After a week of being bedridden, I was finally able to get back into the studio yesterday and make some progress. It felt so good to be working again! My original plan was to start by painting the ceiling, but instead I decided to begin with the floor. I’m sanding it down, and then I’ll cover it with protective paper and move on to the walls and ceiling.
Despite the multitude of people who have urged me not to redo the floor, it’s a task I have to take on. As I was going through the boxes that had been lining the walls for years and discarding items that I no longer wanted, I noticed more and more problems with the floor. I came across dark, streaky areas as well as purple stains that I have no idea what they are. There was also a two-foot-square area of water damage that I had to deal with.
I’m using my hand held belt sander to get rid of those stained and damaged areas, as well as giving the entire floor a good scuff sanding so the primer can adhere better. I’ve come to understand that there’s no way to completely hide the tannins in red oak for the long haul, and the entire floor had become significantly darker than it was when I had initially finished it.
As this is a studio, I need to have a floor that can take some abuse. I need to be able to drip paints, resin, dyes, etc., and then easily be able to make them look good again. The obvious solution for me was to have a painted floor.
I realized quickly that I wouldn’t be able to do the entire floor at once, so I’m working on one side while the other side looks untouched. I had originally hoped to pack everything up in boxes and store them outside of the room, but with no other room to do that in, I had to come up with a workaround. I’m covering half of the finished floor with protective paper, moving everything to that side of the room, and then starting on the other side. When that’s done, I can assemble the cabinets and have places to store things while I finish up the studio.
I’m grateful for the support of friends and family as I go through this process. My mother offered to come help me get my house back in order after last week, and I moved the Wednesday gathering to someone else’s house, giving me more time to work on my studio. I’m feeling much less stressed than I was yesterday, and I’m confident that the project will turn out great in the end.
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