Lack of posts this month

I apologize for the lack of posts in the last 2 weeks. Unfortunately I won't be able to change this by much for a few more weeks. We are undergoing renovations at home at the moment and most of my free time is currently spent there and not in my craft room.

We have beautiful wainscoting throughout our main floor. Unfortunately it is an outdated honey oak as are the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room cabinets, all the doors, trim and stair banisters... you get the picture).
We debated back and forth for a couple of years now as to whether we should paint it all white or stain it dark. We finally reached a decision and dark won (for the most part, the railing spindles and interior doors will be white).

We are using General Finishes Java (very dark espresso colour) Gel Stain. The Family room (wainscoting and a build in wall unit around the fireplace mantel) and laundry room (cabinets) are pretty much done.

It looks absolutely gorgeous!

It's taking forever though as we needed to wash, dry and sand before staining. Then 3 coats of the gel stain followed by 2 coats of clear coat. Not to mention the optimum drying time between coats is 12-48 hrs (12 between 1st and 2nd coat, 24 between 2nd and 3rd coat and 48 hrs between the 3rd and the first clear coat as the stain is oil based and the finish water based).

Did I mention we are also painting all the walls? Too much to get into but let's just say my original choice of yellow did not turn out so well (yellow is a tricky colour; doesn't look the same in store as on the walls and you don't want green undertones, trust me!)

Up next is the hall and foyer, then the dining room and last the kitchen and nook (not to mention the upstairs; painting, new flooring, 2 bathroom renos...).

The good news is that although we are doing most of the interior reno ourselves (not the bathrooms or new countertops), the exterior we are contracting out. The large trees in our front yard are being cut down tomorrow (we will finally have some light in the living room) and the house exterior is being painted in 3 weeks.

Sure hope the weather holds home for a few more weeks so we can have everything completely ASAP.

In case anyone is interested I'll see if I can manage to post a before and after photo of the family room this weekend (I might even squeeze in some reno related punch art (would work great for Father's day).