BIG Project - Getting Close to finish?

I may as well confess...I'm a lazy painter. My paint trays are Teflon (very easy clean up...Lauren peels the paint off the next day...her favorite job!) As for brushes and rollers...bag them and place them in the icebox. (Fridge to some of you!)

I'm sure Miss Janice loves us storing all our painting supplies on top of her food...but there is a price for beauty (as she's discovered with the smell created by the floor stain!)

The floor is looking good. It just needed one more day to make sure it was totally dry before beginning the next step. I also cannot put the sealer on the floor until the guys get the bathroom floor grouted. We have to time things now for drying time and access to each of the rooms. The laundry room is accessed through the bathroom, and of course, the bathroom is accessed through the bedroom. Miss Janice has had to carefully plan her laundry times between floors being laid, sanded, drying...we give her windows of laundry times! She puts up with a lot, but on completion I think she'll be pleased.

While waiting for the floor to finish drying (YAWN!) We decided to paint the back hallway. It's one of the last areas in the house that has the peach color on the walls. There are still two more painted doors that have peach on them, but when we touch up all the trim (after the shoe molding is laid) we'll paint those doors and be rid of all vintage (HA! 1980's) peach! I'm sure it was a lovely color, at one time, but really...they painted EVERYTHING peach!

We used the same white we used in the bedroom for this hallway. It really brightened up this back entry. It's a pretty dark hallway and just the coats of white lightened it up.

OK...Painting interlude complete...back to the bedroom floor.

When we first began this BIG project Miss Janice was considering a painted wood floor for the bedroom. She thought she would like it to be white, but hadn't decided if she wanted a light white wash or a fully painted white floor. We were all positive the floor underneath was going to look bad, which it did, but, once the floor was sanded and cleaned it looked wonderful! I could see she was hesitant to paint the floor after seeing how beautiful it looked. She loves her dark floors throughout the house and wanted to stay true to the look and feel of a 1917 Victorian.



My suggestion was to stain the floor dark like the other floors in the house, but paint a design on top before we seal the floor. I knew she was a little skeptical, so we looked at a lot of magazines and Internet sites, but never really found anything that would give her a visual of my idea as to how it would look. BUT, she's learned to jump wholeheartedly out of her little accountant box and take that creative leap faith...sometimes a huge leap for her!



To help her with my vision, I drew out some scroll designs on the brown paper we'd laid on top of the floor to protect it until staining was complete. She liked the idea, so I began searching for a design she would like. We ended up looking at stencils on Jan Dressler's site. She found two she really liked so we ordered them.



We decided on a large "corner" stencil.

I stenciled the first corner. I used very little paint so the wood grain would show and it would look worn...like it had been original to the house.

I stenciled each of the corners in the room.

The area near the corner window she wanted a little more.

This is the entry into the room.

I reversed the stencil for the entry to the bathroom. There wasn't a "real corner" near the closet and the bathroom entry, so I used it as an accent for the area. There will be a threshold to connect the two floors once the floors are complete.

This is under the window on the long wall.

Last night we got the gout on the floor. It had to dry a couple of hours, so we enjoyed some porch time while waiting...then at 10:00 pm we did the last wipe down of all the tiles. The grout must dry for 16 hours, so I'll seal the wood floor this morning.

Well...time to run. I have to wipe the bathroom floor down one more time and put the first coat of sealer on the floor. This will give ample drying time for Miss Janice to have her "window of opportunity" for laundry on Friday night before we seal the grout on Saturday and put the final coat of sealer on the wood floor.

We are now entering the point in the project when things seem to be at a crawl. A lot of hurry up and wait. The waiting on the floors to cure moves us past the weekend, but next week the plumber will have to come to install the new vanity and toilet. Shoe mold has to be installed on both floors and the mantel needs a final coat of paint and finish out before it's installed on the wall in the room. My "crew" (my husband will love that!) will attend to these items while I'm gone...yes, I said gone! My sister and I will be driving to Pensacola for a much needed "sista" time together!

Never fear....I'll keep you posted!