floor saved

After we had such a disastrous week last week with the floor in the cottage, Mike ordered 2 more gallons of stain and another gallon of neutralizer thee floor became completely stained.

After the stain had completely dried overnight, we neutralized and rinsed the floor, We then neutralized the floor again and scrubbed the floor and rinsed it again twice. It seems the problem is that we could not put enough water down at any one time to get the floor clean, so it had to be done multiple times. this is because the floor is indoors. If it were out doors we could have used a power washer and cleaned the floor with the power of a hard stream and large amounts of water.
The floor looks really great now, but it is darker than we really wanted as we had to keep applying stain, which reacted with the concrete, and got darker in places where the stain had taken before. But overall it looks great.

Today the sealer was applied and in 48 hours or so we will apply the first 2 coats of finish. This should protect the shine that the sealer has left.

One of the main problems was the different and ambiguous instructions that came with the product. This product is meant for people with experience and should have taken about 3 days, not 2 weeks to complete. We are now experienced and should we ever have to do this again we will know what to do, Ha Ha .

We plan to start the insulation in the walls and where the attic is floored on Monday. Hopefully,the dry wall guys can get the dry wall in during the first part of next week so that we can start painting.

This week was not wasted though, as we brought on 320 bales of hay for the winter. We now have over 400 bales and should last until the first hay cut next year. We plan to hopefully start boarding horses next spring, which will help pay the bills.

Ta ta for now.

Stained floor

Mike and I spent last week working on staining the floors of the cottage.
We scrubbed the floor with a buffer with 220 cleaning pad. We scrubbed the floor and then rinsed it with clean water. We let the floor dry over night and the next morning we chemically etched the concrete and again washed the floor with clean water.
Even with the house only a little over 1000 sq. ft., it took several hours to do these 2 steps. We again let the floor dry completely to show any places where we did not get the etching right. During the etching process the floor is to be kept wet and not allowed to dry. So, we were constantly adding water to the floor. Many gallons of water was used.
The next day we stained the floor with an acid stain applied liberally to the complete floor.
We knew there might be a problem when large areas of white patches appeared later in the day. We let the stain stay on the floor over night and began the process of neutralizing the acid and cleaning the excess acid  from the floor then next day. This time we used a wet/dry vacuum to extract the water instead of using a floor sqweegy to push the water out of the doorways.. Again a lot of water was used.
We again knew we had a problem when the white patches were not the same color as the rest of the floor. When it was still wet we thought that it might be ok to just leave it as the white patches had some color in them. But the next day when the floor was completely dry, the color was not visible in the patches.
Mike decided that we could add stain the colorless patches, so we hope to try that process on Tuesday.

We followed the directions to the tee, and even called the manufacturer for some advice. The only thing that we can figure what went wrong is that we left too much etching residue on the floor and the stain reacted with that instead of the floor itself.
We are going to retry the staining and neutralizing process again and hope for the best.

We are trying to not use a floor covering, as staining is more durable and will not have to be replaced any time soon.

Ta ta for now.

Cottage day 50

It has been busy for the last couple of weeks. The plumbers finished up last Thursday on their top out, and inspections were passed on Friday. They used the pex system. It is said that it stretches many times its size & returns to its original diameter, therefore it is less likely to burst if it is frozen. The joints are very durable and don't come apart easily.
Electricians arrived on Monday to do their rough in. They finished up yesterday and inspection is due today. Adam took a half a day off work yesterday and he came in to run the low-voltage. The low-voltage consists of data, telephone,and cabling for television. Everything will be run out of the spare bedroom closet. It is a good central location and a fairly large closet. All the communications for the cottage, will come into the cottage near the electrical panel located on the east side of the garage. Since the garage is not going to be finished on that side, everything will be accessible.

Pex system manifold

We got a surprise on Tuesday. The AC company called and said there was a cancellation and they would be out on Wednesday to start the installation of the heating and air-conditioning. The installation team leader arrived midmorning on Wednesday with the heater, ducting and all insulation. Mike insisted that all ducting the rigid, and the team leader told us that the inspectors are now more interested in the R-value of the insulation than an airflow.
I went over little before eight yesterday morning, to open the house in the gate and these guys were already there. They arrived somewhere between seven and 7:15. Their goal was to run all the ducting before it got hot. There was a front that moved through on Wednesday and the temperature and humidity were reasonable. One of the guys was in the attic all morning running the ducting and he said he hardly broke a sweat. It was a good day for them to work in the attic.
They also ran the ducting for both bathroom fans, the dryer vent, and the vent hood.
These guys do good work, neat, orderly and clean. Their supervisor arrived about noon yesterday and he was pleased with their work, as were we.
They were pretty late leaving yesterday, so we don't expect the rough in AC inspection to be done until Friday.

The pictures aboveshow the work that has been done this week. The bottom two pictures are the low voltage cabling that Adam, Mike and I installed yesterday. This is the area of Adams expertise. This is also part of the electrical inspection. We had to get this completed yesterday for the inspection today.

Mike and Barbara decided to stain the floors of the cottage. It is considerably less expensive than floor coverings and "The Duck", our concrete guy, did an outstanding job surfacing the concrete.
The stain arrived yesterday and hopefully we can start staining the floor the first part of next week. There were small fiberglass fibers put in the concrete to help hold the surface together and minimize small cracks, and most of the surface fibers have not broken off and been swept up. So, we need to buff, this concrete so that the fibers will not be visible .
We're going to stain the floor before drywall is put in place, because with this particular method,  there is a lot of rinsing required. If the drywall is not there it cannot get wet.

Things are moving a lot more smoothly than we anticipated. The trades have come when expected, and worked efficiently and in a timely manner. Also, the materials have arrived when expected, so there have been no unexpected delays.
October 1 is our expected move-in date, but if things continue moving the way they are, it may be sooner.

Tata for now.

Cottage day 41

The cottage is moving along nicely, with the porch poured and the roof fixed. The outside is complete. The only thing left is to landscape the outside and of course to finish the inside. Our concrete guy poured the porch last Friday week. Last Saturday, the construction manager came down from Kentucky and repair the leak between the main roof on the front porch. It rained yesterday, and yeah, no more leaks.

Mike and I have been working long hours framing the walls and ceiling joists in the interior of the cottage. All of the walls are now in place and we finished putting up the ceiling joists last Thursday. We spent two days blocking and bracing. The ceiling joists are now braced in a true vertical fashion. The interior walls are now secured to the floor and hurricane clips have been placed throughout the structure.
We rented a Ram-set, which is a tool that uses small charges, 22 caliber, to drive nails through the bottom plate of the walls and into the concrete. I drove 100 nails using this tool and my right-hand is a little sore this morning.

We are now ready for the trades, and the plumbers arrived yesterday afternoon to begin their top out. The top out is the second stage in the plumbing in which the plumbers placed the shower and tub and stub out the water and the drains. The vent stacks are also connected and extended through the roof.
The air conditioning representative came out yesterday showed us where the return air vents were to be. Some of the interior walls had to be modified and blocked to facilitate the return air ducts. The placement of the furnace was also discussed and some modifications in the attic had to be made. A portion of the attic was decked to accommodate the furnace and the water heater and more decking is needed.

Last Friday, Mike installed the lighting cans in the kitchen and both bathrooms. He also installed vents for the bathroom. Now all the electrician has to do is wire them. Hopefully, the plumbers will be through and we can get electrician in towards the end of the week.

The air-conditioning guys are very busy. The next scheduled available time is August 20. They have promised that they will try to get in earlier if they can. That was the reason for the visit from the AC guy yesterday. In a way, this is a blessing in disguise, in that the condensation drain and the placement of the furnace will be will be ready when AC guys are.

I know it's been a while since I posted, but a lot of the work that's been done recently doesn't show. A lot of this work is for structural purposes and pictures can't show the change. Hopefully things will become more visible in the near future and the pictures will show the change.

Tata for now.