Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Pine wood floors in the bathroom

Aside from a few necessary projects here and there, we've decided to focus on one room at a time.  It's a way to get quicker gratification which is motivation for us to keep going.  Within a couple of weeks of moving into our very much unfinished cottage, we started to feel pretty overwhelmed at all of the work left to do.  Because we need showers and other fully functional bathroom plumbing more than we need to eat, we decided to try to finish the bathroom before any of the other rooms including the kitchen.  We've done a few things along the way, all over the house, like a kitchen sink and dishwasher, but our main focus is going to be the bathroom.  Now that I've announced that to the world, the bathroom is most likely fixing to come to a screeching halt.  That seems to be how it usually goes.  Murphy's law.

Jeff finished the shower surround last weekend and then, within just a couple of hours, he laid the pine wood floor too!  We decided to go with pine for a few reasons.  All of them good.


First thing we did was get down a half a dozen 1"x12"x14' boards from our stash upstairs and take them outside where Jeff began bossing me around yelling things like, "You grab that end of the stack and lets carry them waaaaayyyy, way, over to the barn!"  Then he snorted, "What do you mean they're too heavy?!"  Followed by, "One at a time?!" Then he hefted them down the hill all by himself while I followed him to the barn and gently reminded him that he married a woman, not a man, and he might as well have asked me to hold a car up while he changed a tire real quick and that he was eventually going to be the death of me and that sometimes I wonder if he wished I were a man so he could yell out crazy demands at me that wouldn't sometimes make me cry like, "I need the wrench, those are curved-jaw pliers" because how would he feel if I asked him to pass me my egg beaters and he handed me a whisk.  I wouldn't say anything to him, I'd just improvise, make do and just appreciate that he was helping me.  Then I told him that I was going to tell everyone in blogland how mean and bossy he could be and then everyone would find out what he was really like.  Then I asked him nicely to hold still while I took his picture. 

 

He's so sweet. 

As I mentioned earlier, these boards are 1x12's but actually they're more like less than 1 by11 1/4's.   We wanted various widths of boards so we cut about two thirds of the boards into roughly 7" and 4" wide strips and the other third of the boards, we cut down the middle to make them roughly 5 1/2" wide.


Then Jeff cut out the knot holes and any knots that looked like they would be a problem for us down the road.  This also gave us varied lengths to work with which adds to the look and texture of the finished floor.


Normally he would have used the chop saw for this, but it was extremely cold outside and Jeff has a very steady hand so they all turned out straight anyway.

Once he got them cut, he began laying them down and nailing them in.  Precisely cut lengths were not necessary on all of the boards because most of them end under the tub and will eventually be covered.


We have radiant floor heat so he had to choose a nail length that wouldn't go through the subfloor and pierce any of the water filled pex tubing.   I'll have to do a post about our radiant floor heating system sometime.  I know that sounds boring but I'm sure there are a few people who might be curious about it and it is WONDERFUL! 

Now it's ready for stain.


We chose Minwax Early American.  It's brown.  Not reddish or yellowish brown, just brown.


Then a day later we sealed it.  Because pine is so soft we went with a low gloss, penetrating sealer.

And here it is.  It's a bad picture but all my pictures are bad, I assume you're used to it by now.
The room still has a ways to go, but we took some big leaps towards the finish line last weekend.

My Backyard Eden


The Shabby Chic Cottage

29 comments:

  1. The floors are lovely! Jeff makes it look so easy! What are you going to do around the tub?

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  2. Thanks! We considered adding more metal, but I think that might be overkill, so we'll probably add more painted (white) pine across the front. We're currently waiting on a part to fix a small problem with the tub plumbing, so I have a little time to figure out what we'll do. All ideas are welcome!

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  3. Nice! I love the floor color! Good choice!

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  4. WOW that is awesome! I didn't know you could just put down boards like that! I would be very interested in the radiant floor.. water.. thingy.. one day we hope to build our own place and your blog is full of useful tips!

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  5. Loved finding this DIY.cottage in the woods blog!!!
    Your bath is really going to be darling,
    Love the shower's galvanized back splash, great idea!
    Fun to scroll through and see what your up to,
    Keep up the good work,
    xoxo~Kathy @ Sweet Up-North Mornings...

    Stop in when your taking a break..Love to have you!

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  6. Celeste,

    The floor looks wonderful. (Make sure no one wears high heels on that floor.) Jeff is a DIY Machine!

    Deborah

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  7. You're a born writer. I couldn't quit laughing! Yes, I think white pine across the front would be pretty. My folks have radiant heat in their home, too. They freeze when they come visit us and our cold floors. :)

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  8. This post was great! Funny AND informative and we got to see a lovely bathroom at the end. That's post perfection in my book. I love hearing that I'm not the only one whose husband needs another guy around. I used to say to him, "You think I'm a tool, but I'm a girl!" But I've been saved by sons who are now big enough to do that stuff. Yeah for boys! Lisa~ www.livingmybestlifeii-lisa.blogspot.com

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  9. It's looking great! I love your sink vanity and all your gorgeous plank walls!

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  10. Your floor is very beautiful! I love it.

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  11. I LOVE those floors. They are gorgeous! Great job.

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  12. I LOVE your new floor. It looks awesome.

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  13. Hi Celeste,
    The floor is gorgeous, and your bathroom is going to be beautiful!

    Thanks for linking up to Make it Yours day!

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  14. Where oh where did you get that vanity? I love the shape of it! I have been looking for something like that but with two basins and am coming up empty.

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  15. We got the vanity at Lowe's on clearance for around $100 a year ago. It required some assembly (screwing on the legs) and the granite wasn't sealed. We sealed it ourselves, but must not have used the best product because it still soaks up anything wet that gets on it. :( Oh well. I guess you get what you pay for.
    ☺ Celeste

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  16. This is exactly what I was wondering about with the flooring! I figured why not? But you made my dreams come true and for that I thank you!! :D

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  17. Love the flooring, we are about to install New England White Pine in our bathroom and I was looking to see some similar projects and to see how people are sealing the floors from moisture. Loved your paragraph about working together with your husband carrying those boards. I felt like I was reading my own words...:) So funny!! Your place looks great, thanks for sharing with us!!

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  18. I have to ask what kind of poly did you use? We did pine floors and decided to use linn seed oil....I heard that poly chips and flakes....

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  19. We used Formby's Tung Oil Finish in low gloss. It's not pure tung oil which is what I actually wanted but couldn't find. The Formby's isn't very water resistant and the wood has an aged look to it now (almost 3 years later.) I like it though and would like to do the whole first floor the same way. As a kid my parents used a poly on our pine floor and within a year or so (according to my young memory) it began to chip and peel like crazy! Eventually they had to sand it all off it was so bad. And that was just a bedroom which is not exactly high traffic area.

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  20. have you had any problems with cupping etc. ? Normally these boards are tongue and groove

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    Replies
    1. No, and it's been three years since we put this floor in. :)

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  21. pine in a bath room ? Are there not inherent problems with wet stuff and I'm including water

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    Replies
    1. It's been over three years and we haven't had any problems.

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  22. we love your bathroom
    we are currently building a similar cottage, and want to use the corrugated metal as the tub surround.
    my husband cant figure out how to stop water from getting behind the faucet.
    how were you guys able to seal the faucet to the wall?
    thanks
    jill

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  23. I know this was years ago, but do you remember what kind of nails you used?

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