I'm just floored....

I'm just floored....

March 6 -- 9th -- Finishing the hardwood floors has been a 5-day process, and the last two days have yielded the most spectacular results.  It took the first three days to prep the wood, apply the wood filler and then sand it.

On the fourth day, the stain was applied:

in the master bedroom

in the hallway of the master bedroom by the closets and master bathroom:

in the guest bedroom suite:

in the dining room:

in the kitchen:

















 in the hallway off the kitchen that leads to the laundry and the laundry room:

 in the pantry:

 in the mudroom:























And, in the gathering room:
























On the fifth day of the finishing process the sealer and 3 top coats were applied:









in the master bedroom

master bedroom hallway.

The finished floors are spectacular everywhere, and I just love how well the kitchen is coming together.

The floors in the mudroom and gathering room 

I even brought up a camp chair so I could spend a few hours reading in the master bedroom yesterday....




This coming week promises to be a big one:

• Plumbing -- The plumber is supposed to come today to finish everything...we'll see.  He has just taken on a $250K commercial job, which my contractor says will "either make him or break him" as a relatively young company.
• Finish and trim  -- Tomorrow morning I will meet with the finish carpenters, who will be here for the week -- they have the 3/4 round trim to install between the floor and baseboards, a ton of hardware to install (door knobs, hooks, etc), hardware in all the bathrooms (towel bars, TP holders, etc); they will rehang all the doors that were removed to finish the floors, they will work install the railings on the rear-entry porch and finish off the deck with lattice work, they will cut into the studs above the fireplace in the gathering room to install a center channel speaker for the surround sound system and will hang the bracket for the flat panel TV mount; and there are still adjustments to the kitchen cabinets, and I'm sure other things that I'm not even thinking about.
• Appliances -- all the kitchen appliances have been set with the exception of the final placement of the range top and the new refrigerator is still located in my temporary kitchen/living room.  I'll schedule a company to come in later this week to move and install the new refrigerator, remove the old refrigerator and to move the washer and dryer from the basement to the new laundry room on the main level.
• Dumpster  -- on Wednesday I will bid a fond farewell to the construction dumpster that has been in front of the house since last May.  I am so not going to miss that thing!
• Paint and more dry wall repair -- The painters will need to return for drywall repair (e.g.,  two holes in the master bedroom ceiling where the speaker wires were NOT located), paint touch ups, and to begin work on the upstairs second bathroom and the old areas of the house that need to be prepped and painted before those floors are refinished.
• Construction clean -- at some strategic point, the contract and I will agree on when to bring in the crew that will clean up.

Yes, this is getting close to being done, but not quite yet!