What a difference! Most of the knotty pine is up on the walls with only the stairwell to go. The rooms seem bigger and brighter to me and I’m very happy with the work. The mill where I got the wood often has Spruce and Pine mixed together so the contractor separated the Spruce and used it all in one bedroom. There really isn’t much of a difference to the Pine and Spruce. The Spruce looks a little lighter and the knots are smaller, but that’s about it. I like it.
The next step is for the contractor to finish the job and for me to stain it all. I’m going to go with a clear coat non-yellowing polyurethane. I’m trying to determine if I’m going to brush, roll, or spray it on. Brushing seems like it will take too long, rolling will create too many bubbles, I think, and spraying seems complicated. So we’ll see what happens.
I would have started staining this past week, but when I got to the cottage I found water in the basement and one of the pipe joints at the water pump broken. At some point during the week the connection from the pressure tank to the pump broke and sprayed water all over the place. I spent most of my Saturday replacing the plastic joint pieces with galvanized steel and trying to get the pump primed again. Then I had to clean up the basement which was full of soggy wet stuff. Nothing ever seems to go to plan when I go to the cottage. Anyway I got all of that done and found that my pump isn’t building up enough pressure to shut off. I opened it up to find the impeller cracked and needs to be replaced. I’m sure that means at least half a days work and water everywhere again.
I think in a week or two we will see a big change in the appearance of the cottage as we start into the finishing projects, flooring, cabinets, and plumbing. I’ll keep you updated.
Leave a Reply