The Tung Oil Finish

OH MY- I WROTE THIS A COUPLE MONTHS AGO!!
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After we finished staining the newly installed floors, it was time to apply a finish.  Before we stained the floors, we intended to simply use polyurethane to protect the floors, as this was the finish we used on the stair treads.  The difference between finishing the stairs and the floors was that when we finished the floors we were not living in the house, and therefore did not have to contend with the VOCs and fumes from the stain & polyurethane.  Fast forward 2 years.  When we stained the floors a few weeks ago, we had to take up shelter for entire weekend with family in order not to breath in the toxic fumes.  Though this was a great weekend with family, it was a bit inconvenient to not be able to be home.

After investigating VOC options for wood finishing we discovered Linseed Oil & Tung Oil.  Originally we purchased Tried and True Linseed Oil & Beeswax finish.  Though not a common finish, we loved that it was VOC free.  Unfortunately, upon receiving the Linseed Oil and reading the packaging, we found that it was not recommended for use on floors.  We were willing to give it a try, we found that Pure Tung Oil was a much more common VOC free finish.  The Laird found Pure Tung Oil through The Real Milkpaint Company.  Their website was very informative and convinced us that this was the route we would take to finish our floors.

With tung oil, it is important to use a solvent to dilute the oil.  Common solvents include mineral spirits and turpentine- the only problem is that they both contain VOCs and have toxic fumes.  The Real Milkpaint Company offers a Citrus Solvent which is 100% natural citrus oils from oranges and citrus fruit peels- and no VOCs!  Perfect, we found our zero VOCs floor finishing solution.  We ordered a gallon of Citrus Solvent and a gallon of Pure Tung Oil.

After the stain had finished, we noticed areas where the stain had pooled and dried thicker on the surface of the wood.  We did wipe areas of excess stain clean during the drying process, but missed a number of spots.  And these spots looked terrible because they were shiny rather than the matte appearance of dry stain.

To Be Continued!

Dropping Facebook to pick up Swagbucks

I want to share with all of you the best thing I have found to utilize my online time in a more productive manner than facebook.  I have known for some time that I waste entirely too much time scrolling the news feed on facebook- but I didn't know how to stop myself.  That is until I found out I could utilize my internet time to earn gift cards through online surveys.

I have recently rediscovered the little perks of participating in online surveys to earn points for gift cards.  Before lady genevieve was born I participated in a lot of surveys through ipsosisay, and was able to get 1 gift card.  It took me a while to get enough points for a gift card.  Recently I was reminded of online surveys after taking a Nielson Radio survey through the mail.  I googled "surveys for cash" and a host of websites came up.  One site I signed up with, sends me a daily email with different survey companies to sign up with.  This is how I found Swagbucks.  Swagbucks is much more fun and entertaining than the previous survey group I used because you can earn points by doing more than just taking surveys.  The surveys available come from various survey groups, which offers variety to the types and formats of surveys available.  You can get points for playing games, online shopping that you would normally do through points back/ dollar spent at different retailers, web searches, watching videos...  It's seriously great.  In 10 days, I have already earned enough for a $25 gift card, and am waiting to be awarded my points for 2 larger surveys that amount to $35!  It's really quite amazing how quickly I was able to accumulate points.  I am saving up points to purchase a new car seat.

You should check it out, click on this link: Swagbucks Referral

The various surveys available are assigned the approximate time the survey takes and a swagbucks point value for completing the survey.  Whether you only have 1/2 hour free or a couple hours, you can earn a few dollars a day.  Now this may not seem like much if you work a real job- but for a half hour to an hour a day, you could possibly end up with $50 or more each month.  This is nice to have as an extra treat for self.  There are lots of different gift card options as well.  As I mentioned before, I have already earned about $60 in my first 10 days (I have been quite motivated to earn enough for that car seat- and if I keep at it I would love to start saving up for gift cards to eventually get a new refrigerator in a year or two).

Some of the surveys have been pretty interesting too- and this excites me that my opinion and voice are being heard.

For the Love of Custom Framing

Have you ever had a picture or piece of artwork custom framed?  Anyone who has knows it is quite a pricey process.  When I graduated college I photographed my neighbors giant sunflowers.  This was a time when digital photography was on the rise, but I was still using a film Canon Rebel.  The photo was so sharp that I decided to enlarge it to a poster size.  Due to the large size of the photo, it was difficult to purchase a ready made frame and matte that would fit.  After storing the photo for some time, I finally decided to use that Joann Fabric coupon for 40% or 60% off a custom framing order (can't remember which).  After picking out the perfect frame, 2 mattes and the museum glass, they gave me the total cost.  Even after the discount, the piece cost me over $350!! Though it cost a ton, I used my birthday money and treated myself.  When it was finally finished and hung on my wall, I fell in love with it.  It was pure quality.  There was a definite sense of pride in this piece that I had never experienced with buying ready made frames for my photographs.  I knew I definitely wanted to custom frame more in the future.

That initial custom framing experience was about 10 years ago, and I haven't custom framed another piece since.

On a recent visit home to visit my family, I saw that my mother had finally custom framed a drawing she had done in 1983.  She is truly and amazing artist.  If the cost of custom framing wasn't so much, I am sure she would have done it sooner.  It turned out gorgeous and I fell in love with the whole piece, the frame and triple mattes.  She mentioned that she actually had a few more copies of this particular drawing.  I requested a copy of it for christmas or my birthday sometime in the future.  That request came true this past Fall for my birthday.

FORT KLOCK in St. Johnsville, NY

A friend gave me the idea that I could probably custom frame this piece myself, for a lot cheaper than Joann Fabric or Michaels.  In my internet research I found Pictureframes.com.  It is a great website, as you are able to upload your photo or photo of your artwork, and then try it on with different mattes and frames.  This is a great feature since you cannot see things in person before you purchase.

In my shopping for the perfect frame, I got a little distracted by a great "Distressed Barnwood" frame.  I decided they would be great for photos of lady genevieve and lord Alastair in our great room.  Since the photos were smaller than the Fort Klock drawing, the investment was less and an easier purchase to make.  The Laird just hung them up, and they look great!  So excited!

Dining Room Remodel- Sanding & Staining hardwood floors

The Laird finished installing the Red Oak flooring middle of last week, which meant it was time for quick transformation- Staining the floors.  We rented a sander from the local Home Depot for the day for a reasonable price of $60/day.  We thought the sanding would go quick, but in reality it took longer than we anticipated due to some of the un-level boards.  Once sanding was completed, we mopped up the loose sawdust.

Installing final board

Sanding 

The trap door to the basement

Over the course of 2 days, we applied 2 coats of Miniwax Provincial stain.  Thankfully, the weather has been unseasonably warm (in the 50's) this weekend, and we've been able to open all the windows air the house out.  These photos are right after the 2nd coat was applied and the floors were still wet.

Though we still have many more tasks to complete before our dining room is complete, this was a huge step forward to having a usable dining room!

This view makes me smile!

Our next step is to finish the floors with a protective coat.  Originally we were going to use Miniwax Polyurethane, just as we finished the stairs 2 years ago.  When we finished the stairs we were not living in the house, so the VOCs and fumes from the polyurethane and stain were not an issue. Now that we live where we are working, we decided to investigate other less toxic methods.  We settled on Tried and True Original Linseed Oil & Beeswax- A Highly Polymerized Linseed Oil with beeswax.  Boiled Linseed oils dry quicker than raw linseed oil, however most brands of boiled linseed oil today is not actually boiled.  Instead they contain metal additives that achieve the same results, but contain VOCs.  Tried and True was the only brand I could easily find that was actually boiled and contained zero VOCs.  Linseed oil and other natural oils are often used on wooden furniture, and make for an antiqued appearance.  The oils soak into the grains of the wood and cure the wood as it dries- thus protecting the wood.  Polyurethane works different in that it hardens like a layer of plastic on top of the wood surface.  Though we are not entirely sure how the Linseed oil will work on the floors, we decided the zero VOCs made it worthy of testing out.  

Amazed to finally see our room transform from a "work" & storage/junk room to a dining room.  Remember when it looked like this:

Matters of Money

After college my mother shared with me about Dave Ramsey and his principles the "Seven Baby Steps".  She was very enthusiastic about the baby steps and really worked to influence me to read his book, "The Total Money Makeover".  I did, and from that point on I was sold on a more directed path to financial freedom.

Having just graduated from college, and working part time in my field, I was making more money than I had ever known before.  I hurried to consolidate my loans, which meant that I missed on the 6 month period of deferred interest.  Then I made it my goal to pay my loans off as fast as I could.  I saved up my $1000 Emergency Fund, and started putting every bit of extra income towards my loan payments.  With just over $20,000 of school loans, I was completely payed off within 18 months!  Part of this time I was only working part time!  It became somewhat of a game to me to pay extra on the principle each month and watch the total go down.

Me & "Marley" , the 1969 VW Beetle in 2005

Honestly I enjoyed paying off my school loans.  Once I was paid off, I actually missed having a goal to pay down.  At that point, I had disposable income that wasn't accounted for.  I would save, but as soon as I reached about $5000 I would find something silly to spend money on.  One time I bought a beautiful 1969 Volkswagon Beetle from Northern California, off of ebay!  Keep in mind, I was living in Western New York when I made this purchase.  I had to pay a good chunk of money to have the car shipped across the country.  I affectionately called it Marley, because I really loved listening to Bob Marley at the time.  At the time, I had become a new home owner.  So I now had a mortgage to work to pay off.  I printed up the amortization table and every time I made an extra payment towards the principle, I would cross off future monthly payments.  If you've ever owned a house and looked at the breakdown of your mortgage payment, you know that in the beginning only a very small portion actually goes to paying down your loan.  I realized that if I only could simply match the amount payed towards principle for that month, then I would decrease the life of my loan by a whole month!  If I did that every month for a whole year, I could more or less decrease my 30 year loan by a whole year!  And as more of the loan is paid down, the impact is even greater.

I LOVE Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps!  And they have worked for me.  For more information, check out Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps.

With some financial freedom goals for our family brewing in my mind,  I found some great debt freedom charts . Most people accept the fact that they will probably always live in a state of debt.  This is an absolute lie.  There is light at the end of the tunnel, but as Dave Ramsey says:

Can you imagine living mortgage free?  That would be amazing financial freedom in my mind.  It's time to set some BIG GOALS for the near future.  With charts like this one hanging on the wall or refrigerator, our goals are visible every day.  Saying "No" to eating out, or using that really good coupon to buy something that we may not "need", means gaining something we really do need- Financial Freedom.                        Check out these DEBT FREEDOM CHARTS.

GOALS & My WORD for 2016

In the fellowship I am a part of, we take time at the beginning of each year to think and talk about goals we have for the new year.  In addition to goals we find a word that we want to focus on and grow to embody throughout the year as well.

The topic of goals often resonates as "resolutions" for many.  And for obvious reasons many people get turned off by the idea of resolutions, probably because they don't last the whole year through, for so many people.  Or they don't consider themselves "goal" setting people.  Or....  fill in the blank.  I am not one of those people.  Ever since the seed of setting goals was planted in my life, I have loved writing down goals for the year.  For me it is incredibly inspiring to consider and then write down what I hope to accomplish in a given year.  Even more powerful is when I take the time on December 31st to go back and look at the goals I had written down, and see where I succeeded and where I didn't get as far as I would have liked.  

WHY set goals?  Simply for the purpose of having direction for where you want to go and grow that year.  Whatever we aim our life at, that is the direction our life will go.  So if we don't have a goal in mind of the direction we want to go, then we will either stay stuck where we are or slide towards habits we would rather avoid.  

Many goals are a matter of self improvement.  A way to serve for making oneself better.  That may not be a compelling enough reason to want to set any goals.  If you are content where you are at, then who needs to make goals that will probably not last anyway?  I challenge you to think about setting goals not for the better of your self.  Set goals of adding GOOD things to your life, SO THAT you can offer them to to love and serve people in your life.

My WORD for 2016:

This word is the essence of every goal I have set for this year.  I want to grow as a steward in every area of my life this year.  

TIME:  As a mother, with the opportunity to stay home with lady genevieve and lord Alastair, I hope to be a steward of the gift of TIME I have with them.  My goal every year since 2009 has been to read a portion of God's Word each and every day.  Some years have been more successful than others.  Through The Messianic Thread  I can listen to a Daily Bible podcast, that reads me a portion of the Bible in chronological order each and every day.  It's that easy.  But due to the business of life, I still manage to not make it faithfully through the entire Bible in a given year.  This reality doesn't prevent me from trying to do it again this year.  But this year I have added to the goal.  This year I am adding my children to the equation.  I am not simply reading for my own betterment.  My goal is to be faithful in building this habit into my own life, so that I can build it in my children's lives.  I have decided to carve out a portion of time each day around 9am to do Bible reading time with lady genevieve.  I want this to be such a part of her life, that she grows up knowing this is part of her every day.  That she will have the habit instilled in her life, so that when she is grown she will carve out time to read the Word for herself- and love doing it.  

HOME:  I am setting to do a "Chore a Day".  That habit lasted a while, but definitely got thrown off once I had lord Alastair enter into the picture.  I have designated one simple chore for each day of the week.  I noticed last week that though my house might be a little in disarray with toys everywhere, it felt cleaner overall every day because of knowing I cleaned one thing well.  And because each chore gets done once a week, my house is overall cleaner than ever.  Nothing has to get so bad that it takes forever to clean.  My Weekly Chore-Line-Up looks like this:

SUNDAY- Refridgerator Clean Out (throughout left overs & spoiled food & wipe down shelves)

MONDAY-  Take Recycling to Garage

TUESDAY- Bathroom

WEDNESDAY- Dust

THURSDAY- Vacuum

FRIDAY- Sweep/ Mop

SATURDAY- Dust/  Once every 10 weeks, take all recycling to Ecopark

FINANCES:  As a person, I am hoping to redirect my way of thinking and be broken of the "Consumer" mindset.  I want to be more mindful and considerate about everything we spend money on.  With the barrage of coupons in my email inbox every day, trying to convince me of what I "need" or remind me of something I "want, it is a battle to live a simple life.  We have always intended to keep a budget of our finances.  We have been good about tracking each months spending, but it was "tracking" more than living within a budget.  The Laird and I are both quite savvy in money matters, and know how to save and find deals.  We thankfully have no debt outside of our mortgage and investment property.  Good knowledge about money has been instilled in each of our lives.  So we know how to make money serve us, rather than being a slave to money.  However, even with this knowledge we have grown comfortable in "treating" ourselves to things we want whenever they come up.  This year, I am hoping to live by a Budget and be more mindful about what we purchase.  This goal is in hopes to gain more Financial Freedom in the next few years.  

BODY:  I have been a long distance runner since junior high.  As an adult I have run a few 5ks and 2 half marathons.  Though I am a runner, I don't run very often anymore.  With 2 young children, my desires and personal time are low on the list of priorities in a given day.  I hope to carve out a bit of time, even if it is only 1 time per week to run or engage in physical exercise.  I want to be healthy and be a steward of the body I have been given.  I am making it a goal to connect with my friend and neighbor (same person), and see how we can do this together. I hope to run one race with her this year- and actually run with her;) 

ENVIRONMENTAL:  I am growing to value our environment and desire to be a steward of the place we live.  We already compost and recycle everything we possibly can.  Our garbage output is just about 1 white kitchen trash bag each week.  This is so much less than when we lived in the city and have automatic garbage pick up.  Now that we are responsible for getting rid of our waste, we are quite aware of how much waste we create.  In addition to what we are already doing with our waste, we are growing in gardening and consuming what we grow.  This is all pesticide free.  Adding Beekeeping to our hobbies this year, I hope will be giving just a little bit more back to the earth that sustains us.  I had high hopes and intentions for all the honey and wax the bees were going to produce for our consumption.  But my focus was more on what we could get from the bees, rather than a healthy balance of wanting to care for the bees.  I am hoping to simply grow in a love and commitment to keeping bees this year, rather than get ahead of myself in "taking" what I can get from the bees. 

This is the essence of what it may look like for me to grow as a STEWARD this year.  I am sure I will learn and grow in more ways that I can picture right now.  

Be inspired to set some goals for your 2016.    And be sure to write them down. For bigger goals, find nano-habits that you can do each day, that will build up to help you reach your ultimate goals.  

Dining Room Remodel- Hardwood floor installation

What a great start to 2016!  With a long weekend on hand, the Laird, his father and I worked hard to install the Red Oak hardwood flooring in the dining room.

We purchased our load of lumber from www.flooring.org.  I was quite pleased with the selection of widths, as they offered every inch width from 1" to 12" wide planks.  Another feature that influenced us to purchase from flooring.org was not only that they offered wider planks (Lumber liquidators only offered 5" wide planks in Red Oak), but the length were available in longer sections as well.  We ordered the random lengths of 2' to 10' planks.  The price comparison between Lumber Liquidators and Flooring.org unfinished red oak also proved that flooring.org was a better option, even with the shipping costs.

Though it was easier to get our kitchen flooring from the local Lumber Liquidators, the process was only slightly more involved ordering online from flooring.org and having it delivered.  The prices were better as well, and we were able to get exactly what we wanted, the long length, wide planks.  We do have to go through the extra work of staining and finishing our flooring, which we did not have to do with the pre-finished Lumber Liquidators flooring.  But this was necessary since we needed to match the flooring in the dining room to the stairs that enter there.

The long lengths and wide planks also made the installation go much more quickly.  Here are a few photos to show the progress of our dining room remodel.

 BEFORE:
Originally the dining room was likely used as a family room, as it had this huge Buck Stove taking up more space than was necessary or efficient.  Though the Laird would probably have preferred to live with things "as is", I decided it was imperative that the wood stove corner get removed.  The "rock climbing" stones above the dark hearth were not adding anything appealing to this room.

 Another feature in question was this pine paneling surrounding only half the room.  The Laird likes the pine paneling because it is the perfect look for his "Jungle Room"/ Library.  I am willing to leave the pine paneling in the corner up to the edge of the window.

1)  Back in September, we were able to find an interested buyer for the Buck Stove.  Though we didn't get as much money as it was worth, I felt like we got paid to have someone move it out of our house and take it away!  It was a win-win situation for us and the buyer.

2) The next step was to remove the wood stove hearth.  One weekend proved enough to demo that corner and make things feel like we were making progress.




After demo- we clearly needed to empty the room of all the junk that had been getting stored in this unused part of our house (See photo below).  Cleaning up felt so good.

3)  Then the Laird ripped out the carpet in order to make room for the 1100lbs. of Red Oak flooring getting delivered.  It's important to allow the wood to acclimate to the room for a number of days before installation.





Here is the Laird picking out the perfect 1st piece of wood to lay down along the wall.

5)  And finally the INSTALLATION!  The most difficult part was laying the first row of wood because our walls are not straight.  But after the Laird worked out the challenges with the first row, the rest was mostly smooth sailing.  After putting hardwoods in the kitchen, and now in the dining room we are firm believers that it works best/ most efficiently with 3 people.  I, the Lady work on the lay out of each row of board.  This is an important task, as it involves making sure to avoid H joints or cascading joints.  I lay out a couple rows, and the Laird cuts wood down to size and then he and his father then nail the pieces down.  This is of course all after a sheet of moisture proof underlayment is lay down.


Before any wood could be laid, the Laird had to level the right side of the room with concrete leveling compound (notice grey area).

 Once the Laird's father showed up, the work went more quickly and efficiently.

Notice the changes outside.  We worked on this for 3 days.

Once Lord Jeremy arrived (on the third day), we were cruising!  We were able to get just past the stairs to the trap door entering the basement.

Though we are only about 3/4 of the way done with the flooring installation, it feels so wonderful to have mostly finished flooring in our dining room.  Definitely feels so much cleaner than what was there. We are getting there, and the end of interior projects feels so near.  Next steps are to finished the last quarter of floor installation, then rent a large floor sander and then start staining.  After staining we will work to finish the floors were a few coats of polyurethane.