The Cedar Loft - Update #4

Things didn’t go exactly as planned this past week.

Joy and I did begin staining the siding for the interior walls last Thursday and got as far as eight sheets stained. I wasn’t pleased at all with the finish but waited to hear Jason’s opinion when he came home. He agreed; so it was another trip to Lowes.

We took a board with us and went through five of their little samples, trying each one out there on the spot. The clerk was great……very patient with us. She asked if she could try a color. We told her she was more than welcome to try any she wanted and that we should have asked her sooner! She tried a color and it came very close to the shade we were trying to achieve. When we told her it was getting close, she went over and picked a shade called “leather satchel” and tried that one……and bingo, we had a winner! It’s a warm cozy color and I think it’s going to be great for that space!

So the report for this week is that most of the knotty barn siding is hung and painted. At least, as of now, the main living area is done.

My daddy hung most of the fixtures and did the electrical hook ups.

I love these two pendant lights hanging over what will be the bar area.

These fixtures that hang in the kitchen, bathroom, little hallway, and living area were purchased like this. They look nice in black, but I wanted more of a “rusty” or “bronzed” look and couldn’t find anything I really liked within our budget. I really preferred more straight lines and most of the indoor fixtures were curvy. I ended up going with these – the closest I could get to a rustic/prim look on our tiny budget. They were actually in the outdoor section of Lowes. So, they started out this way:

But with the help of this:

They were transformed into this………a little more prim/rustic.

And for the laundry room and closets, we just purchased these very simple wall plates and for good measure, I sprayed them also. From this:

To this:

The rest of this week, Jason will be hanging more siding with his helpers, (Colt, Joy, or me). I think he prefers Colt (he knows a little more what he’s doing than the other two). :) Then Joy and I will paint and Jason will cut in.

Luke loves being a little helper. He watches and listens closely to his daddy at work and we find him “working” too. He will stand on the little ladder and look around and say “hmmmm”, like he’s trying to figure it out. He declared that the tin ceiling was “like a puzzle”. He’s so right. It was definitely like a puzzle! He likes to help wherever he can. He’s been really good about hanging out there with us, especially for an active three year old boy.

Next on the list is the flooring. We have a flooring man coming out tomorrow to give us an estimate on laying the vinyl flooring for us. Because there will be so many seams to glue down and a pattern to match up, I think Jason and my Daddy aren’t feeling very confident about tackling it. According to what kind of estimate we get from them, we’ll have to make a decision on going ahead with the vinyl flooring we picked out and letting them lay it (I do love this pattern) OR staining or painting and applying polyurethane to the plywood subflooring. I guess next week’s report will tell the story.

This weekend we’ll be taking a little break for part of the weekend to celebrate our anniversary (which is on Sunday). We’ve climbed these stairs way too many times this week! Poor Jason, especially, carrying that heavy siding!

My favorite carpenter at work:

It’s exciting to see the transformation and it’s so amazing how adding the walls added depth and makes the space appear bigger! My mind’s eye can see how connecting the tin ceiling and the walls with the trim (which is one of the last steps) will make a huge difference too!

So that’s where we are…….chugging right along, not really too far off schedule from our goal of completing it by Labor Day. I think we can, I think we can, I think we can........