The Finished Floors

Yay!!! The floors are all done!

Here were my top 3 color picks- these are all Minwax stains. Our contractor advised us not to pick a specialty brand or color because if we ever need to match things up later it might be hard to do. Right when he put them down I knew provincial was out. It was way too red for me. You can't tell here because he sampled on different boards but the 50/50 mix still was really warm and red. The winner was dark walnut!


Now for some before and after pictures.

Before

After

 Before

After- sort of.  In this room I took the picture before they put the second coat of poly on. They had to fix a staining issue so it got finished later than the rest of the floors.

 Before

 After

 Before

After

Next project as you can see is installing baseboards and door frames. I'm excited though with how they turned out! They are so smooth and beautiful.

Garden Update - April

Spring is a busy time and there is always lots of work to be done outside. This year I'm experimenting with some new things.

 In my garden last year, the beds were 90% compost, 10% other stuff. This year, I made it roughly 40% topsoil, 10% peat moss, and 50% compost. Everything grew pretty well last year, but after some research, I'm convinced my plants may have been missing some minerals from having a lack of regular soil in there. I still need to send in a soil sample to the extension office and get it tested. I guess topsoils vary a lot in ph and nutrients. It takes 3 weeks to get back results so hopefully meanwhile what I planted will grow as long as the ph isn't too far off. I just direct seeded some lettuce so I'll see if it comes up ok. If it doesn't I'll have to buy a test from the store to make quick changes!

Before I amended my beds, I did plant a few things. They seem to be growing nicely. I hope the topsoil addition isn't a mistake!!

 Peas coming up

 I planted bare root strawberries this year. This is in the pure compost. I did add a bag of sand to the bed prior to planting because strawberries love sandy soil. I did half "cardinal" and half "ozark beauty" to see what I like better. I grew cardinal at our other house and they were great.

 My parsley self seeded :) This makes me happy!

This is outside the fenced area. I planted marshmallow root and since it's a perennial herb it's coming back. This year I'll be able to harvest some of the roots. I have plans to dry it and use it since it's suppose to help with acid reflux. It also get pretty flowers in the summer.