It's not completely finished yet... but not bad for one person and two days of digging. It's not all in madness, we're digging down so that we can waterproof our basement. It's not a really damp basement but we do get water accumulating in one area when there are big storms. That one area happens to be the exact spot where we want to put our future washer and dryer. We've already installed the hook-ups and the vintage sink that we just added a drainage pump to is right there, so we can't change the w/d location. When we had the roof and gutters fixed we thought it might fix the problem but twice since then we've had bad storms and about an inch of water in that corner.
This is all the handiwork of Keith. Keith was once a grave digger. More excitingly he used to work on a tugboat. I have an irrational love of tugboats. When you love tugboats, St. George, Staten Island is the place to be... I get to see them every day. ;)
Keith's been having problems with finding a place to store all of the fill. It's already piled up the length of our fence and now we have an enormous mountain in our yard. I swear - the yard really was clean - right before we started our very own Big Dig.
Heather, about the black stain... do you care if the finish is opaque, or did you want to see the grain? I've been using Cabot Solid Color Stain for a lot of projects lately, and it is BLACK. It's also really easy to work with -- goes on very smooth, covers with one coat, dries fast. If I do decide to go with black floors in my bedroom, this is probably what I'll use (with satin or matte poly on top). It's made for exterior applications, but I can't see why it would be a problem to use it indoors. It does hide all of the grain, though.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I will check it out - I don't mind if the grain is hidden or not. My husband wants to see the grain. I read that if you want to see the grain you need to use an aniline dye - like they used to use on Eames chairs. I just had some chairs refinished black and you can see the grain - I'm picking them up today and going to ask the refinisher for his distributer. Hope he will reveal his source - I'm going to ask the floor refinisher to order it.
ReplyDeleteAbout the satin vs. matte vs. glossy - one floor guy suggested a semi-gloss (I want a satin finish too) because the top coat will turn a satin finish after a short while with normal wear and cleaning. He said that a true satin finish will wear off faster because it's less durable than a gloss. I don't know if this is true or not? Another question I'm going to ask my furniture refinisher later!
A grave digger?! You found the right man:)
ReplyDeleteMaryam,
ReplyDeleteI'm just happy he didn't throw in a body to the fill. ;)