Friday, December 29, 2017

The Chalet: Freezing Temps and Staining Stairs

Two days before Christmas I was at the house grouting the laundry room/bathroom. My dad stopped in and started staining the railings for both sets of stairwells, and then I started staining the stairs to the top floor.


I stopped by again on Christmas night just to move the dining table out of the way should our MIA electrician suddenly decide to stop in and finish his work (that's a conversation for another time), and everything was fine. But then Wednesday my dad stopped in and there was no heat. We'd somehow managed to run out of propane. So when I was there yesterday I had to reboot the heating system once the tanks were refilled. But because the house is open with high ceilings, it took an hour just for the temp to rise one degree. So we spent the day working with multiple layers of clothing on inside a 38 degree house. Fun times. But because of the cold, it messed with my staining. Polyurethane is usually a thin, watery texture, but as the day progressed it became more like glue. I didn't take a picture of the stairs leading from the basement to the first floor because it didn't look so good. So I sent my sister out to buy a new can of stain that was still warmish and thin. I know my father prefers the look of white kickboards on stairs but I don't. They get scuffed so easily and it ends up being high maintenance. So with him not being at the house, I made an executive decision to stain the kickboards. Even with the stain not going as planned, I think it was the right decision. 


My sister handled touch-up paint on the walls while I stained the two lower staircases and then I had her put a second coat of stain on the upper staircase. Later, we caulked the staple and nail holes around the sliders, and then called it a day so we could thaw out in our cars on our ways home. 


I'm a little bit stressed about when we'll be able to list the house as my dad has entered ski season, but I'm not allowed to get stressed because then I may get shingles again. So I'm just going to channel my inner George Costanza and whisper, Serenity now, until I convince myself that it'll all work out. Mostly, I just want to see how people react to the final product and whether our renovations paid off. I think it has, I really do, but we'll see.

~ S
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1 comment

  1. Kickboards! I never knew that's what they were called. And excellent call on not painting them white, they would totally get all scuffed up and look dirty.

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