Stain

I put in a lot of hours phoning around about stains and sealers, oh gawd did I spend hours!
I really wanted to use an earth-friendly hardwax for the floors called Osmo wax from Europe. However, the price (over a GRAND!) and the timeline (a WEEK to stock) made it next to impossible to figure this out. We did like the way they looked, but the upkeep, the lack of others who have used it, and so on, caused me to call in the real guns (toxic chemicals).

Let's be real here though. The hardwax is barely less toxic. Apparently the smell is awful, but it's not the VOC awful. But we're not living there...so...

In the end, I weaseled my way into the heart of a great wholesaler named Terry who owns a huge supply store called Timber Realization Centre (isn't that an ethereal name??). He got me the right filler for all those cracks we filled wrong to start, and he is letting me get all the stain and urethane I want from him. And, it's in stock! I'm learning that nothing is in stock anymore (duh), but seriously, I'm used to Ikea, what did we expect!?

So we're going with BONA which is only available to the professionals. And we're using Ebony stain. I wanted either totally natural or totally dark. Not sure why. I don't like in betweens in life, in terms of morals, situations or style apparently either.

Here is ebony stain.

I have this new vision of the house as kind of Spanish Colonial. So white with black trims and pale pinks and reds for colour. Funny how one month you adore dark navies, and the next you want everything looking Scandinavian. I guess that is one of the (few) reasons that it's good this is going slowly. While mostly we are screwing up, the time it is taking ensures we are making choices, not just reacting. Right? Right?? Hmmm...

Put these two together and you have my vision. Although we don't have nearly the light to do roses in the front yard, but some pale pink sweet peas along the fence and who knows what else down the road?