Recent work on the Thornhill

Meant to get a shot of the 3rd floor plaster walls. OK added this too...

In the meantime, here's the shots of the baseboard, the dry dining room tile and the stairs in process. And I ordered from Earth N Tree the 3/8 cherry stripwood for the 3rd floor. I'll take a picture of my template - its done with "For Sale" signs from a hardware store. See below.

I actually used these same signs for the ceiling 'template' that I attached my bead board to.

3rd Floor

I now have the center 3rd floor room and the one on its left plastered. And the first coat of base paint is on the center room. I think the color will be like the living room - very light yellow/antique white with a wash of a yellow and maybe coral.

My billiard/pool table arrived, along with my small bar and pub chairs. I love them - they will fit in there nicely. I'm sure I need some other furniture - a comfy chair and bookcase, footstool, some art for the walls. I got some liquor bottles and some bar accessories - olives etc. 

The wood floor for the 3rd floor has presented me with a dilemma. I don't have enough of the 1/4 inch cherry stock, and the rest of the house has 3/8 stock. Earth n Tree is out of stock and I'm waiting on a reply from SH Goode. Those rooms are large up there, and require a fair amount of wood. I feel like I should maintain continuity and do the same cherry wood as the other rooms below. I did, however, get my template cut out for the center room - with appropriate cutouts. I used those polystyrene For Sale signs you get at the hardware store. Incidentally, I used this same thing for the base that I glued the ceiling bead board to. Worked like a charm, and was easy then to simply glue onto the ceiling. 

Moving on to other things, I stained some baseboard and the stair steps and railing for the 2nd floor stairs. The base stair risers and back will be white - for the stairs to mimic what I have on the first floor. Am now ready to install baseboard on some of the rooms. 

My dining room 'star' tiles arrived today and they are now glued on - so this weekend I will be grouting the floor - finally!

Prepping

Just ran the last of my tapewire on the 3rd flloor.  Am now ready to plaster/mud the entertainment room. Getting excited!

Let there be light

Working out the order of things for the 3rd floor, and it came together. I cut the beams and figured out their placement. One in the center of the room so I would need to have my chandelier hang from that beam. Oh yeah, gotta be centered.

So I glued on the beam and drilled away, and wired the chandelier. Got it all working, and moved on to the right wing room - and got that hanging light working too. I also added tapewire around the baseboard for all 3 rooms - presuming I want to add lamps and outlets. I think I'll need to, these lights just don't produce enough light.

Doors stained and installed

Finally finished the door staining and have installed most of them. I ended up going over them with the stain pen, to get that same darker cherry as the windows.

 MBR - looks very rich with the wall color.

Bath - got to finish the chair rail now in same stain.

 Gentlemen's study

Conservatory off MBR

I also stained and put together the ceiling for the 3rd floor sitting area. The ceiling piece has now been installed, and will need to cut and attach the beams, as well as hang the light fixture.  Beams on each end and then a few across.

I antiqued this fixture - was black.

Current work

Still working on staining interior doors and the beadboard I'm using for the 3rd floor center room. I pulled out my square wood stock, and have enough for 6 - 2 at ends and the rest in between. Or I could do less. I need to start staining them as well. Switched from Minwax gel cherry to General Finish Warm Cherry, after 2 coats of the other. I wasn't getting enough of the cherry color that the stain pen I'm using on the windows was providing. I think maybe one more coat of it and that will do it. Here's the color.

Since no wallpaper is tall enough, I will most likely "plaster" the walls and then paint them with a wash. Something plain like the living room - a slight yellow/dirty wash should work fine. So I should run some tapewire just above the baseboard in the 3rd floor first, then apply drywall mud.

I purchased Bespaq furniture for the center 3rd floor room - a pool table, a small bar counter, and some pub chairs.

And the Italian tile artisan didn't have enough of my 'stars' with her at the Bishop show so I'm waiting on her to mail them. Hope it doesn't take too long - I want to finish the floor and grout.

Staining

I spent time today staining the interior doors cherry, the first coat. I'm pleased with the results, and know that staining takes time. I did the pre-conditioning and then the first coat of cherry stain. So far so good.

I also fiddled with the chandelier for the 3rd floor - its black. I experimented with a gold rub-n-buff and love the finished effect. Its kinda bronze antique. I think it is just the thing for this room. I've been obsessing (yep...obsessing) about the lighting for this room. I would like to put a billiard light in but the angled ceiling  prevents that...all the light fixtures along that line have solid poles, not accommodating for an angled installation.

Here's the chandelier's finish now. It was black before.