news is that basically we have to start over again.  According to Rob... "the concrete needed a bit more scrubbing before the stain application to remove the excess efflorescence. "   So we ordered more stain and this time will rent a floor scrubber to remove the dreaded efflorescence.


In the meantime...  I primed and painted a zillion feet of wainscoting that will go in the sun room.  Learned long ago that if you don't paint it before you put it up, unpainted bits of wood will start to show as the wood shrinks slightly.  John installed the track light over the soon to be desk area and that will also provide light to the stairs between the two rooms.  It's hard to see but the recessed lights in the other room are also in and working.


HOT, HOT, HOT!  In the 90's here today so it's a wonder anything got done.  Trust you're cool wherever you are. 

Waiting...

Next step in floor staining - apply the neutralizer and rinse and rinse and rinse until the water comes off clear.  Guess what - the water wouldn't come off clean.  All that happened was more and more of the stain came off.

Soooooo.... we called the company and have sent pictures.  They have assured us they can help us make it work but we're waiting to hear what we do next.  It may be we end up with a painted floor instead of what we'd imagined.

Bottom line - not a whole lot was accomplished today.  Do you ever have days like that?

Hurry up & wait...

Spray, scrub it in, spray again.  Turns out staining a concrete floor is not rocket science.  Drying may be.  According to the directions this should take 4 to 6 hours.  That was 12 hours ago and it's still wet because, wonder of wonders, it's raining!  After a month without water from above, everything is happy except for the cats.  They've been confined to the bedroom until it's safe to walk on the floor.

The princess & the...

Unfortunately the reflection off the floor is not the finish.  It's only the special degreaser, de-dirter, de-whatever that you scrub in the concrete, let set for 20 minutes, then rinse & rinse.  The floor is now drying so hopefully we can stain it tomorrow.

Also today, thanks to John, we now have an actual thermostat wire in the wall rather than a cord.  And we have a new electrical circuit and two new working receptacles for the sun room.  Although Bertha did try to give John a hand while he was grovelling around in the crawlspace (the only thing good about our crawlspace is it's at least 20 degrees cooler than outside on these hot days), Bertha soon found it much too boring and opted for a nap.  I found her sacked out on the pillows "stored" on the dining room table.

Yesterday & today...

Okay - I confess.  I was out of the blog frame of mind and simply forgot to do one yesterday.

P1 - As you might suspect, we moved on to painting the sunroom.  Got it primed and edged in the yellow we're using but then ran out of time and steam.  Gus contemplated adding a few more yellow dots to his fur but decided against it.

P2 is the reason we didn't finish painting the sunroom yesterday.  See that little dot on the wall that looks like a wad of gum.  That's the end of the cord that will pull the thermostat wire through.  It's the one wire (at least we hope it's the only one) we forgot to run so most of the morning was spent getting that cord in the wall from the basement.

P3 - The yellow paint on wall and ceiling and, please note, the drop cloths have been put away.

P4 - 3 scrubbings later - the concrete floor in the new room.  This is the first of many steps in the staining process.

Rollin' along

Goodbye Vinalhaven...

While we were away the "rockers" finished their thing and left us with beautiful walls (and a layer of dust over everything - oh well).

John, with only a little help from yours truly (after all, there were things like laundry and cooking and dusting that also had to be done), anyway - John primed the walls and ceiling in the big room, then this afternoon put on the coat of antique white.  I'll add more color to the walls after everything is trimmed out but antique white is always a good way to start.

I do wonder if John will be able to move in the morning...

Happy 4th!

Just because you haven't heard...
  The drywall has been hung, not by us, but by two strong guys who do this for a living.  Although we decided to head to Maine for the week of the 4th, we understand it has all been taped and finished.  Paint and trim are obviously in our future.

The parade must go on and Vinalhaven did a first rate job as usual.  One change since we were here last for a parade - the band now rides through town.  We understand they find it hard enough to hit the right notes without also thinking about what their feet are doing.
P4 - For Mother & for John & Judy - the line for Crab Rolls - they're now $10 each but packed with crab and just as delicious as always.  In spite of now having competition in terms of Lobster Rolls and Fried Lobster (whatever that is), they sold out by 11:30.  P5 - new this year are the little trucks the Shriners have.  Custom built on go carts, each one is different.  Cute as can be.  They brought 7 or 8 of them on the ferry - must have been a fun trip.  And P6 - Rubin, the original fire truck in Vinalhaven.