Refinishing the floor (or how to refinish a floor for under $250)

Wednsday night after work I took possession of my new house. Man was I happy to take the keys.

Here I am in my afterwork jeans standing inbetween the kitchen and the living room. See the carpet there? That carpet was doomed.

All you big girls out there will understand the greatness of the doubledeep tub, thats right I was pointing my toes out in order to touch the other end of the tub while laying in it. The oversized bathroom really is possibly my favorite room.

Here’s the front room, with carpet.

It’s a great front room, big (compared to what I’m used to), but that carpet…

The kitchen window. To be fair the kitchen is a bit small, I however am not much of a cook, nor am I much of a kitchen dweller, I do like how open it is, perfect for dying. And as you may have been able to ascertain, there is no shortage of windows in mah new house.

As you can see, once the carpet was ripped out things started looking up. Sure there were some issues.

Prior to putting down the lovely carpet (a cross between smokers lung yellow and peptobismal pink) they must have painted and in their wisdom said “who cares about putting down some form of protector on the hardwood. There were splotches of paint like this in the bedroom, hall and living room, luckily the sander took them off without much effort.

After the first pass with 20grit sandpaper the paint was mostly gone (as you can see in this comparisson picture). Some spots where the wood didn’t meet up perfectly required more attention with a palm sander.

The living room had the least amount of problems. The window pictured here is new, the window prior to it had a leak, there was visible water damage done to the floor, several passes later it had been worn out as best as could be hoped for. Either way, way better than the nasty 60’s carpet.

The hallway and bedroom took a lot more sanding than the living room, there had also been issues with the previous bedroom window that requires a new peice of hardwood to be put in, but as the old window was replaced the issue is no longer.

After the 10th pass (which had worked its way up to an 80/100 grit sand paper) the floor was wiped down twice before the varnish could be put on. In order of appearance there were four passes made with 20 grit, three with 36, 2 with 60 and one with the 80 which felt like 100 to me, the floor was smooth as a babies butt by the time it was ready for varnishing.

As you can see we used old sheets tacked over the open door framed to keep the dust down, and a lot of dust there was. Even with the heavy duty dust masks, windows open, and constant bag emptying/sweeping I was producing some scarily colored mucus.

The varnish took most of a day (waiting two to three hours between coats). The varnish that was chosen was a semi-gloss, low vapor, quick drying, that required no sanding between coats (if you managed to keep the bubbles away and I did).

The second coat of varnish saw the floor really matureing. There are some spots where the age is visible, as well as where the water got in, but it does have that original hardwood feel.

After three days of solid work I was starting to show the wear and tear of it (note I also have an ear infection). Much sitting around between coats was done (waiting on a fridge). As I haven’t moved anything in there yet there were no chairs or amenities, and given how sore I was and how pained my hands were (they’re swollen quite badly in this picture) I couldn’t knit. I entertained with music and reading.

The baseboards in the bedroom will be next on my list, there’s at least four layers of paint to be taken off (they painted over the original wood baseboards it’s enough to make you cry). That will be accomplished sometime this week hopefully when we add on the baseboards for the hallway and the front room.

So after four coats of varnish the floors are done. Now I just need baseboards and heating grates.

In total it cost a little under $210 to get it done (and an assload of hard work), renting the sander, borrowing a belt sander, getting the varnish and the right brushes. After the baseboards and grates are purchased I think it will be a solid $250 spent. Now…. I haven’t been able to knit since thursday so I’m going to go do some of that before I loose my mind.

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FO’s

This weekend I convocated with my degree in Anthropology. It was quite the thing. I didn’t manage to get a good picture of the bat shawl, but I will as soon as I can, it was perfect for the dress and I thought I looked good. Unofrtunatly no good pictures were taken, such is the stresses of the day.

I however had a good bout of finishitis and that saw the last bit of the Aestlight Shawl get finished. It still needs a blocking but it’s looking super rock and roll.

I did the body out of Tofutsies, it took about 2/3 of a ball to get all the body and the edging done. The lace insert panal is done out of cascade heritage, and there is over a half a skein left. The two yarns will probably end up being used for socks or something at a later date.

I finished the Skoodlet by Leethal done out of my handspun from the Joni Mitchell dye line in a colorway I call “My old man”. It needs to be blocked and I need to sew the buttons on but you get the drift.

Please pardon my appearance it was after midnight and i was starting to get really tired, but I also wanted to be able to upload and post the photo’s today so there you have it.

The first of the norweidgan snail mittens for mom’s friend Roxanne is done, and to treat myself for finishing off three things I cast on a sweater with my Lambchop handspun. The pattern is 108-40 from drops, I didn’t realize it was a bottom up but I think it will look good. I may need to get a commercial yarn for the yoke when I get there as I didn’t check the yardage before I started. But the yarn is working fabulously with the pattern so yay on that.

Thursday I take posession of my new house and will be ripping out the carpet so I probably won’t be around those days. But I do have the internet guys comeing that friday so yay that. I won’t be without internet for long….

frogging, spinning, and christmas knitting in october

While I was packing and cleaning (still am actually) I’ve decided that there are things that need to be frogged, among them was Eileen from the No Sheep for you book. I knit it out of some gorgeous grey alpaca which was a birthday present, unfortuantly that was three sizes ago and now the thing looks like a bag when it’s on so it now looks similar to this.

It is going to be reborn more than likely as a nice  shawl, it is really prety and soft so I know I want to make it something that I will wear a lot. Shawls I wear a lot, especially in winter months when it’s too cold not to go crazy with layers.

Now of course I’m underway in my x-mass knitting. And since I know my sister in law doesn’t read this blog, here is what I’m working on. It’s the yoked cardigan by Hannah Fettig,  I’m making one for each of my neices (Zibbie’s is getting done first). As you can see it’s nearing compleation, just a sleeve and a half and some button bands and volia. I’d like to get it done before the move but that remains to be seen.

And while I was not knitting I was spinning (and watching the Big Bang Theory) to help destress. In the process I finished this lovely skein of BFL. Mom got it for me a while ago and I hand dyed it. I don’t know what I’m calling the colorway yet, it will come in time I’m sure. It wasn’t a colorway I went in with an idea about except that those were the colors I was jonesing for at the time.

The bat shawl is blocking at mom’s house, and I’ll take pictures of me and it with the dress and post them when I can. My internet abilities are going to be iffy around the 22nd what with the move and all, but you can rest assured I’ll be knitting spinning or carding a lot in the next few days (it’s the only thing that reduces the stress).

tell me what to knit ya’ll

With the bat shawl nearing completion I want to figure out what I’ll cast on after that, a pallet cleanser if you will.

Now since it’s gone from +13 to -13 in less than a week we can assume winter is here, and bitchy. So since I packed most of my winter knits (I know I thought i had so much more time), I want to knit something to keep warm in.

Okay so the yarns I’m wanting to use are handspun:

The Lambchop Ramboulette in “Envy” dyed by yours truely.

Or the “My old man” colorway from the Joni Mitchell color series (I haven’t spun up any of the tori stuff I kept for myself yet).

The patterns up for concideration are Skoodlet by Leethal,  Hannah by Blake  Ehrlich, and Sally Mittens by Nevermore.

I finished spinning the bfl I was working on, once I set it I’ll post pictures, but I should get back to the bat shawl.

bats, shawls, spinning, and earth maidens

Here she is fresh from blocking, Earth Maiden by Ilga Leja. I did the big version as I have broad shoulders and wanted something with a lot of drape and wrap. I just need to get a leather strap to lace it up (no i-cords I loathe I cords).  I did it in two skeins of Dream in Color Smooshy in the color Good Luck Jade and man totally loved it.

The bat shawl isn’t ver impressive when photographed (being black and all) but look at the cute bats! It’s the wah-na-na-na-na-na Bat Shawl (my appologies if I missed a Na) and I did it in Hemp for Knitting’s Hempwol. I have 24 rows of edging left then it’s ready for the crocheted stabalizer across the top and a  good blocking. Yay for almost finished projects on a deadline.

I’m knitting the bat shawl to go with the dress I’m sewing for convocation (it has glow in the dark spider webs on it), I figured you don’t get to do it up that often perhaps grad would be an excuse.

That which has kept me from making big progress in knitting. 4oz. of my own hand-dyed bfl. It’s actually all single spun now, I’m going to be navajo plying it soonish (probably when I’m done this post). I tried to spin it finer than I have been spinning so hopefully I get a decent light sport or heavy fingering weight out of it.

heartland shawl and the further escapades in boxville.

Okay, I know this is an older FO, but I did just spend time reblocking it (and here it is with Bebop, ferocious garder of all things being blocked). I used some Alpaca that I got for a birthday one year a few years ago (which would be the grey) and some of my very first handspun (the blueish with pink along the bottom).  It turned out very nice in my estimation, but I do need to splurge on some blocking wires to get the really nice tips on my shawls.

The bat shawl for convocation is almost done (by almost I mean there’s four rows left of the body  then the edging). I want to have that done by the weekend so I can do the applied i-cord or crochet chain and get the dang thing blocked. I only really have nine more days until grad so I need to get a move on. The dress I’m sewing for it is halfway done, it’s been cut out and the body has been seamed I just have the finishing stuff like straps and bodice lining to get done.

Boxville keeps getting boxier, and they keep showing my apartment and scaring my dog. Really it sucks and I live in paranoia that I will be in the washroom and they’ll come and show my apartment, even though I know that is compleatly irrational.

Plans are underway for Sarah and I to go to Comicon 2010 in San Diego. I think I’ll be better for planning that once the whole floor refinishing/ moving is out of the way.

That’s all for now folks.

Welcome to the new Blog

I figured since I was going through so many changes (new house, convocation, possible masters) I would get a new knitjournal as well. Dirtyjeans was fine and I still have that email address but I wanted something geared more towards everything, and a place I could put patterns up for sale as they become available (after I move and my sanity returns).

That’s the state of my living room (see the recovering cat on the couch). I would feel bad except everything I’ve been doing lately is cleaning and packing

My bedroom is becoming boxville. I put the bed up to get the floor steamed and then decided that I didn’t hate sleeping on the couch and it would probably be easier for a few days (20 now).

As you can see with the other side of the bedroom boxville is starting. I would say I’m at 50% packed at this point. I’m hoping to get to 75% by the end of the weekend. Here’s to hoping. I wouldn’t mind some knitting time either.

The hallway got steamed yesterday shortly after this picture was taken.  I might go over it again this evening.  Depends on if I get the other stuff on my to do list done.