Happy Friday!! I have a tutorial and a house update for you today! First, there’s been a lot of progress on the house we are building but not the fun kind of progress.
The past few weeks have been filled with electric wiring and plumbing which is very important but not very exciting. The most fun progress we’ve seen in the past few weeks is the addition of Hardie plank on the home’s exterior.
It will be painted white and I’m hoping when it’s all done the home (and porch) will look similar to this inspiration picture.
Source: Unknown (please let me know if you know)
I’ve been busy researching and deciding on some of the home’s finishes. One thing I’m currently debating (and need to decide by the end of next week) is whether to do hardwood flooring that is finished onsite or whether to have pre-finished hardwood installed.
To me the benefits of doing onsite are that it feels more custom and part of the home. The cons is that they would be installing 2 1/4″ wide wood pieces which is more narrow than I would like. Also I worry about the consistency in color throughout the whole house with the onsite staining.
The pros to the pre-finished are that they are supposedly more durable since the stain and finish is done in a factory. Also I would be able to get a 5″ or so width and I feel like the color is more predictable and consistent.
Do you have any other thoughts on onsite hardwood versus pre-finished?
I am wanting to do a runner on our stairs and have thought about doing one of these neutral plaids.
We will have a bonus room upstairs and I’m thinking about doing one of these blue or gray herringbone patterns as wall to wall carpet in that room.
These are some of the new home decisions that have been on my mind. Today they started insulation and after that comes drywall! Seeing the home with walls will be a big step!!
A few posts ago I mentioned that World Market had their outdoor furniture on clearance for 75%-80% off. I happened to snag this outdoor loveseat during the clearance.
I also purchased these two outdoor lounge chairs which were such a good deal (don’t worry I didn’t buy any of the mix matched cushions on top of them).
Did the fact that one of the lounge chairs was gray and one was wood tone dissuade me? Maybe for second, but then I devised a plan to paint them!
I decided to try and paint them to match the bleached out wood look of the outdoor love seat I bought.
I’m happy to report that it worked!:-)
Using Behr’s waterproof solid stain in the color Sandal I painted both lounge chairs.
Once that was dry I mixed just a little bit of white paint I had on hand with about a cup of water (about 1 part paint to 5 parts water).
I then brushed on the watered down paint mixture and then wiped it away. I made this video so you can see how it’s done in action!
Now to find matching cushions!:-)
I hope you have great Labor Day weekend!!:-)
Til next time ?,
p.s. For my local readers don’t forget the Parade of Homes starts tomorrow and runs through the 16th! I have notified this year’s free ticket winners. Thanks to all who entered!!
Related Posts From the Blog:
How to Paint a Gray Weathered Finish on Furniture
Taking Stairs from Carpeted to Stained Hardwood
DIY Wood Bedframe in 5 Easy Steps
Painting Wood Furniture (without sanding or priming)!
House Update–We Have Walls!
Thursday 5 DIY
Easy Dresser Makeover + Progress in the Bedroom
Outdoor Bench Makeover & Best $15 Sander Around
Wow! The outside out your house will look so stately! Beautiful! Have you had dark wood floors before? My friends who chose dark flooring, always complain about the foot prints that show up so easily. It is beautiful, but they have regretted it because of the constant work to keep it looking nice. We used to have white floors and even when I scoured the floors, they looked dirty. We now have a medium, warm tone flooring and it is so easy to keep looking clean!
I’m excited to see what you do with the yard of your new house too.
Have a terrific autumn.
🙂
Hi Amy! Thanks so much for your thoughts on the floors! I definitely don’t want to go too dark because you’re right everything will show up. I will probably go a medium to dark walnut color. It’s what I have right now and I love it! I’ve been playing around with the landscaping of the new house in Floorplanner which has been fun. They do landscaping at the very end which will be around late November/early December. Hoping it won’t be too cold by then! I hope you have a wonderful Fall too!?
Your house is really coming along, very nice. I had hardwoods installed a few years ago, they were brought in. I loved them then and I love them now. I think it is personal preference don’t you think? Either way they will be beautiful.
I agree, Shelly, it’s probably a personal preference. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I put wood floors in our house that were finished on site. I still regret it 20 years later. We just had them refinished. Still don’t love them. I’m stuck with them because there’s too much house to replace them all. Also, I’m like you. I would love to have wider boards.
Hi Marilyn! Ugh, I’m sorry to hear you regret it! But thank you so much for sharing this so I don’t have to go through the same thing. I think I will go with the pre-finished floors.
Pre-finished all the way!!! We’ve had both. With children the pre-finished have held up so much better.
So good to know!! Great to hear from someone who has had both! Love you, Sis!??
We did pre-finished on our upstairs level. Took out all the builder’s grade carpeting and ran hardwood through the whole upstairs (except the baths – they are tiled). Our first floor is builder’s grade that came with the house – upstairs is sooo much nicer!
Wow, Joanne, I bet that looks SO good! I wish I could run hardwoods into some of the bedrooms but the budget won’t allow it.:-(
the sandal color seems to be really dark when i looked it up online, but your photo of the freshly painted lawn chairs looked very light, almost like a sand color. even in he video, the chairs looked very light. did you add water when your first painted them? also, just to make sure, you sanded them first and then painted them with the Behr paint? you didn’t really put a lot of specifics in your post and i would love to try it on a bunch of my library chairs. here’s what i gathered: 1. sand the chair, 2. paint with behr sandal color, 3. get a cup of water with white paint and brush over chairs as you showed on the video. please let me know if i got it right and the answers to my questions above. thank you!!!