Progress Report Week 29: Floors, Stairs, Blides and Curtians

Not a whole lot of progress last week. There has been a lot of snow to shovel and a visit from family! This morning the sun came out for a bit so I scurried around and took a couple of photos.

 We have curtains in the living room and dining room! Such a small change, but it really makes it feel like a livable house instead of a construction zone. The curtains are from Ikea. At seventeen dollars a pair I figured I couldn't go wrong. The curtains are ordered from Amazon. I had to search a bit to find an hundred inch long rods that weren't jumbo. These came with curtain rings and are a nice sized five-eighths around. 

 As you can see, lots of snow! The front windows give you a good view to keep an eye on the neighborhood!

 In the back bedroom, I put privacy paper on the door window instead of a blind. 

The poor stairs have seen a lot of use. And a lot of different carpets! I have been prepping them for paint. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

 I was really nervous the entryway floors weren't going to turn out very good. But they made it! This is between the first and second coats. And I just put the second coat on this morning!

 They need to dry a little, but aren't they oh so shiny! I have been working on a post with my method of shellacking/refinishing floors. Hopefully that will be up on the blog next week.

Brick House Update: Floors (still!)

My how time flies! These first few weeks of the new year have been packed full. These pictures were taken almost two weeks ago now! We had a couple of moments of sun and the first coat of shellac was dry on the living/dining room floors! A very exciting moment!

It doesn't sound like a lot at first, but when 1200 sq. ft. of wood floors need to be scrubbed, scrapped, shellacked, sanded lightly and shellacked again it ends up being a lot of work! It felt like a really long process and I am so excited that the second coat went on a few days ago!

They are certainly not perfect. There are still scratches, dents, discolored spots and stains, but they are a far cry from where they started! I am really happy with how they turned out.

The front entry is the last floor left. It is quite worn (and dirty!) Since this picture I have finished scrubbing it with denatured alcohol and have also given it a scrub with soap and water. It is looking better. We will see how well it turns out. I am hoping to get at lest one coat on before the end of the week.

 The sun was coming in so pretty I couldn't resist a few more pictures! This is the upstairs hallway. You can see there is a bit of water staining and discoloration here too. But for being 100 years old they are looking good!

The middle bedroom floors.

And we have blinds! It has made such a difference to have window coverings! Last Saturday I also got curtains up in the living room and dining room. Makes it so much more homey!

In other news, the laundry room sink is almost plumbed in, we have replaced all the outlets to white ones, planed the top of sticky closet doors and prepped the stairs for paint!