A STAINED REPUTATION

After the great progress last weekend with Jeffers and Dad putting up the major crown and trim elements. This past week focused on the finishing up the woodwork.
Monday - Several little pieces of missing base were installed. Trim, such as the window casing (shown below) that interfaces with the existing built-in bookcase were fit and installed. And the window stool was cut down to allow the lower bookcase cupboard doors to open.

Tuesday - With all the wood installed a marathon session (+/- 7 hours) of filling nail holes and other needed puttying on 120 years worth of nicks and dings in the (very soft) original redwood was done.
Wednesday - All was sanded.

Thursday - All the woodwork was stained. Oh the beauty of stained wood.

Friday - The varnishing was planned to be started but due to steady rain all day (with the correlating high humidity) it was not feasible to start the varnishing. So repairs to the floor boards were started and the first attempts at cleaning the fireplace hearth tiles. Note: The plan was to sand the wood floor on Saturday. But to do that the varnish (2 coats) needed to be on the wood trim and mantle and DRY. And that wasn't about to happen with the rain, so sanding the floors is put off til next Saturday. We will have to see how critical loosing the week will be in the long run.

Saturday - Varnish, varnish, varnish.... Two coats of oil base polyurethane went on all the woodwork. It ended up being a good thing that we did not attempt to get two coats on Friday night as it took about 3.5 hours per coat.

While we stripping and in the refinishing mode, a few of other pieces were thrown on the work heap: The antique oak framed mirrors (which we had always planned on refinishing when be bought them 20 years ago) and Great, Great Grandpa's mahogany end table (which was all scratched up when we got it), AND the upper stair railing (it's not that we don't want to remember a cute little Cub Scout with a shiny brass belt buckle and an attempted clandestine sliding down the hand rail that left a "mile" long scratch in the finish of our railing just a few weeks after it was brand new).