Completed projects:

roof, kitchen, master bedroom, main bathroom (sans shower tile), fireplace, hardwood flooring, windows, office, front entry, stairway

Ongoing projects:

shower surround, dapping/painting woodwork, ensuite vanity/lights/mirror, painting outdoor trim, finishing front entry tile work, interior door painting and hardware, decorating

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Varnishing the stair case components

I was a good girl and did my homework this weekend. Varnishing the wood stair components that is.

And I'll admit, I just wasn't sure how well this varnish deal would fly. I was told to use a 100% bristle brush as the varnish was oil based, but with my luck with bristle brushes, (abit coarse for my personal liking), I bought it anyway. The outcome? Brush strokes in the varnish. Yech! I must be learning something if I can for tell the future of things to go wrong.

I also had picked up a cheapo sponge brush. Paint Store Guy said it would melt in the varnish, but for a buck, it was worth the chance. And it worked fabulous! No brush strokes and the finish went on very light.

Just look at these pieces! They are beautiful!




The whole lot in one evening took me approx 4.5 hrs to varnish up one coat. It's my guess with how fussy I can be, I'll want at least 2 more coats but I'll spec out #2 when it's done first.

This was a BIG job. It was hard to ventilate the room tonite as it was sooooo cold outside with the wind howling, but it got to the point of feeling light headed so I opened the front door up WIDE open and dealt with it. Cranked up the radio some, and forgot about the cold.




I'm so happy I'm getting this done! And equally pleased with how it's turning out. Tomorrow I'll seek out some steel wool to help me fine sand the varnish before another coat.

I've shocked myself. I think I'm going to be happy with my work! Why did I procrastinate this job again?!?

Update for Sunday Jan 25

This little addition wasn't worth a whole new post, but I finally painted the stairway. It's so light and bright and pretty! Bamboo Beach wins the day again. I was abit disappointed that the only sponge brush I had was toast and I didn't have steel wool on hand for the woodwork. Will check out the local hardware store Monday.

One big bonus on painting your whole house one colour? You can walk into every room with the can and brush and touch up. Lots of that and well overdue.

Next up: more varnish on the woodwork, painting the vanity and white woodwork touch up in the ensuite bathroom before the new toilet gets installed.

It's been a long while now that there's been no toilet in that bathroom. I hope I remember to use it when it suddenly appears again!