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Thursday, March 3, 2016

PAINTED CONCRETE FLOOR

This is a huge milestone toward the finish line of our basement finish project.   We're both excited to have this finished.  The final step before "move in" is the baseboard trim.   Once again, this was a first for us.  Previous basements were always carpeted.  It was easy, and the work was left to a contractor once we picked out the actual carpet.

Since the majority of the basement is my Shea Marie Designs work studio and office, I really wanted to avoid carpet since it is so dang hard to find pins in carpet!  I figured I could strategically place some area rugs in places where carpeting would be welcome and leave the main sewing areas without carpet.
I went with a bright white color to keep everything light and airy.  Some added "flecks" of black, silver and grey added some character.

It was quite a process, beginning with the scrubbing of the basement floor to remove the mud/texture that the contractors had left behind. It took a lot of scrubbing!  We also rented a Rug Doctor which was a huge help, but seriously it took three full rounds with the long handled scrubber and the Rug Doctor; allowing it to dry between each round.   It felt like the Bahamas down there at one point!  It was so humid from the water. It was really amazing how clean we were able to get the floor before we began the priming and painting.

Fortunately, we've been having some great weather and were able to open the windows to help ventilate during the priming process!  That stuff was extremely nasty.

After that, the paint went down.  I played the role of "Fairy Godmother" and sprinkled the pixie dust right after the paint went down.  My husband and I were literally working elbow-to-elbow on this step.  Trying to find the right technique was interesting.
This is part of the dialogue:
Husband (who grew up in Indiana):
                      "toss it like you're feeding chickens"
Me (who grew up in the burbs of Chicago)
                       "I've never fed chickens"
I promptly received a complete demonstration on how to properly feed chickens.  Anyway....I actually combined a couple of techniques; chicken feeding and confetti tossing and got really good about mid-way through the process!

The final step is the high lustre gloss.  It too, is extremely potent.  My husband had to leave the area and get some fresh air multiple times during the process.  It took two full coats of lustre to achieve the gloss that we were looking for.

One of the hardest parts was waiting for the prescribed drying time!  Especially, when you're anxious like we are to "move in".   It required a full 72 hours of cure time between the paint and the gloss.   So now, we're in the dry time for the top coat.  You better believe as soon as we've reached the final hour, I'll be perched on the steps ready to go!

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