Big Bend Cabin is growing!!!

I really need to update my pics of our cabin in Big Bend!!! So here it goes!

love,

Tanya

A view of "The Mummy" from our property! My family owns the head, yikes!!!

A view from my cabin of "My Thumb"!

This is what I call "My Thumb". It is the peak called "El Pico" in the Sierra Madres of Mexico. I can see this from my back deck in Big Bend! It's my FAVORITE view!!!

A typical sunrise in the mountains over Mexico!

A view through our front gate, looking up at Mt. Williams.

It's a quarter mile driveway up the hill!

A view of the front porch area with the mountains in the background!

Our ANNIVERSARY Today - 11 years!!!

So we went to Hudson's on the Bend in Lakeway! Got the Chefs menu! OMG! I am so stuffed!

The food was AWESOME!!!!

See all my pics on facebook!

Tanya

ps. happy anniversary to me!

Invest in me???? what?

{EAV_BLOG_VER:ba2cdc8068dd4992} So I am learning how to play this online investment game, it's like learning the stock market. I enjoy it, but sure haven't figured it all out yet!

Wanna Play?

tanya

Well that's a big smile on my face and a thumbs up! It doesn't get any better than this!!!

Cancer Sucks!!!

November 19, 2010 ~ my baby Britania's 23rd birthday ~ the doctor called us to tell us she has thyroid cancer. (stage 2, since it spread to a lateral duct on the left side) Yuck!!!

On that note we head in to go SKYDIVING and celebrate a life long dream of jumping from a plane!!!! Wheeeeeeee!!!!

Whow is that a one of the Bee Gees in my kitchen?

or

maybe the "wedding singer"?

The floor is dry now

Then we rinse with water and vacuum it back up.

Once it's dry, it looks pretty great!

Leaf prints, left on purpose! I love these!

Pretty floor in the drying process, looking into dining room from the living room.

Here is the finished floor in the kitchen, looks good with our wall colors out there!

Staining the floors

I realized I didn't get the final photos up on the staining part and show you the finished product, so here goes. The pics go up in reverse order for some reason, but first you spray the dark on, then you spay some darking spotting areas, then after it all dries, you start washing it off, which is what I am doing below:

DAY FIVE - THURSDAY

I went to Benjamin Moore Paints and bought the material we will need.

We determined that for a 1600 square foot job, we would need:

2 gallons of Neutra Clean for steps 1 and 3
5 gallons of Cola acid stain for step 2 (dilute to 50% and stain twice)
8 gallons of gloss sealer II for step 4
3 gallons of easy shine mop and go (to protect the sealer from kids, furniture, dogs, etc)
------------------------------
18 gallons = $706 incl tax.

(none of the Kemiko products can be exchanged or returned, even if unopened)

Now to continue the work of scraping, buffing, vacuuming and mopping!!!

Tanya

DAY FOUR - WEDNESDAY

First we removed carpet and pad and tack strips, then we continued work on the scraping in the 3 bedrooms. When Chuck came home he rented a floor buffer again and buffed in the 2 smaller rooms. I go in behind and wet vac, followed by mopping with water.

I took some pics of where we are so far.

Will post soon!

Tanya

DAY THREE - SUNDAY

So we hired the two guys to help again. They will scrape and strip on the edges of each room/closet/etc. while Chuck uses the floor buffer and I use the wet vac and mop behind him.

The key to buffing is LOTS OF SOAPY WATER!!! We also started adding TSP (tri-sodium-phosphate) to the soapy water. You can buy this at Home Depot.

We found that the buffer couldn't really get all the way to edges, so the guys hand scraped and scrubbed the edges, Chuck buffed the centers and I was on cleaning detail.

After 3 days of hard work, we had the kitchen, living, dining, and hallway ready. We still have to work on the two bathrooms and empty the 3 bedrooms so we can do them.

Now we need moving boxes.

Night! (exhausted)

T