"L Room" Floors Painted! (First Coat)

Yes you read the title correctly! I actually got to work, and managed to get the floors all puttied last night, sanded this morning, vacuumed & washed this afternoon, shellacked (over the raw pine repairs), and the first coat of paint done, all before 6pm.

It was a lot of work, but not too bad. After this room, there will only be the guest bedroom left, which is only about 9x9. That room won't be ready to work in for quite a while, still.

These are some of the tools I used to prep the floors (along with a screwdriver, vacuum, and a rag and pail).



I actually didn't end up using the belt sander, but in case I would need it, I didn't want to go back to get it, so I had brought it upstairs. I used the hand plane to shave-down the edges and uneven boards where my repairs had been put in. The sander was used to smooth out the planer marks, and the scraper(s) were used to remove all the putty (see video).

Putty before scraping.





Here's a quick video that I shot for you guys! Scraping and sanding all the putty took around 1 1/2 hours.



Floor vacuumed, washed, and raw pine shellacked.



First coat going on:





First coat done!





I was afraid that the brown/orange tint hadn't been matched perfectly since this is my second can, but it actually looks just fine. It looks slightly yellower in this photo, but it's still wet, and also needs a second coat, but I can tell that the colour is fine.



Hopefully I have the energy to do the second coat tomorrow (if it's dry enough) or Wed evening.

Exhausted

As I mentioned earlier, I'm having a Christmas party for the very first time at the house. This isn't the first party I host here, but it's the first time I'll be having a more traditional sit-down meal type party.

That said, I've been cleaning the house from top to bottom for the past 2 days (mainly today). I'm nearly done, and some of the food for tomorrow is ready to go. I have a last minute shopping trip tomorrow morning, and cookies to bake, but everything should work out alright.

Here's the long list of what I did/cleaned so far:

- Dusting everything (yes, everything, piece by piece)
- WASHING all the painted floors (by hand, with a rag and pail, on my hands and knees)
- Washing/cleaning all the mouldings, baseboards, and windows sills (you wouldn't believe how much dust had settled over the doors and windows - no one would see this, but I wanted a THOROUGH cleaning)
- Washing the tub/shower
- Washing the bathroom tile floor
- Washing the sink in the "guest bedroom" upstairs (lots of scrubbing with Comet & Bar Keeper's Friend)
- Passing the vacuum in the guest bedroom and "L room" (unpainted floors)
- Washing the main staircase (OMG it was atrocious)
- Vacuuming the living room and dining room
- Washing everything in the kitchen (including the mouldings, cabinets, and the blue cupboard with everything on it), stove, fridge, etc.
- Washing the PC, keyboard, mouse, speakers, tower, monitor, and desk

I also re-potted and did "maintenance" on the bulk of my house plants yesterday. That was a huge job in itself (I have roughly 2 dozen), which took probably over 2 hours. This included replanting several of them, trimming-back roots, and planting a whole bunch of new cuttings that have been in water for months. I also took the time to WASH all the plants. The leaves on most of them were coated in dust.

This has been on my to-do list for probably around a year. Many of them were pot-bound, or getting straggly.

Left to do in the next hour (I'm on a break):

- Wash all the tile floors on the main floor (rag and pail)
- Wash the basement staircase (it's filthy)

So pretty much the entire house is now dust free (as much as it can be), and I'm 80% ready for my party. I still have the cookies to bake (as mentioned), and the serving dishes to wash (dinner plates, bowls, glasses, utensils).

That said, since the house will be so nice, and all the junk is put away, I'll probably be making a "walking house tour video". I've wanted to do one for a while. It's always much better to sense the scale and feel of a house through a video than through photos, and I won't be too ashamed of all the mess since it's all clean. You'll also be able to see the Christmas decorations since they're hard to photograph (because of the angles and where they are).