No time to blog

Sorry for the prolonged absence - we've been so busy trying to work out staining issues. First of all, the originally chosen stain system turned out to be a dismal failure. Being a poly-stain it was already finicky, but combined with the low humidity we had a total disaster on our hands... Spent the better part of last weekend selecting a new stain. Here is the result of much testing:

+ + = GOOD! (good enough...)

That means the stain alone is 3 coats, plus another 3 coats of water based polyurethane, several rounds of light sanding.. Its a time intensive-process. At least these water based products dry on a scale of minutes rather than hours.

Here's some pics. PS We have a lot of cleaning to do before company arrives in a week!