Friday, November 11, 2011

The Pine Floor - The Finale

When I mention there's always an obstacle, I'm not kidding.

We had problems with the Benjamin Moore Porch and Floor paint we used in Eric's office.

First, it smells like h-e-double hockey sticks.  (That's a Canadian-ism, work it out!) We're well aware it's oil-based, but really, this stuff stinks.  For a long, long time.  It still reeks, and it's been something like 4 weeks since we've put down both coats.  It was so bad we duct-taped the door shut.

Needless to say we will NOT be painting the rest of the upstairs floor until next summer, at the earliest.  Or maybe we'll go on a protracted vacation, and pay someone to paint it for us...now that would be a fine idea.

Second, the Benjamin Moore paint is supposed to be high gloss.  It ain't.  It's high-freakin'-gloss where it dried on the side of the can, but on the floor - no! -  it's dried to a satin finish.   We followed the instructions to a T - the first coat looked great, the second coat looked great - and the following day, it had dried to a satin finish.  Huh.  Go figure.  The challenge will now be to replicate this effect when we paint the rest of the floor upstairs.

That's not what we wanted, but we'll have to live with it...probably the third coat would be a charm, which, as discussed above, is not an option right now.

The satin finish will probably end up being infinitely more practical, since we won't be wearing down a high-gloss finish, but it's troubling when things don't turn out as expected.  We're waiting for the Benjamin Moore rep to call us back, but they're not as customer-service oriented as Sico was, unfortunately.

The overall look of the floor (and room!) is amazing, though.  Friends come in and say it looks like a Swedish country house, which is nice considering that's exactly the look we were aiming for.
Here's a look at this room during the renovation:
Nice.  I say that with only a touch of sarcasm.  We've worked hard and come a long way.  I'm patting us on the back for our unwavering dedication.

And my favorite photo:
One of those boards had manure caked on it.  Precious.  I cannot fathom what possessed anyone to built like this.

We went to Ikea to buy the furniture to turn this into Eric's office/atelier.  It took us FOUR, yes FOUR visits to get what we wanted, and we'll take a fifth to return what we ended up not needing.  We also nearly ended up in divorce court during first visit, but really, that was entirely our fault for trying to go to Ikea near a full moon.  What were we thinking? I swore I'd never go back to Ikea with Eric ever again, but the next evening, there I was, back for more punishment.   The good news is all candles were 50% off, so we stocked up.  We now have enough candles to last us the next 5 years.

And then...no more oscilloscope in the living room?  No more soldering station on the dining table?  No more capacitors and resistors and varistors and MOSFETS and JFETS on the living room table?  And then - the pièce de résistance  -  Eric has promised me that the drill press will be moved upstairs.  (I was aiming more toward the direction of the front door, but again, I digress).

So stay tuned to see what we come up with next.

6 comments:

Miriam said...

It looks just great! What a huge difference from how it was before you began.

My sweetheart and I spent the day after we first moved in together assembling about a dozen sets of IKEA bookshelves, and we just about ended up in divorce court too. Forget the marriage courses some people take - I figure a trip to IKEA followed by a day of assembling should be a prerequisite for shacking up!

Shim Farm said...

Thanks for your encouragement, Miriam! The room is now so welcoming and comfortable. Eric still has to finish the frame around the window and then we can call the room done. I cannot tell you how pleased I am - it's been 10 years that we're in these renovations. It's nice to see the fruit of our labour.

I'm with you regarding Ikea - it brings out THE worst in people! Thankfully, we both like to put together their furniture, but really...I could have done without the petulant fiasco created by my normally reasonable husband!

Thanks for stopping by!

Robin said...

WOW! That looks sooooooo nice. Congratulations on being most the way done. Once that frame around the window is completed you are going to be drinking wine and having a PARTY! lol I can hardly wait to see all the furniture in it.

Lee's first office was almost entirely done up in IKEA stuff. It looked pretty snazzy. The nearest IKEA is about 3 hours away so we rarely go anymore. At our old house sometimes we would go just for the heck of it. What a bunch of weirdos we were. heheh

I almost always refuse to go to the home improvement store with Lee anymore. I don't enjoy standing in one isle for an hour staring at screws (or what ever else) while he agonizes over what to get. I stay out in the car with a book, or make him go by himself.

Doh! Not upstairs. Why is it so hard to move tools outside the house. I forgot to tell you that I now have TWO saws in the living room now. I kid you not.

Shim Farm said...

Oh holy crap, I nearly choked on my morning toast when I read you now have 2 saws in your living room! Poor you!

Actually, I went into our "shop", i.e. ground level, locked door, heated barn to see if I could find room for 2 old "Billy" bookcases from Ikea, you know the kind. Answer is NO, there is not one stitch of space. It's full of boat sails for a sailboat that won't be seaworthy until 20 years, 3 chain saws, car maintenance stuff, 200 bottles of Eric's Dad's cider we inherited when his mom and dad moved back to France...we all don't want to drink it LOL! It is time for a freakin' purge - but I can only get Eric to part with so much at a time. Seriously, before Eric's parents moved, and before Eric bought the sailboat, it was totally useable space. You could actually walk in and move around LOL, now we just open the door and throw stuff inside. I actually lose sleep over it.

Truthfully, knowing what I know now, we should have bought an old 40' shipping container, built a base for it, and used that for safe storage. It's nice to have a barn, but stuff needs to be under lock and key sometimes.

I lost Eric at Home Depot once. Oh My Dog. The hysteria! If I could have walked home, I would have. It's also why I bring my knitting everywhere with me, so I can knit in the car.

Yup. Ikea. We ended up making a really nice desk along 3 walls with lots of storage, and buying a new shelf for books and manuals. It's coming together. FINALLY.

More photos to come when we've done the tweaking LOL!

Anonymous said...

..wow looks great. love the colors! After our floor finish gives way we might end up painting it too!

Shim Farm said...

Hey Beav, thanks for the compliment. We're really enjoying it! I told Eric *I* wanted to move into this room LOL...but he wouldn't hear of it! The blue is really hard to photograph properly, it truly is a hybrid of Benjamin Moore's Versailles, with the purple kicked up a notch. The new furniture is white with a stainless steel work surface, and it's lookin' great. We've got high hopes for the durability of the Benjamin Moore Porch and Floor paint, so I'll keep everyone posted on how it wears.

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