Summer has been a whirlwind of activities for us. Mostly work activities, but still. We’ve spent most of every available day starting new projects, finishing old ones, yard work, garden work, tending our animals, renovations, new school year and little time for extra fun or adventures. Such is the life here occasionally.
The latest project that the littles and I have been working on since mid August is finishing the kitchen floor.
Our foundation is slab-on-grade and the entirety of the main floor is unfinished concrete with the exception of Lil Bit’s room being laminate. Well we did have laminate in the kitchen, but three days after it’s completion we had the chimney fire which ruined the laminate. 🥺 And we have been living with it ever since.
The main kitchen had essentially become a storage space for all our excess: tools, job materials, renovation materials, food storage and junk. Our first order of business was to empty the space out and tear up the ruined laminate. The kiddos were great at this and had it done rather quickly after the arduous task of moving out the stuff which took us a number of weeks.
This kitchen is large, roughly 17′ x 16′ floor space. There’s appliances, including two freezers, that I cannot move out so we had to do the floor in halves. Everything that can’t go outside was shifted to the west side and the eastern half was completely cleared out.
Then the prep work began on the concrete. Identifying all the cracks that needed repair, we only had two main cracks from all the earthquakes, and a few minor cracks that really didn’t need filled. I fixed those up and began cleaning the slab. Lots of sanding & scrubbing! Unsealed concrete never seems to get fully clean.
Yesterday I began the final scrubbing with the degreaser/cleaner that came with the epoxy paint kit. And two rinses with water and two hours later, the floor was ready for dry time!
Let the fun begin! My helpers were eager to get started. They edged the entire space while I roller, sprinkled and sprayed the finish. Now it’s time to dry. This is the hard part, waiting to use the space that we’ve worked so hard on!!
Alaska on my mind... 