Thomas, a few short pages ago (Ha!) you mentioned using Varathane for your tops finish. Reading up on this, it sounds like a good product to use for the inside of kitchen drawers. Would you have any other suggestions for a novice like myself? I am considering spraying vs brushing, but I am open to suggestion as this is new territory for me!
Thanks much
(PS, its been over a week, we realllly need a update!
)
Varathane would be an excellent choice for the inside of kitchen drawers. It's a great product that has been around for a long time with a proven track record.
The original formula will leave brush marks if you're not careful (I note you might spray it on - I have no experience with that type of application so let us know how it goes
).
If you do brush it, use a high quality brush and good lighting which will enable you to look at the brushed surface from the side to see any brush marks.
When doing the final brush strokes use a light touch and don't over brush it. It takes a little experience but nothing terribly demanding, just some patience. For the inside of drawers, brush marks would be of little concern.
I've been using Varathane for over 35 years and for a hard, durable surface it's my first choice.
Yeah, about those house updates.....sorry about that. I've been working instead of posting. A bunch, a bunch, a bunch has been going on out here. Here's a sampling of our progress.
The fireplace stone was acid washed today. I hung visqueen over all the nearby walls and windows to keep any spatters off. I put visqueen on the bare floor, followed by several layers of flat cardboard & topped that off with many, many old bath towels (no worries, Chris gave them to me
) to soak up the rinse water. We used a garden hose with a sprayer nozzle to thoroughly rinse all the Sure Kean 600 off the stone, drizzling it from the top down. The towels were wrung out periodically and when done, after all that material was removed from the floor, it was dry underneath so it worked out well.
Big sigh of relief.
All the exterior wall brick and stone...
...has been laid...
...and cleaned.
Very happy with the results.
Not a great picture, I just finished laying the last brick on top of the wall above the door this afternoon. This all needs to be cleaned to see how well it turned out but you get the idea I think.
The chimney still has a few more courses to lay. It needs to be about 4'- 5' higher yet to draw well. The magic formula is the flue needs to be 3' higher that any surface within 10' horizontally.....plus a
little more, just ensure it will draw well. BTW, that's more test material ya know?
I am installing an all copper lighting rod system on the house. Here you can see the braided copper wire that is going inside the chimney as it's being built. The rod will be installed once the chimney is topped out.
The carport ....
...ceiling is done as is most of the exterior soffit, but no pictures of that yet.
Virtually all wiring is done as well as security along with...
...audio and video. The sound system for the video is all wired in and I'll post about it separately.
Last week...
...the septic was installed and finished.
This is basement wall being core drilled for the plumbing waste line to the septic.
Here's the basement wall core that was drilled out, all 12" of it.
The plumbing is all done now and was hydro tested today @ 140 psi to check for leaks and none were detected which is always a good thing.
The phase converter to create 3 phase has been installed and powered up.
I'll have more on this later.
Since I have 3 phase power, I'm getting ready to install the material hoist.
This is the mount I fabricated for the hoist eye-bolt...
...which is what the hoist will be suspended from. More on this later as well.
In the basement...
All the 1st and 2nd floor radiate floor tubing is now installed and successfully tested for leaks...
...most all the A/C ducts have been installed, the 2 water furnace/heat exchanges are being connected to the Geo-thermo wells shortly.
We're insulating starting this Wed for 3 days and then next week, installing drywall begins so check back won't you. There's always something going on here at the ranch.
Thanks everyone once more, for all the positive thoughts and comments on the project. It seems to be working, the house is coming along nicely. When Rian, aka
Grizz1963 flies across the pond and stops in for his inspection there should be plenty to see.
Thomas
) which it quite hard, protects the wood and is scratch resistant. This newest material is self-leveling and does a decent job of hiding brush marks. The bottoms got two coats and the tops are probably getting 3 - 4 depending on how it goes. Sanding after the first coat with 220 and thereafter with 380. The whole base and tops are being sealed on all reachable surfaces to get as uniform moisture absorption as possible. I keep the barn humidity at 25-30% so while I retain ownership I don't think that will ever be a problem.
