Saturday a full day of progress took place on the Weld House's first floor. Our goal is to get the first floor ready for flooring before tackling second floor projects. The two doors in the laundry room where trimmed.
The stove pipe was installed.
Cozy and cute
The Welding Wife worked on staining the bathroom vanities. In case you are planning to embark on a similar project yourself here are some notes that may be helpful...if not, skip to the next picture since I am sure it is more than you care to know. The cabinets I worked with are made of Alder. After filling in the nail holes with stainable putty a few days ahead of time to allow it time to dry (it does not take near this long to dry-that's just how long it took me to get back to it), I used 220 extra fine sandpaper to smooth them over. Next, I took out all the drawers and doors and wiped everything down to make it dust free. Then I worked in sections at a time. All the doors/drawers for one vanity and then the cabinet for each vanity. I wiped on a wood conditioner and followed that with a gel stain (Minwax Aged Oak). The conditioner should only be applied a maximum of two hours before staining. That is why I worked in sections. The second vanity went quite a bit smoother than the first. I guess I got the technique down. I highly recommend the conditioner, which made the stain smooth out easier. I also found it better to use more gel stain at a time (at first I was being too careful and due to the small amount of stain, it was drying faster than I could wipe, which made it sticky opposed to smooth and easy) and have two rags. One rag soaked in the stain to get a good coat and a cleaner one to wipe off the extra working in small areas. The largest area I did at a time was the solid side (by the doorway) you can see in the picture above. That is probably the biggest I'd go. I worked faster with more stain on the second vanity and I felt like that ended with better results. Get a little messy and ugly for a minute (not so nice and neat, which is my usual) because once you get it covered, it will wipe off way better for a beautiful finish. After 24 hours a water based satin poly was sprayed on-see next post for a picture of that process.
Another (probably way obvious) thing I learned, take out the fake drawer too. (I did the next day.) Ours were just held in with four screws. It is almost impossible to get the gel stain in the cracks.
Jason trimmed out the two closet doors.
Here I am getting Inspector Jason's approval to go on to the next vanity :)
Dad added a latch to the water heater closet.
Looks good.
The back door was trimmed.
Jason trimmed the kitchen window-last real window!
Hard to get a picture, but it turned out great. The backsplash will come up to the bottom of the sill.
Mom cleaned the shower in preparation for the sealing process.
Dad started working on the front door.
The tricky arch took quite a bit of figuring. Glad I was in my own staining world for this conversation.
One down, one to go.
Stained!
Waiting for a clear coat.
Dad did a little electrical work. It was nice to get a few more things off the ground, out of the stacks and put in place. This light is in the kids' bathroom and will live beside the old medicine chest eventually.
I cleaned up this chandelier that Jason's grandma gave us. It will be installed above the master bathtub but was missing a bracket so will hang another day.
Mom and dad installed the sconces in the master bathroom.
And here are two of them burning for ya. Welder's List: light bulbs
Mom and dad added a latch to the stair closet door.
I tested it.
After the plan was made, I assisted (or put my hands on the board trying to look important) Jason while he cut the arch.
Nailing it in place.
Big ol' (pink-hurry and dry!) trim for a big ol' door.
Saturday a full day of progress took place on the Weld House's first floor. Our goal is to get the first floor ready for flooring before tackling second floor projects. The two doors in the laundry room where trimmed.
The stove pipe was installed.
The Welding Wife worked on staining the bathroom vanities. In case you are planning to embark on a similar project yourself here are some notes that may be helpful...if not, skip to the next picture since I am sure it is more than you care to know. The cabinets I worked with are made of Alder. After filling in the nail holes with stainable putty a few days ahead of time to allow it time to dry (it does not take near this long to dry-that's just how long it took me to get back to it), I used 220 extra fine sandpaper to smooth them over. Next, I took out all the drawers and doors and wiped everything down to make it dust free. Then I worked in sections at a time. All the doors/drawers for one vanity and then the cabinet for each vanity. I wiped on a wood conditioner and followed that with a gel stain (Minwax Aged Oak). The conditioner should only be applied a maximum of two hours before staining. That is why I worked in sections. The second vanity went quite a bit smoother than the first. I guess I got the technique down. I highly recommend the conditioner, which made the stain smooth out easier. I also found it better to use more gel stain at a time (at first I was being too careful and due to the small amount of stain, it was drying faster than I could wipe, which made it sticky opposed to smooth and easy) and have two rags. One rag soaked in the stain to get a good coat and a cleaner one to wipe off the extra working in small areas. The largest area I did at a time was the solid side (by the doorway) you can see in the picture above. That is probably the biggest I'd go. I worked faster with more stain on the second vanity and I felt like that ended with better results. Get a little messy and ugly for a minute (not so nice and neat, which is my usual) because once you get it covered, it will wipe off way better for a beautiful finish. After 24 hours a water based satin poly was sprayed on-see next post for a picture of that process.
Jason trimmed out the two closet doors.
Here I am getting Inspector Jason's approval to go on to the next vanity :)
Dad added a latch to the water heater closet.
Looks good.
Jason trimmed the kitchen window-last real window!
Mom cleaned the shower in preparation for the sealing process.
Dad started working on the front door.
The tricky arch took quite a bit of figuring. Glad I was in my own staining world for this conversation.
One down, one to go.
Dad did a little electrical work. It was nice to get a few more things off the ground, out of the stacks and put in place. This light is in the kids' bathroom and will live beside the old medicine chest eventually.
I cleaned up this chandelier that Jason's grandma gave us. It will be installed above the master bathtub but was missing a bracket so will hang another day.
And here are two of them burning for ya. Welder's List: light bulbs
After the plan was made, I assisted (or put my hands on the board trying to look important) Jason while he cut the arch.
Nailing it in place.
Big ol' (pink-hurry and dry!) trim for a big ol' door. 
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