Sigh.

It’s true. The dust continues. I honestly believed we’d be back downstairs enjoying the new space and decorating for the holidays. Alas, the wood floors are giving us pause…

Stephen the floor guy wasn’t available straightaway, so we waited patiently for a week. He arrived on Tuesday, sanded the parquet down and rid us of that horrible yellow-gold stain that reminds one of a high school gymnasium (the pain of Ms. Sealy’s phys ed class comes rushing back just by looking at it – or is that just me?).

Elliott has been very keen on finishing the floors with a light stain and consequently saved up his one and only “Power to Veto” coupon, which was his Father’s Day present from yours truly. He did this as he knew I wanted dark floors and that it would be a long battle otherwise. I conceded to the all-powerful coupon. Unfortunately, the parquet did not cooperate…

Elliott’s choice was a Minwax stain called “Puritan Pine” – a somewhat natural finish which looks perfectly fine on swatches. Sadly, when Stephen applied the stain to our parquet, the dark bits went incredibly dark while the light bits remained so. It’s like someone took the contrast filter on our floor and dialed it up to eleven. The solution? Well, it’s not that easy… We will likely have to re-sand the floor, choose another stain (after much testing) and cross our fingers that it works. The difficult part – Elliott still doesn’t want to go to a dark stain, and I’m not keen on the light floors. The dilemma continues – this time without a veto coupon. To be continued, folks…

The living room just after Stephen sanded it.

The dining area just after the sanding. Oh, and our temporary deck is in place until next summer. No more scaffolding!

After the "Puritan Pine" stain. Too much contrast for my taste.

Someone likes our new windows...