When I decided to move to Cumbria I did worry about the impact it would have on my marriage. I’ve stopped worrying since my call last night with Mr W who informed me that coming home to an empty house….without the cat…felt strange. Apparently I was never at home but the cat always greeted him at the door when he got in. Clearly I was worrying too much I was already neglecting him. So now I have something new to worry about; Hyacinth, aka brown chicken number 2. She has been acting very strangely today. She stayed in the hen house when I opened the door this morning and the others shot out, and this afternoon she was standing in the same place for ages when the other chickens were running around….like headless chickens for want of a better phrase. I shall discuss it with Harold my next door neighbour/farmer/friend tomorrow as he is an authority on all things animal, vegetable and probably mineral.
In the meantime I have spent all day today treating wood and I am delighted with the results. The house was built in 1756 and still has many of the original features but as always some have disappeared and not all the replacement features are good quality. The house also used to be 2 houses so we have two staircases. One of these needed replacing completely as a previous owner had installed a very cheap and very illegal staircase (very few bannisters with huge gaps between). The other staircase still had original treads and risers but the bannisters were also cheap replacements which we have done away with. Two of the bedrooms have the original floorboards but with a few bits of replacement wood here and there. All the original wood is pitch pine which contains a lot of red pigment so I have used clear Osmo oil as anything with a tint would have made them turn very dark red which I didn’t want. I used Osmo Amber tinted oil for the light oak skirting boards to get them closer to the pitch pine floors, and to match the new pine floorboards with the pitch pine I first treated it with antique pine wood stain and then applied the oil. The new staircase was done entirely in Osmo clear oil. In most places you wouldn’t know it was different wood unless you looked really hard. So here are some photos, if anyone is tackling a similar project and would like some tips let me know. If wood finishes is your thing I’ve also added some new info to my project page, which includes a table I treated with lime wax so take a look and let me know if you want any more details. Tomorrow I’m having a day off from hard labour and venturing out for the day. Although I may wax the floors before bed, since I haven’t got round to checking out swimming pools, yoga classes and book clubs yet…
