Monday, February 19, 2018

Finishing the Floors: Barred From Visiting

   Although we're just only rounding the corner on February, if feels like we're beginning to see the light at the end of the winter tunnel.  After a good dumping of snow the previous week, temperatures will be a more mild 40F-50F with rain expected in the forecast.  It will be a good time to make sure the basement stays dry during the rainy season.  Just like the changing of the seasons, we're almost done with the house construction.  All touch up painting has been completed and we're not in the final floor finishing stages.  It's a bit trickier than expected (of course) but at least the floor installers are in there every day during the week.  It's the last step before we file for the final inspection and can really start to think about moving in.  Since the floor finishing is so time consuming, Mike requested that we not visit the house this week to keep down on the dust entering the house.  As such, the only pictures I have for this weeks update were two that he took last week, so this will be the first weekend in nearly three years that I didn't visit the house.

   Mike said that the installers have finished the floors in the turret bedroom and master closet, but it looks like they also did most of the second floor rotunda.  I don't think anything has been finished on the first floor, but the floors down there have been cleaned and prepped.  Much of the issue they've encountered so far stems from the pre-treatment and getting the floor coloring to look even with the pores of the floor opened up.  I really want to swing out there when the floors are being worked on so I can watch the technique and record what product they're using.  They're masking off the painted surface of the baseboard trim and polyurethaned wood of the railing when applying the finish.  I think the finish is non-tinted, and just a finishing coat, so I'm not sure what affect it would have on those two finished surfaces.

   Here, you can see the difference between the coated and uncoated floor.  I'm not sure about the application process and why they masked off the floor.  Maybe they wanted to demarcate the floor where they were stopping for the day or something.  You can see the difference between the darker, rich colors of the floor on the right vs the lighter colors on the left.  The reflected light from the laundry room seems to confirm that the finish is matte and the darker planks closely match the stain on the rotunda railing.   They worked three days last week and I think the whole house was prepped and probably half the second floor completed.  They still need to finish the master bedroom and second bedroom before moving to the first floor where they'll have much more square footage to complete.

   Unfortunately, that's it for this week.  Although I haven't visited the house, from the security camera views, I can see that the doorbell hasn't been installed yet, so I'm not sure if the electrician has made his final visit.  I'll probably stop service on the port-a-potty this month so we don't have to pay for another month of service.  That thing as been with us for three years and predates the house.  I won't miss it.  We also have a dumpster at the old house so we can purge all the junk in the basement we'll no longer need and don't want to move to the new house.  Old furniture will be donated, but there's flat pack desks we won't need, stuff we literally haven't touched since we moved in over 10 years ago.  It will be a ruthless and cathartic experience, but will give us a new prospective and fresh start.  Next weeks update should have all the floors completed (hopefully) and maybe even a final walk through before we start moving stuff in.  This project is finally winding down to completion.

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