We started putting the finish oil down on the floor and MAN!!  is it gorgeous!!!

But first, here’s a picture of our new front yard!  Kaia loves the running room (so does Suki and the chickens!)

For the floor, we sanded it down to 220 grit.  The large floor sander only went to 120, so we went over it one last time with a hand sander.  Then we wiped down the walls, vacuumed, and ragged off the floor.  We used the One Coat oil and applied it with a lambs wool applicator for the first coat.  Look at the color!!

Then Toby went over it with a buffer.  It was pretty funny to watch him try to control that thing!

Then we wiped off any excess with a soft cloth.  The wood feels very smooth!

My favorite part was the landing at the top of the stairs.  We have all kinds of woods up there.  #1 is our only piece of tropical wood in the floor.  It’s Cocobolo.  #2 I believe is Cherry.  #3 are Black Walnut, and #4 is Spalted Maple.

And here is the landing once it has a coat of oil.  Beautiful!!!

This piece really changed colors once the oil was applied.  It’s very pink.  I’m not sure what kind of wood it is.  Any thoughts?

Tomorrow, we will put on another coat of oil.  This time we will use the Biopoly for a harder finish.  Buff and rag off and it’s done!!!

Yesterday was a busy day at the house. We started by cleaning up the mess made by 50 mph winds the night before. As you can see by the insulation on the roof, a good bit of our insulation was blown off the roof and strewn, in little pieces, around the yard! So the morning focus was to put it back on the roof. The top floor was finished with a layer of plastic, then a layer of drainage mat. We got some locust boards from a local guy and put those up in a ring around the edge as a way to hold down the layers, and hold in the dirt once that is put on. You can also see that we have some landscaping going on in this picture… leveling all the dirt piles that we made when digging out the foundation.

Here’s a better picture of the locust ring on the top floor.

And here is an in progress shot of the dirt moving. He will come back out tomorrow to finish, but it already looks amazing!!! We have a great yard for gardens and play!!

They should finish laying the floor tomorrow. It’s looking amazing!!! They used a piece of Black Walnut to delineate the entry way to the room and the closet. You can see it in the picture below.

Here’s another angle. I can’t wait until oil goes on… that will really bring out the colors!

The hardwood floors started going in today.  Only the upstairs will be hardwood.  The downstairs is concrete.  We found some black oak, locust, and cherry to add to the walnut, maple, red and white oak.  It’s going to look soooo amazing when it’s all finished!

They started in the closet:

Sorry for not posting about the house in a while… there’s just lots of little details getting done. But, here’s some pictures…

Kaia’s room is close to done. A little more painting, some oiling of the shelves and window frames, and cleaning of the floor (oh and the bookshelf and hanging the closet doors… then it’s done ) Toby’s mom came up and did some painting today… doesn’t the door look great??? this is one of the antique doors that we got from the Habitat Store for $2.50! it’s a pocket door that slides into the wall! Cool, eh? The floor to ceiling book shelves will go in the corner behind Doris.  Oh, the there’s Kaia’s new magnetic chalkboard (that was definitely not non toxic paint). She said she thought it looked like a window looking out of her palace. We’ll probably put a wood shelf under it to hold chalk and erasers.

Here are the stairs. The oak treads and risers are down. I just need to give them a light sanding and finishing, and touch up the wall paint. But, I’ll wait to do that until after the handrail and spindles are in and the upstairs is finished.

Today, the guys worked on getting the upstairs subfloor ready for hardwood flooring. They went through 19 belt-sander belts trying to sand it down to a more even flooring!! Here’s the pile of the hardwood that we got from the local hardwood floor dumpster!! Mostly oak, but there’s some black walnut, red oak, maple, and a little wormy maple and a piece of curly maple in all kinds of widths! It’s going to be the coolest looking floor.