Ebony Floors

So, here we are on my due date deciding what color to stain the floors. According to her grandmas, that little Miss Cupcake is waiting for her room to be finished. If that is the case, then little miss is going to be waiting quite a while.

Since we started this project, I have been obsessed with doing dark ebony floors. I think that they can be absolutely gorgeous -- when done correctly. I love the rich, depth of color and the the contrast with light walls and cabinets. We've been struggling to find the right stain, however. The color needs to be deep for it to be convincing. Otherwise, I think it looks kind of cheap and tawdry. And that's not exactly the look we're going for, now is it?

I think that the top picture is about where we're going to end up. It still has a lot of nice rich browns in it, but it's not black like the bottom picture. And it's also not too red or orange. We've been doing lots of sample patches upstairs underneath where the cabinetry is. I think we're pretty settled on Minwax Ebony. Tomorrow though I'm gonna go check out the Mohawk stain with die in it. How's that for excitement?

Poly Poly

Here are the floors with one more coat of polyurethane on them. I'm glad we waited so that they could buff out any scratches. It's pretty incredible, however, that when we pulled up the paper that covered the floors that there wasn't any serious damage. It's so hard protecting the work that you've done while trying to do more!

We did one more coat on Saturday to finish it off. Here is our first piece of real furniture in the house in Cupcake's room!

This is the crib that I insisted on buying about 6 months ago when this nice baby store in Marin was going out of business. It weighed about two tons and sat in the backyard in its cardboard box all these many months through many a rain storm. Amazingly enough, it and the range are in great condition. Hoorah!

Running Water & Toilets!!

The appliances are in place. The stove is on the furniture dolly right now so that we can continue to clean it up. This Craigslist special had to live in the backyard for a while, so the burners are a bit rusted. The gas is hooked up though and the pot filler ready for action! J will finish installing the hood this weekend too. The fridge (my other Craigslist special) is ready to hooked up for ice cube action. So fancy! There is running water in the kitchen and both baths!


These chandeliers came from P's garage. The floors are revealed! Haven't seen them for awhile.
We're putting two more coats of poly on the floors at the end of this week, so we covered the baseboards so that it wouldn't slop over.
Hello, glorious tub!!
Mistress of the house.
Things left to do before we can move back in:

install master toilet, shower heads, cabinet hardware, door knobs, light fixtures, range hood, hook up waste on 2nd tub, install second water heater, 2 coats of poly on the floors

Not bad! About 1.5 weeks to go!

Tired of Looking at Doorknobs?

Here is little Cupcake. She is the reason why Little Lantern has been dark for almost 2 months now. This little angel has been keeping us very busy and this lady has found it hard to find a moment to blog when she could staring at those delicious cheeks. She turned eight weeks today, so I decided that enough was enough in my neglect of poor Little Lantern.






Luckily, the house project has continued -- albeit at a much slower pace. You will be glad to know that while I was in the hospital bed in labor, I made J call the flooring guy to confirm that he was in fact coming the next day to stain the floors. I was not about to allow this project to derail simply because we were in the process of experiencing the miracle of life! We needed a home for our little miracle. J didn't take me seriously the first two times that I asked him. He must have thought that I was delirious.
Luckily, the flooring guys showed and did two coats of that glorious ebony. We were a little nervous, but are really happy about how the dark color turned out. Here's a tiny glimpse of what it looks like.


After the floors were done, it was time to tackle the moldings. The lady was in dire need of some dressing up. We ended up going hog wild in the end doing high baseboards which was comprised of two separate pieces, picture frame moldings, door casings with plaster bits in the corners, plaster ceiling medallions, and mammoth crown moldings. Our incredible friend, Pat, was able to do all the carpentry for us. He saved our sorry butts yet again not only because it's done, but because it's done properly. It's really hard to tell from the pics, but here's a glimpse of what it looks like. The photo of the moldings barely does it justice. The floors were immediately covered to protect them from any work that was being done, so it looks kind of odd with the red paper.

Huis Clos

I found this crazy amazing deal on a solid mahogany door. It's even in stock. Shocking. I tried to find an old door from salvage yards that we could refurbish, but couldn't find anything nice enough that seemed worth the effort.

Cupcake is showing only minor signs of heading towards the exit. She is apparently very content in there. Who can blame her? I say she's already showing signs of great intelligence in her recognition of how good she's got it in there. It looks like we will easily pass my due date this Sunday. For us, it just means more time to get things done. This is excellent, however, my desire and ability to run around during the day are becoming a little more challenged. Alas, the Cupcake shall work on her own frosting and sprinkles while we work on our own finishing touches for the house.

Status Report:
- Floor tiling completely done
- Hardwood floors installed, 1/2 of sanding finished
- Staining of floors will happen early next week if we can decide on the color
- Kitchen cabinets will be ready to go in next week
- Marble slabs have been selected. I finally found the right kind of Carrera at the right price in the middle of no where in a Chinese warehouse in Hayward.
- After that, we just need to hang the doors and do all the trim work (which is no small task for this Victorian lady)

Obnoxious Commentary - Don't apply the literary implications of Huis Clos to Miss Cupcake. I'm going for a more literal angle. Because I think she would perceive her current situation as rather Heavenly given her reluctance to leave rather than Hell-like. At least, I hope so. ;)

Flooring

The thick soundproofing pad goes in.
The plywood gets delivered. Two layers of 1/2" sheets will go down on top of the pad.
The plywood is down and the red oak has been delivered to acclimate properly to the moisure level in the house.
The floors have been istalled. It only took them two days! Crazy.
We're waiting another week before we sand and stain to let them further adjust to the moisture levels.

We Tried to Be Green

We succeeded with the paint. We went completely non-VOC and loved every minute of it. The color selection isn't limited and the lack of odor phenomenal. Who knows how much sooner we will end up having to repaint, but it is what it is. I don't feel like we had to sacrifice any quality.

The flooring, however, is a different story. I want a really dark floor -- like ebony dark. Not black, but pretty damn dark. I drug Josh over to the EcoHome store in Berkeley to look at their stains and the samples that they advertise, but let's cut to the chase: they look awful. The board on the right is the sample that the guy at the store did for us. I think it looks like someone crayoned the wood or did watercolors on it. Now, the left plank is full of traditional toxins with three layers of toxic polyurethain. I still think this one isn't quite right -- too much red and not enough darkness. But, hello?! Isn't it yummy and delicious? How can these green ones even be on the market? I suppose they might work for some very specific style of home, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what.

So, we'll be going the toxic route, but this pregnant lady will be sleeping elsewhere when the toxins are applied. It will also still be at least a month before we move in after the floors are finished. It is what it is. I tried.

Non-VOC Paints and Varnishes

We are debating yet again about whether to paint the walls and varnish the floors before moving down into the studio. My hesitation is that it will take several more weeks and also that I will want to delay things even longer because of any potential fumes. I have heard good things about Yolo Colorhouse for paints and safecoat for varnish. I'm looking for products that are the safest (especially for a pregnant lady), will minimize the time we have to wait to move in and offer the nicest selection of colors. Does anyone have any good resources for this? Also, how long does a pregnant lady have to wait before moving into a freshly painted room with non-VOC paint?

Reno Update: After opting not to show on Friday, T made some good progress Saturday on the sheetrock and is at work again today. He has almost everything done except for the bathroom. J is busy moving the ceiling fan in the bathroom. We will be disconnecting the gas line to the stove today. I need to look for a microwave that will fit downstairs and hook up the camping stove. No joke.

Reclaimed Barn & Factory Flooring

Me likey - especially the second one that is old factory flooring from the East Coast. Those crazies want 1k just to ship it here from Wisconsin though and they suggest ordering 20% more than you think you'll need to "accommodate the unique nature of this flooring material". These are all from Restoration Timber which you can order from Reclaim Home in Menlo Park. I know that we can't do this, but I seem to enjoy torturing myself by looking at all the pretty pictures online.

Floors and Drywall

I had the drywall guy out to give me an estimate this morning. I think it was pretty reasonable. He says it will take about a week to do the 500 sq foot studio. The hardwood floor guy came out to give me an estimate this morning too. He gave me what I think is a pretty reasonable price for a completely finished floor. He'll supply the wood, lay it down and stain it whatever color we want. And he'll do the perimeter border upstairs for the different rooms which I'm really excited about. It will take about 1.5 weeks to do the studio floors.

I want to go pretty light for the studio since the ceilings are low. The top pic floors are super light. I like how the plank width varies. The bottom pic is definitely darker, but I think it still might work for downstairs. That door is almost exactly like the door we have down there. Those windows, however, do not resemble our window. The flooring that I really want is from Reclaim Home. It's old barn wood that's been hand scraped. Gorgeous. No VOCs in the stain, etc. Super expensive though. Over $10 sq ft just for the wood. No installation. Should the planks go vertical or horizontal down the length of the studio? I don't know the answer to this question.

I really want to go darker with a wider plank upstairs. I love dark floors with high ceilings. We have amazing tall Victorian ceilings, so I think we can pull it off. Some day I want to do a parquet chevron in another house. I love those.

This appears to be a good time to hire people. They all seem to be available immediately which is kind of amazing and a little sad.

Photos from Elle Decor