To stain or not to stain

The best day of the year, so far. A glorious sun-riven day with beautiful blue skies and nary a cloud above an inconsequential wisp. Delightful.

Dennis and Lloyd turned up and set themselves to work. I needed to go into Farnham for much needed supplies so had to check with Dennis when he’d be test staining.

There’s been a bit of indecision over the stain colour. Mirinda wants something ‘honey coloured’, I’m happy with anything as long as it’s not too orange and Dennis would rather not have stain at all. Yesterday, after a long discussion, Dennis came up with the idea of using medium oak and watering it down. He said he’d stain a bit of standalone wood so I could give it the nod.

Dennis said he’d have to go and buy the stain but would only be about 15 minutes. Two hours later and it turns out that he’d had to go all the way to Guildford to get the right stain. He then had to prepare it and rub it into the bit of scrap wood. I thought the colour was perfect.

He then told me about a client who once asked him to stain a bit of wood lighter than it was. He couldn’t convince her that this was impossible and that she’d have to have it painted. She was vehement that she wanted it stained lighter. He ended up letting someone else finish the job. Heaven knows what the next person did.

I left him to his staining and went into Farnham, carting a massive box of clothing returns for Mirinda.

By the time I returned home, Dennis and Lloyd had disappeared (waiting for the stain to dry) so I sat down for a late lunch in front of the snooker, watching an engrossing couple of frames between Neil Robertson and Robert Milkins. Poor Neil wasn’t hitting them as well as he normally does and Robert was taking full advantage of it.

After lunch I couldn’t put it off any longer, I went out and started mowing the rest of the lawn. Halfway through I had to stop and go and inspect the sealed floor before they left for the day. I reckon it looks fantastic.

One day to go

It looks a bit dark in the photo but it’s certainly not! The light is at the front of the house. Tomorrow I’ll wait for the sun to go down and take a proper photo with even light.

Anyway, the floors still need another two coats but then, and from Saturday, at least, the two bedrooms will be completed and I can once more sleep in a proper bed.

This afternoon, I wandered around the garden with my little video camera and took the following:

And, just so you can see the variety of colour in the ex-nettle bed, here’s a selection with a little better clarity.

Five tulips