For Want of a Nail...

Kitchen Floor Complete

Stairs from Room Over Garage

All Set to Be Sanded

Dining Room - The light should play off the dark floor well

Sanding the Floors

Stain Test - Minwax English Chestnut

Stain On - Stain Off

Living Room - Before Poly

Kitchen

Living Room After One Coat of Poly with Protective Paper

 

Dining Room

Master Bedroom

Hallway

Living Room

Tile Ready to Go

Building a house can one of the most frustrating things that you can ever do. It seems that there are points of sheer speed when you can see progress every day. And these bursts of progress are often interrupted by dead stop, no work, no progress moments that last for days and at times, weeks. Like intermissions in a long play or movie. This was one of those intermissions.

While we were happy with the speed of the floor install and looked forward to having it stained and polyurethaned we were unprepared for what happened next. And so was our Project Manager.

They. Went. On. VACATION! So the floor sat. Unsanded. Unstained. Unfinished. And we were unhappy. Very unhappy. Now I’m sure somebody told our builder, Meridian Custom Homes that they would be away. But they didn’t tell our Project Manager, who also happens to work for Meridian. So all the sub-contractors that he had lined up, were unlined up and went off to other homes.

You see, the tile guys wouldn’t come in until the hardwoods were done. The cabinet guys wouldn’t come in and install the vanities and wrap up the kitchen until the tile guys were done. The granite vanity and counter top company wouldn’t come in until the cabinets were installed. The painters wouldn’t come in for the touch ups until the countertops were installed. And the electricians wouldn’t come in to install outlets and switches until the paint was touched up. And so it goes.

But now the floors are installed, stained and covered with the first of three coats of poly. Rosen paper has been spread on the floors to protect them. And the tile that has been sitting in the garage since February can now be installed. And we can get the subs all lined up again. And keep our fingers crossed for no more vacations while they are working on our house.

I have to admit, as frustrating as it was, with the floors in, they look great! We’re happy with the way the stain looks in contrast to the paint that Mrs. OSH picked out. The floors were the last bit of large construction. Now we can start on everything else. Yes, we’re really seeing light at the end of the tunnel now.

Enjoy your weekend.

Flooring

We knew it was time to pick out a stain for the floors so

Mrs. OSH set up a staining test location in the garage. On my side.

She picked up a piece of oak panel from the local big box and used that

to compare stains and shades.

She tried Cherry and even mixing Cherry with other stains

She tried Weathered Oak and Early American

(and what's up with Google? It keeps flipping my pics.)

And Early American and Cherry

(I'm beginning to think Google has an issue)

We were concerned that we weren't getting the test staining right because

of  the type of wood that we were using. So I ran over to Lumber Liquidators

where they gave me a few unstained pieces of white oak to use. Free.

This color test came out much better because we were using actual flooring.

We decided to go with the English Chestnut (right side).

It was exciting to go over and find that the flooring had been delivered.

It was from a company in Virginia named Ten Oaks

You can see Stuart Virginia stamped on to the backside of the wood.

Stacks and Stacks

Spread around to the different rooms

And once acclimated to the house conditions it will be ready to be installed

It was exciting to stop by the house and find that the hardwood flooring had arrived. It wasn’t just the fact that the wood had arrived, but it was knowing that this is the last phase of major construction. Once this is done the only work remaining will be the installation of all the parts that make the house go (outlets, lights, switches, faucets, etc.).

Like any decision with house building, selecting a floor and the color stain is not something that you want to do in haste. We were originally going to go with Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors in the main living areas and carpet the bedrooms. But after looking at stains and worrying about the dark wood showing every scratch and not to mention the impact on our budget, we decided to go with white oak. White oak is the old standby but it’s found in many houses with hard wood floors. Sure, there are many beautiful exotics available; they were just beyond our budget. The upside to using white oak was that we could now afford to do the bedrooms too.

We also decided to go with the unfinished boards and have them finished on site. I wouldn’t hesitate to go with the prefinished pieces if doing an individual room, but see we were doing the entire house, we felt it was a better route to have the floors finished as part of the install.

Mrs. OSH experimented with the actual stains on a piece of oak paneling. Colors on a company supplied card just don’t cut it. You really need to stain wood and bring it on site to get a better feel. We weren’t sure the colors were accurate so I ran over to Lumber Liquidators where they gave me some sample pieces. Free. It may sound simple, but I was impressed that they gave me the pieces. They now have a future customer.

After testing many samples we decided to go with the Minwax English Chestnut. We think it will give us the right shade of dark, but not too dark. It will also show the grain of the wood nicely. The only thing we didn’t do that might not have been a bad idea was to cover the stains with a few coats of poly because this can darken the wood further. We were OK with a slightly darker color though and didn’t bother.  

We can’t wait to see it start to be installed.

Enjoy your weekend.