Saturday, June 11, 2011

Twilight Zone

This song likes to follow us around so I thought it would be fitting to play while reading.. It seems we have been living in a twilight zone episode for the last year. We keep working on the same projects day after day after day after day yet never finish. Our own personal hell of unfinished projects.....




Until now...




Travis finished the Beams!!!!!!!!!!!

Capital B is right!!






Click to make bigger-you won't be sorry!







We stopped counting weeks ago at 120 hours on the ladder.

It only took a year longer than the 2 months planned.

And he won the bet. He finished the beams before I finished the kitchen cupboards.
Though I didn't start til November it had become a competition.
(Secretly I let him win)

Never fear--the kitchen is just a few days from done !!


Here are some lovely pictures of the work

We didn't need to stain after all. The Benite (wood conditioner) worked wonders! From Daly's in Bellevue.
This process caused Travis to YELL for me downstairs.
 AAaaaapppril!!!
I thought he spilled the conditioner($50/gal) or fell from the ladder he yelled so loud and urgent.
Turns out he just wanted to me to see the miraculous change in color. It really was important!!
After all the sanding, the wood had really lightened up to a kinda blah, so this color is nice and refreshing.

The stain color we had picked was 2x cherry (meaning 2 coats) and here you can see the test board next to the beam. No need! Suddenly they were Done!


We will never be as intimate as Travis with these beams in the 14 months he romanced them, as he has touched every square inch many times. Every nook, cranie and splinter!

Painting on stripper...

Scraping off stripper
He was not pleased with my request for an action shot here.

June 20, 2010

belt sanding










picking paint out of knots...


 
and then light sanding again....

cleaning up all the dust and sand







And then the fun part:
painting on conditioner
2nd coat of conditioner.

I'm sure I am missing a step somewhere... but he hasn't chimed in with his first hand experience for me to post..
Anyway--maybe these pictures can help us get to know the beams better...




And this is where we started April 2010




This man never stops--he is 1 day post beam and he is already suited up again...

This time to remove the asbestos laden popcorn ceiling downstairs!
This hallway was the only spot with it down here (yes, I am still writing from the basement)
Upstairs we will tackle one room at a time in the coming year(s)

Only took 2 hours from prep to clean up and now we get to paint!

Meanwhile the carpets are being cleaned upstairs at this very moment
 so we will be moving things in the next week!
Yipppeeeee!

7 comments:

  1. so exciting :D love all the close up shots and action shots

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  2. Congrats! The beams look fabulous! That Travis -- he never stops, and he is so meticulous in his work.

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  3. What a huge difference, I can see why it took so long. Looks like there was a lot paint on them. I'm sure it will be great to finally move upstairs.
    We lucked out that a previous owner removed the popcorn ceilings before we bought our house. It was one less thing for us to do.

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  4. What a cause for celebration!!! The beams are done!!!! They look awesome. Worth all the effort.
    Have fun with the pop corn ceilings. If they've never been painted, they're not so hard to scrape, but paint them and they're a pain. We've managed to remove the popcorn from both bathrooms and the stairwell to the basement. Hopefully more to be removed in the future.

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  5. Congratulations! The beams look great. Isn't Benite awesome stuff? I was able to use it like you did, to color match cherry stain in our house. I guess you probably read on back of the jug that it loses it ooomph about 6 months after you open it. That's true, so if you have any left over, you should try to use it up.

    Looking forward to a full post about your finished cabinets. Them's some shiny hinges.

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  6. Hooray, hooray, the beams are done! I can't tell you how often I've thought about the beams and how much work you've done on them. You're my inspiration for the big day when we finally knock a wall out or something. (I'm not looking forward to that day.)

    I hope the popcorn ceiling is easier to deal with. My inlaws have a Sparkly Popcorn Ceiling...I wonder what the sparkles are made of? Scary.

    I'm going to check into the Benite, sounds very interesting. I need all the help I can get. Congratulations on this huge accomplishment!

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  7. The beams look amazing! That has to feel wonderful to finally have it done!

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