more on floors 2

I spent a lot of time running around on Monday trying to find paste floor wax to finish my floors but have to admit I was too lazy to walk to WalMart although I've been told they might carry it. Certainly nothing in any stores nearby. I did find some Kiwi neutral shoe polish at London Drugs but didn't buy it at the time and by the time I realized none of the stores closer to home had any neutral, I didn't feel like walking back there. So I settled on some Meltonian neutral shoe and boot cream.

After sanding the floors, I applied a coat of it with an old cotton handkerchief, let it dry then buffed it. It's not noticeably different in the picture but it has a soft sheen and darkened it ever so slightly so there's not quite the contrast (to my eye anyway) there was with the doors (which I had stained years ago and wasn't about to replace).

The next time I'm out and about I'll pick up the Kiwi neutral to have on hand as it has a good wax content and I think it would give a bit better sheen but for these floors I'm pleased with the way they look.

And they'll look even better once they're taped down with carpet tape.

BTW, Cedan also makes a product called Pan-L-Trim edgebanding in white melamine that I'll someday try as a countertop.

more on floor

Since I was redoing the kitchen floor, decided I'd take pictures along the way and better explain the process.

You need a firm surface to work on. DH Vern was such a wonderful supporter of my work in miniatures and would often bring home things he scavenged that he thought I might use at some time. He brought home a scrap of laminate flooring that I tucked away in a corner and it was perfect as a base for this. Here I've come to the end of the poster board and there is an overhang of the iron on wood so I've put a strip of wax paper underneath that so the adhesive doesn't stick to my working board.

The eighth strip has a black mark running through it that ruins the line of the wood so I ran the iron over it to release the adhesive and removed that strip

and replaced it with another strip...

Here you can see the floor from the back. I'll trim off the extra wood with my utility knife once the adhesive has cooled and set.

Here all the extra bits have been trimmed off:

The kitchen flooring in place:

And both new floors in place:

As I took the pictures, I realized that I still haven't erased the lines I pencilled in for the tape wiring. Must do that....

But aside from that, even with the floors being unfinished, I'm REALLY liking the look.

Secret project, Finally some progress on the Bombay house

Over the past week I've been working on a project for a young miniaturist I met last weekend. It's to be part of a Christmas gift from family members so I'm not going to blog about it until after Christmas. I've had such fun putting it together!

I finally got working on the hardwood floor for the living/dining room of the Bombay house.

I cut a piece of poster board the size of the floor and ironed on strips of red oak edgebanding.

This stuff is great to work with. I cut 16 strips just a tad longer than the length of the  poster board and ironed it on one strip at a time. It's very forgiving. If you see a gap between strips, you can move the strip while the adhesive is still hot - or if you goof (one piece didn't reach the end of the poster board), you simply run the iron over that strip to loosen the adhesive and pull it up and move it. Once all  the adhesive had cooled, I trimmed any overhangs with my knife.

Yippee! Perfect fit!

It still needs to be sanded. I really like the colour as is so am debating whether or not to stain it. If I leave it (or for that matter if I stain it), I'd like to give it a nice finish with paste wax but haven't been able to find any. Once it's finished , I'll have to figure out approximately where I want the floor lamp in the living room because I want to run that cord through the floor and under the flooring. Once that's taken care of, I'll be able to tape it down with carpet tape.

The flooring in the kitchen runs in the opposite direction so I'll be redoing it.

Still trying to decide how to handle installing the stairs...