Just when I'd gotten the hall bath floor cleaned and dried, our Uncle, local artist Dave DeRan, stopped by for a visit!
Perfect time to get a picture of him next to the cow door he painted...and give me advice about painting a diamond-y floor pattern in a bathroom (like at his house, sort of).
Uncle Dave suggested drawing pencil guidelines (before staining) of the pattern I wanted...that's a good idea - I was just going to stain it freehand. Well, ok, I did stain freehand, but I followed the crazy lines I drew on the floor.
But I didn't get any staining done until I gave Uncle Dave a little tour of the house...
Hall bedroom with window trim, baseboard, picture rail, beadboard windowseat front, and fan installed, and bookcase to be a built-in on the right.
Other hall bedroom with window trim, baseboard, picture rail, beadboard windowseat front, and fan installed, and bookcase to be a built-in on the left.
(Mom said she bought this bookcase from a neighbor 40 years ago for $10. It was black, so she stripped it and painted it bright yellow for my brother. At some point (much later), she painted it white. Thanks mom!)
Caught you! I snapped a picture of Uncle Dave exploring the secret space behind the bookshelves under the stairs.
Only caught the top of his head on the way out.
After getting out of the secret space, Uncle Dave wanted to walk down and see the goings-on at his parents' former house at the end of the lane (where he grew up):
At the back door to (my husband's) Grandmother and Grandfather's house, "Hey Dave, that looks like a tire tube or a snake."
"Smile snakeface!" See, that's the face of a snake looking at the camera.
Niiice.
Uncle Dave informed me that this pretty big snake was a black rat snake...uhhh, ok? Yeah, I know virtually nothing about snakes.
Even snakes like their privacy I guess. So we decided to leave the snake alone...to hopefully catch some mice so they won't eat our bread and crackers and cereal when we move to the hilltop.
Uncle Dave left to go home and I went back to our house and bathroom floor staining:
Of course, the diamonds I drew to guide the floor staining couldn't be just normal ol' diamonds...that might be uninteresting. I decided that I would try staining in the dark walnut color, leave it sit overnight, and then stain the entire floor dark walnut the next day to 'tone it down' a bit.
Life is an experiment; be conscious of what hypotheses you make.
Walking from the hall bath to the master, I thought about what I'd stain on the master bath floor. I decided on interlocking circles...that was the first idea that came to my mind, and since I'd already cleaned that floor and had stain already in a bucket, I went ahead and put the circles down.
Well, at this point I'm unsure about my decision and freehand circle-making skills, but I'm banking on a second coat all over the next day to tone it down a bit.
The good thing about hiring myself (ok, I voluntold myself) to do the floor staining, is that I can do whatever the heck I want and don't have to worry about finding the words to communicate to someone else what I want. This is especially helpful because I don't always know ahead of time what I want!
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