Floor Repair Gets Out Of Hand

Front room, down hallway (still a bit to do).

All we meant to do was pull up the horrible, catted-up old rug and fix holes in the old floor. Then I found the Instructables link.

OOPS. 

But - not bad for an amateur? Okay, so it's not perfect, but we're kinda happy! I made lots of mistakes, and my denoting rooms and areas with different darkness values might not have been completely successful, but man, it feels great underfoot. Holes repaired with steel sheets (which causes a bit of music here and there), but so much warmer and nicer. And so much easier to clean. 

We're not quite done - still have to put in the edging (and thus hiding all my fun with not quite measuring right on the fancy cuts) and a few more pieces. But this is mostly it.

Front room from dooway. Dan at the book-case.

I put it down with nice brass screws. No glue for me. EVER. Or nails. Well, yes, in the quarter rounds and little metal strips, but nowhere it could split wood. I'll pay the extra bit for screws because - yes - I'm always experimenting, and it's always three steps forward, two steps back, until I get it. And we don't want to waste money on an expensive project.

And the cats think it's a skating rink for toy mousies and running up and down the hallway at night. Singing.

Back bedroom from the hall.

Back bedroom from the bath.

Admittedly, though, once again I've had demonstrated to me how the forest industry is tanking from ill-planned, badly-informed overuse and lack of stewardship. As Dan said about the boards and quarter rounds - of supposed good quality - "My grandfather wouldn't have used this for firewood." I got one other word in argument: chipboard. Don't even start with me on chipboard.


Added more photos on the 26th of May. Some of the wood was a bit too pale - mostly because we couldn't use the backs, which were badly patched and touched up. Can we say, "WTF?" Again, as the old Good Show used to say, "You can't get the wood, you know."

Anyway, got out a can of mahogany stain and quickly faked in the wood grain. Was able to line up real grains with fake grains, rather nicely.  Don't try this at home - unless you're an artist with years of practice and a perfectly-developed eye. 

Flowing "wood grain" down the hall.

Bringing false into real

No, wood grains do NOT go around corners like that.

Braised Rabbit

     This is the rabbit after marinating in brown sugar and salt, slow-roasting in a woodstove-top oven, then slow-braised with a homemade Chinese-style sauce base and a 1/2 can of cranberry sauce in a dutch oven on the same woodstove. 

     A French braise would have included wine and Herbs de Province.  
     These intense flavors will allow us to use the rabbit for over a dozen different rice dishes for at least a week.  Pen-raised rabbit is costly, but a gourmet treat, and needs to be extended to be enjoyed as long as possible.  Especially these prime bunnies, purchased on the farm where they were raised.  

     What would we do without Wikipedia?  We'd have to be typing in all these descriptions of common, basic methods over and over again.  This is like providing a dictionary, right in the article. And don't tell me you've been reading a traditional book and NEVER almost raised your hand to Search or hit a Link.
     Liar.