Floors
Entry posted by Peggi
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Although, I really wanted to be able to do my dance floor by just scribing and staining the foam core, I just never could in all my practices (and believe me there was several) I just could not for the life of me get the depth of the score just right. I was either to deep and the underlying foam would stain (which would not work for the ceiling portion) or it was to shallow and the lines wouldn't show up. I am also hampered by the inability to draw a straight line even using a metal ruler. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and use skinny sticks. I have got to say staining all those little sticks (it took almost 200) was a blast and I felt like a child playing in mud puddles. I had read where Holly had heard of people taking 2 aluminum pans, poking holes in one and pouring stain in the bottom one and letting it drain. This sounded like an excellent idea to get 200 itty bitty sticks stained and not take forever.
Well, it did save some time staining them, but silly me was using Mini wax Poly Shade Bombay Mahogany (you know the kind with the polyurethane already mixed in). That was my first mistake, this stuff is thick and doesn't drain like normal stain, so each stick had to be handled individually to wipe off the excess. My second mistake was putting to many sticks in at once. I had to keep stirring the mixture to get an even coat. The picture shows me wearing gloves, this was after I realized that my hands were also getting stained and I had a meeting at work the next day where I would have to be shaking hands with community leaders from 5 counties and they probably would wonder what I had been playing in. 
Needless to say before I got all those sticks stained, I had it running down my elbows and had puddles forming on my table. If I hadn't gotten so tickled at myself, it might have seemed like real work.
After the stain had dried I tackled the job of gluing each individual stick to the floor. After the first two rows I got a system going and it worked real well. Again, a hint from Holly, I took one of those plastic credit cards from a "free offer" I would lay a bead of glue and then using the credit card as a smoother I would lay a row of sticks.
You can barely see the credit card because it happens to be one of those clear one. I'm not sure if having the polyurethane already mixed in helped or not, but I was able to apply a second & third coat of stain after gluing it down to get a better color and no glue stains showed up. (Thank God) But I did have to paint the ceiling portion with about 3 layers to hide where I had accidentally picked the roof up with stain on my hands and it had transfered. Here's the finished floor
It is still not permanently attached I have to finish installing my interior door.
I kept looking at where the tabs joined and finally asked Riley if he would cut me some corner posts--I felt this would help hide any gaps that I hadn't be able to completely sill up and would help add more accent to the house. So I glued those in place on all corner joints.
I used real vinyl flooring for the porch covering. Again, at first I experimented with Tracy's method of scoring grout lines on a different medium, and gave up but while visiting my sister, she had some left over from redoing her daughters floor and I swiped a piece. Luckily I swiped extra, cause I had trouble cutting the piece I wanted with the right pattern.
Riley decided it was easier to hang the front door using pins. He drilled a whole in the bottom of the house, one in the top and bottom corner of the door and glued a pin in the door and carefully inserted it. It works.
On the interior door, I made from scratch wood a trim to cover the top, bottom and side and then again using scrap wood glued little rectangles on the front so that from the reception room the door is not so plain. Plus, it give Riley something more to stick a pin in to make it open and shut. This idea was probably borrowed from Melissa. The door handles are made from some old earring I had, but they remind me of the "glass" knobs I've seen in some homes.
Right now, it is just propped up and not attached. But once it is installed and the trim glued in the downstairs will basically be complete.
I've had an idea every since I started this house/studio that I wanted to put in an elevator. This has been one of my procrastinating points. I finally found a picture of one, that I think I (meaning Riley, really) will be able to closely duplicate.
He has drawn up plans and started working on the actual building and the transformer to our mini saw went kaput. But the new transformer arrived today, so I'm hopeful that within the next few days he will see if his idea works. Now, let me say, before I got him involved I spent and ruined several plastic tubes and borders trying myself to get the look I wanted. Those mistakes are in file 13 right now and hopefully will never see the light of day again. Whereas, playing with the itty bitty sticks had me laughing, this had me fit to be tied. If this doesn't work out, then we will go to plan B (of course I'm probably up to plan H or I). This is also one reason I've not finished the second floor, we are debating on whether we will actually cut a hole in the floor or just give the illusion of one. Until I can get the floor in and measure with a ballerina on the roof/wall to place the barre and mirrors, I'm kinda at a stand still.
I can work on the porch supports and finish the interior door. But I really don't even want to do much touch up paint until I'm through actually gluing the roof and floor in.
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