After two weeks away from seeing the house so the floor finisher could do his thing, we were eager to visit the house to see the progress. Things are starting to move forward at the old house with all the cleaning and packing so we're starting to gear up for full on moving mode. We found the floor finisher working on the Saturday that we visited It was just one older gentleman, but I think he usually has a helper during the weekdays. He was just finishing up the last sections of unfinished floor in the kitchen when we left. Once completed, the floors will be done. There are still some small paint touch ups here and there, and a bit more work on the stairs. Small things here and there and we'll be finished.
We were greeted with this sign hanging across the mudroom to kitchen doorway, but that was only applicable after he finished the kitchen floor, where he was working. Access to the house can be gained from the front door, but this oil/wax finish really only needs 6-8 hours before it can be walked on, after which it's buffed with more oil. The floor is fully finished after 36-48 hours.
Here's the wax/oil product being applied for the final finish on the floors. The floors were already treated once with the product from the manufacturer, but needs one more final finish after installation. It's
WOCA Master Floor Oil in a natural color. It's rolled or brushed on in small sections, then polished with a red floor buffer pad until the wood looks saturated. After leaving it for 6-8 hours one more application of the oil is applied and a hardening wax can be applied for a more protected surface. This is the product that's recommended by the floor manufacturer and there's
another product from WOCA for refreshing the floors, which we'll have to do from time to time in the higher traffic areas.
A few bottles of Pall-X 96 were sitting in the mudroom along with the WOCA oil. I think it's being used as a top coat after the WOCA oil. It's a satin protective finish that supposedly makes repairing scratches easy. They might be using this product in place of the hardening wax top coat.
Here's the floor finisher buffing out the newly applied WOCA oil to the floor in the kitchen. He was hand applying it to the floor using a brush, after which he would use the floor buffer to even out the oil and allow it to penetrate. While we were there, we heard the buffer turning on and off so he worked in small sections to ensure the application was even.
These are some of the used red buffing pads the floor finisher was using to spread the oil. I'm not sure if we'll need to get a buffer like this so we can refresh the floors, but I think I've seen smaller models that might be more appropriate. It looks like the top one is used and the one underneath is a fresh one. I'm not sure how he knows to swap them out and if it's just a matter of using it until it gets too clogged or something.
Here's the finished floor between the rotunda going into the great room. We weren't allowed to walk into the greatroom since that was freshly applied that day so if a top coat is going to be applied, it hasn't been applied yet. The surface still reflects light, but it's very diffused with the matte finish, just the way we wanted it. We installed some wood floors in our current house that came with a factory applied satin finish and found it to be pretty glossy. Many brands of wood floors advertise the hardness of their finish, adding in aluminum oxide compounds to increase the wear resistance. While it may be true, dropping a metal utensil can still damage the finish as the wood fibers below the finish get crushed, creating a bubble between the two. Resurfacing of a factory applied finish is difficult because you need to sand off the entire finish and reapply a polyurethane that will not be as durable as the factory finish. With the wax/oil finish, dings become part of the floor and can easily be concealed with a reapplication of the wax/oil local to the damage. This house will be lived in so we're expecting damage so hopefully this finish will suite our lifestyle.
Here's a view of the great room from above. There's some variation in the color of the floors due to the type of wood represented on the surface. Sap woods, wood closer to the bark, will appear lighter while heart woods will stain darker due to the different absorption rates inherent to the wood. Even still, there's not much variation between the two, with some places in the house having a larger variation. I'm absolutely in love with the color of the wood, but I'm hoping that it won't easily show dust and dirt. Judging by how easy it is to see the dusty footprints currently on the wood, I wouldn't be surprised if frequent cleaning is necessary.
The floors in the dining room were fairly recently coated, but the finisher said that if we don't drag our feet, we can carefully walk across the floor. You can see a little more variation in this floor, but it's not distracting. They installed the receptacle plate above the built in, but the door bell still needs to be installed. We're planning on integrating in the door bell chime to the Control4 system so we'll be able to hear it wherever we are in the house, including the gazebo. We won't be able to integrate the doorbell until we have all the gate controls installed, and I'm not sure when that will happen. Maybe a physical doorbell can be installed in the interim.
The rotunda flooring was recently waxed so we had to be careful stepping over it from the foyer to the stairs. The stair treads were stained and polyurethaned earlier this week but there's some issue with obtaining an even absorption on the highest three treads, so there's still some work to do there. The painters also need to come back in to make a few more touch-ups around the house and paint the risers and stringer of these stairs. I didn't go into the basement this trip so I didn't take a look at the stairs leading down, but I would think they would be in the same state.
The study was another room that was recently coated so we couldn't step foot in there, but we could open the door and take a quick picture. Even with the room closed, there's only a faint scent to the coating and it's not really offensive at all. It's good because when we need to refresh it in the future, we'll actually be living in the house, so being able to tolerate the process is a good thing.
The second floor was completed earlier in the week so there was not risk of damaging anything walking around up there. Here's the second bedroom that sits across from the master bedroom in all its finished glory. Unless there are some minor paint touch ups in here, there's really nothing left to complete in here. All the floor has been laid, tile grouted, and hardware installed. Finishing this house is becoming a reality.
I think the floors in the master bedroom was the third area finished on the second floor. There's still some craft paper on the floor since we still need to receive shipment of the two medicine cabinets but that's all that remains in the master suite. The wall plates in the master closet were paint matched to the walls but there are some minor touch ups to the paint still required. Of course, there's still tub and feature wall in the master bath to install, but that won't happen until after move in.
Here's the bed side of the master bedroom. You can see the vacancy in the wall of the master bathroom that will be populated with the Robern Medicine cabinets. I think they're still a couple of weeks out from delivery and apparently don't have an effect on the final inspection. The Sound Vision scheduled a walk through for this Friday, where I think we'll talk about the light switch implementation and any tasks that still need to be completed.
The last handles on the dummy drawer fronts were installed in the master bathroom. After the medicine cabinets are installed, the master bathroom will be complete for move in. We'll get the tub later in the year when our finances calm down a bit. Now that we have more bathrooms, it's no imperative to have one in the master bathroom, but we do like to take the occasional bath. All that's needed is to install the fancy tile on the curved wall, hook up the fixtures, and install the bath tub. I'm glad they added the dummy hardware because it adds continuity to the face of the drawers.
Other touch ups around the house were apparent in every room we were in. The mudroom bench had all the nail holes filled and color matched to invisibility. Most of the paint issues around the house have been addressed. The separation between the crown molding and ceiling here in the laundry room has been filled, hopefully never to return. We'll have to monitor these things throughout the seasons to see if things continue to expand and contract and I'm hoping that it was just a one time thing and we'll reach some stability.
The paint touch ups in the girls room were completed and the only thing we need to install in here, as with the rest of the house, are the door stops. Paint touch ups were minor in here and there was no separation between any windows or surfaces. We've started measuring and planing the layout of the room and the girls will be graduating up to twin sized beds with better mattresses. We'll make sure to include them in the decorating of the room so they can really make it their own.
Another angle of the turret bedroom. We're planning on putting the two twins in the corner on the right with a corner piece separating them. We contemplated placing the beds perpendicular to the walls but found that it really took a bite out of the room. We still have that option later, removing the corner piece or even building lofts so they can have their own private space should they feel the need. The ceilings are 9ft high so it would be pretty easy to fit lofts.
That's about it for this week. We're seriously at the end of the primary building phase. I use that term because we still need to implement the powder room, tub in the master bathroom, elevator installation, basement finishing, and landscaping so even though we'll be moved in, there will stil be updates to this blog as we continue into the future. This Tuesday should see the fireplace inspection with Friday being the final inspection. Hopefully everything will pass with the final inspection and we'll get our Certificate of Occupany. We've completed the intial junk purge from the old house and will have some more things to throw away as we go room to room packing and cleaning. Initial contact with realtors to sell the old has been made and we have a working time table for moving, renovating and selling. If we can obtain the COO right away, we can try to push to move by the middle of next month, removing things that we don't want in the initial house listing photos and augmenting the staging as the realtors see fit. It will be a delicate balance that will require laser accurate timing to pull off without a hitch, but will be worth it in the end. Almost there... Almost there.
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