Another beautiful fall day here on the mountain - the trees are already a blaze of colour and falling and cool nights now the norm. I finished work on the mezzanine stairs before Marie and I headed to Montreal and Ontario to visit with the kids and help celebrate belated birthdays with Sarah and Christina - getting our monthly break from the never ending work here. It was nice to see everyone again although Lara and Jesse were no shows and we naturally were disappointed in not being able to see Joshua. Hopefully we will be able to see him before Christmas...Thanks for the good time Chris and Pat!
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| take me for a walk Grandpa! |
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| me and Amy, Sherbrooke St, Montreal |
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| Phil, Amy and me |
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| Fer and Amy |
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| Phil, Amy and Sarah |
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| Sarah, Amy and Isabelle |
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| the birthday girls! |
We are back home now, the main floor stairs done now and look good after those many days spent sanding, staining and varnishing. The hard part was trying to match the engineered floor that would complement the stairs going up to the mezzanine. As well as the staircase we decided to stain the birch plywood we had put up to cover the steel beam that holds up the mezzanine. After a lot of experiments with different stains we finally decided to apply two different colours using a local Quebec product called Saman. I first put on a coat of Honey Wheat, let it dry and followed with Dark Oak. Rather than blending the two colours we found the lighter shade under the darker almost matched the flooring. It may not have been the perfect way to do it and it wasn't a 100% match but it worked for us. After letting it dry a few days I put on three coats of Sico Crystalex Urethane Varnish, standing lightly between the first two applications. The last picture is of the finished result. The stairs to the basement are next and I am going to use Sico Crystalex interior stain tinted to match the walls, hoping to create a transition between the three levels. But while the weather is still nice Marie and I have decided to take advantage of the warm days and work on the exterior, prepping the walls for the veneer stone. That will be on the next blog so come back and see how we have done! Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! gws
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| putting on the Honey Wheat |
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| first coat of stain |
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| covering and staining the steel beam |
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| putting on second colour |
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| a few touchups on the wood before continuing |
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| final results! |
