Sweat Equity

When we moved to the farm last June we slept for 3 months in our camper as we renovated the living room, dining room, and all 3 bedrooms. The kitchen and laundry room/back porch and bathroom were going to have to wait until later. The walls in the living room were splattered with thick plaster stuff ...so thick you could easily have cut yourself on them! We had to sand them down but we left a texture which I love. Every surface was painted....then came the real dirty work...re-finishing the floors. They were in such terrible shape that there wasn't much finish left on the dining room floor and the living room had tile on plywood so it had to be torn up and then all the holes filled before we could move ahead. The sanding took the longest but it was worth the hard work. We used a product called Waterlox with no stain and we discovered that the floors are pecan! They turned out beautiful and we didn't take all the imperfections out so that they kept their character.

I kick myself for not taking pictures of the tile floor but these pictures above show the shape the floors were in and the sanding that was done on the walls. Romeo and Miss Betty Hen took advantage of the front door being open to see what we were up to. For 3 months that cooler was my seat at the computer and the computer was on the scafolding.

Sanding (cough cough)

The darker color is what the floors looked like before sanding.

Living room floor after 3 coats of Waterlox. I did one more after this.

This wood has such a beautiful grain to it

Finally moved in! The floors loose about 25% of their shine in a few months which is what I wanted.

That wall behind the love seat is the same wall you see when the rooster is peaking into the office.

I love the flowered love seat ..it reminds me of my mum who was from Surrey England.

It may not be perfect but the old farm house is now my idea of a cozy country cottage. Soon we'll tackle the rest of the rooms but that will have to wait as we now have to start on the dirty work outside. I'm not looking forward to it!