The dining room nears completion.

Arnie & Shinobu have been working hard at completing the dining room.
In the last entry Shinobu & I had been cleaning the beams of dust, then making a plastic membrane to insulate the loft space above against dust, so it could be used as a store room. This was completed within a few days, much to our relief - now finally the sooty dust was no longer, at last!

In the last week of September the celing beams an slats that needed replacing were fixed, then the plywood floors were cut and fitted. Some of the beams weren't completely square, so the plywood had to be secured in other ways so it would look flush on the ceiling. Once they'd completed, the ceiling plywood was removed and wallpapered before being carefully lowered into place and secured. Already the room looked... well, more like a room!



All that was left to do on the ceiling, was fitment of LED spotlights and making of a trap door for the loft, but this is postponed, as the main lounge became the focus. All work that produces a lot of dust is being completed as a priority now...

Last Friday Arnie needed to be away, so I spent two days on the dining room.

First I sanded and stained the wood around the perimeter with Mahogany colour, then the laying could begin.



I actually found I enjoyed it as I'd become faster through practice. I no longer felt I needed to diligently fit spacing plastic shims between each piece, as I could judge by eye that I had the correct spacing, so needed fewer shims, which take time to fit & adjust with (As they often fly out if the plank is pushed into place too fast).



By 5am on saturday morning I only had 30 more boards to lay, having got through the difficult stage of laying the oak around the kotatsu hole in the centre.

On Saturday I finished all except the last row (Needs accurate fitment, so I left that to the professional!). I put together some scrap pieces which will be stuck to a piece of plywood before being cut to size, then glued & nailed in place just like the rest of the flooring.



It's amazing how fitting the flooring can transform the room.



I finished at around midnight on Saturday night, having spent some 15 hours laying the oak and given it a coat of golden oak stain, ready for varnishing this coming week.





Plan is to finish the central kotatsu cover & varnish a total of 4 coats, before fitting all the shoji doors on new brass rails & wheels for both rooms this week.