Renovation reality... Part 3.

The room is almost complete. I'm working hard now to organize things. We lived in the basement family room for over 4 months... Sleeping on a pull out sofa bed, with clothes in boxes and garment racks. Now I have to decide what goes in dressers or underbed boxes or closets, although our new room closet is still not completed. Yep, I'm used to things in disarray.  The term helter-skelter comes to mind. 

That's how it goes... Welcome to my world 

Haha. 

Ok, I'll bet you are just crazy with anticipation about how the finished (well, mostly finished) product (room) looks, right??  I thought so. Let's start here with a corner picture to highlight the room colors.  The paint we used was from Lowe's, Valspar Signature in satin finish... 'warm cider' #2003-1C on the walls and 'bay waves' #4008-1A on the ceiling.  We are loving the combination. 

Next step after the walls was the floor. We have oak hardwood, original to the house, so naturally I didn't want to cover them, but I didn't want them to look super fancy either. First we had to sand, so we rented a floor sander. I was surprised that the sanding went pretty quickly.  Jim did most of it, but I helped!!  After dusting and cleaning, it was time for stain. We choose a very dark water based stain (ebony, custom mixed with some gray) from Sherwin Williams. The great thing about it was there were virtually no fumes from the stain! Of course I had to get the perfect shading, so I ended up on my hands and knees wiping the stain to get the effect I had envisioned.  "Ouch!" said my knees. Why must I have these 'visions'??  

Here are some process pics...

We ( and the drywall dudes) had really made a mess of the floors

Cleaned up nicely, don't you think?!

  

The finish used was an oil-modified, water based polyurethane.  I know, it's a mouthful. It was also from Sherwin Williams. Btw, the salesperson there was very helpful and knowledgable. Jim just rolled it on, and lightly sanded between coats (3 coats, total). The final effect is not as shiny as the photo above, but it has a nice sheen, and the smell ( which wasn't bad for a finish ) went away after a few days. We thankfully ended up with the rustic look I was going for. 

That's what's been getting done around here lately! Next time, I'm going to show you some groovy projects I've been creating to bring this bohemian dream room to life. Lol, I just named it 'bohemian dream room'!!  

See ya next blog

Pat