Embarrassed but still working

I have to apologize for being behind in my posts for this blog but a lot has been going on and I haven't had much time to devote to updates. Hopefully this post will get everyone up to speed.

Several months ago I had a gentleman mill our floor on an antique milling machine in Roaring River, NC. He delivered the floor but it camped out in the basement until recently.

The photo to the right shows it resting in the basement before I spent 3 hours moving it from the basement to the upper levels.










Piece by piece, the floor made the trip to the main level and then a portion to the loft level. Needless to say, I was glad it was over but I knew it doesn't install itself...

On one of Darlene's visits we decided to move out of one of our storage buildings. The photo to the right is the last of 8 loads taken from the Mexican Store in the background. We call it the Mexican Store because that's what it was before we rented the building to store our household goods since last summer. We got the place for a great rental and it served us well.

I think we were both worn out after all the moving of boxes and furniture. Darlene is getting ready to unload the boxes into the basement. Most of the furniture was taken from the Mexican Store to our other storage unit in town. We can store boxes at the cabin easier than furniture. The furniture will make the trip up the mountain when we're ready to place it on the floors.

Other stuff going on has been hanging drywall and mudding...my two most UN-favorite parts of construction. Darlene wanted the opportunity to add some color to some of the rooms so we decided to install wainscoting in the guest bedroom and both of the baths and then hang drywall above the wainscoting. That took about a week. I'm not the fastest mud man plus some rainy weather slowed the drying process. Finally it's all hung and mudded and ready for primer.

Shower

The guest shower floor was completed and I added Durock to the walls of the shower in preparation for installing tile. You're looking at the shower control with a niche to the right.

The tile we picked is on site and ready to install but that task has to get in line with all the other stuff ahead of it.

Loft and entrance into the master suite

I decided to start installing the floors because when we moved all of the flooring material to the main and loft levels it was in the way. This photo shows the installed floor in part of the loft and into the master bedroom. We're using 3 sizes of flooring to create an 'old barn feel'. One row of flooring is 10" wide, the next is 8" wide and the next is 6" wide and then the pattern repeats. I am using steel flat head concrete nails where each board butts up with it's mate to continue a row. The end result is a floor that looks like it came out of an old barn.

Floor in the master

Main level guest bathroom floor

Once the nails are added I use a heavy stick handle with a section of chain attached to scar up the surface. The chain has several heavy nuts and washers attached to give random nicks and marks to make the effect look authentic. Once the floor is stained and finish coated the look should be really neat...

I started installing the main level flooring today and made some good progress.

Today's work

You can see, from the photo on the right, the entrance foyer and the start of the kitchen floor. The stack of flooring in the foreground is part of the material that's been in the way but soon will be flat on the floor.

Knotty pine doors

The knotty pine doors, that were stored in the basement, are starting to make their way to their final resting places. We bought an old door that will be perfect for the front door. It weighs a ton, has some glass in the upper third, and has been sanded by Darlene in preparation for staining and final coats...but, I used the wicked chain to distress both sides and it too will look even older when finished.

Phew...that was a lot of catching up to do. I'll try to be better about updates. The next few weeks are hectic as we're moving Darlene (she's retiring June 12) to the mountains at last. I can't wait. Our separation has been really tough on us both. Finally, I'll have a helper!

More coming (I promise),
z