The primary source of dirt other than construction dust appears to come from the basement. It probably has 30 years worth of scrubbing that is in arrears, plus it's where the cat litter box is.
The basement stairs are covered with ancient linoleum which does nothing to catch any of the detritus.
Most of the pieces of linoleum weren't even glued down any longer and all I had to do was lift them off the stair. Some were tacked down and I just pounded the nails back in.
I had gone to the Building Material Outlet store the other day to check out corner cabinets (they didn't have any I liked in my price range) but I did see 2' x 2' carpet tile squares for $2.75 a piece. Even with their 12% up charge, that works out to about $.75 a square foot.
I cut 9 inch strips from the squares (steps ranged from 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 inches wide), and after I lifted off the old linoleum, I glued to strips to each step using Liquid Nails (I didn't feel like dealing with mastic for such a small, out-of-the-way project.)
After the glue has time to cure, I'll go back and trim the edges. I also need to finish up the landing where I have a small rug currently.
Once the basement stairs were carpeted, I cleaned up the kitchen floor. Two damp moppings plus 13 Swiffer pads later, it was clean enough to start laying down the coats of water-based polyurethane.
In addition to the easier clean-up and lower VOC, the water-based polyurethan has a milky color when it first goes on so it's easier to see where it was applied. The downside is it is recommended that four coats be applied with no more than 2 in a 24 hour period.
The directions also recommended using a fine textured roller. However, I had some issues with bubbles towards the end of the first coat because I was a bit too agressive with the roller in the pan.
Angel and Lucy, our cats, weren't happy because I banished them to the front porch until all of the coats were applied and dry. They had been previously accused of jumping over the gate and the fence before.
It might have been a false accusation. As I came back inside the front door after painting myself outside the back door, I found our dogs, Copper and Gumbo, in the kitchen. They'd knocked down the gate and were in the middle of the wet kitchen floor.
They were sent to their room to reflect on their misbehavior.
I'd been debating whether to add that fourth coat of polyurethane. There were already 3 coats of black paint and 3 coats of poly. The floor looking good. But the footprints settled it.
One more coat and this morning, Robyn and I got up to a floor looking like this.
Only a couple of dog tracks were still visible and the cats were happy to return from their banishment.
Next major item... corner cabinet and dishwasher.
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