Well it took a good deal longer than expected. Firstly I had to rub down the floorboards with a fine glasspaper because the grain of the wood had lifted slightly from the previous application of a woodworm treatment. The tin of oil (Huile Naturelle pour Parquets, incolore mat) said to apply liberally with a brush then wipe of the excess after an hour. Well of course I knew better and decided not to wipe off the excess and leave it overnight to soak in. Anyway it was getting to 2′o’clock in the morning and bed was calling.

So this morning we find that most of the oil had soaked in but it was still very wet and like an ice skating rink. Maybe if we leave it a bit longer it will disappear. Well it didn’t. So we both had to remove our shoes and socks and paddle in armed with piles of old cloths and towels to mop up the excess. This actually took quite a while because the oil had now started to go sticky and was pretty difficult to remove.

Fortunately it all turned out OK, as once the excess had been removed the floor dried properly (as it said it would on the tin) and the finish looked fantastic. The oil really brought out the grain and gave the oak planks a nice warm colour. The photo shows the difference between the pre-treated oak and the oiled oak.

In case you are wonder why I didn’t just use a varnish, it’s because I find that a varnish (even a matt finish) leaves a slightly ‘plastic’ sheen on the wood and I believe the oil shows a more natural finish and lets the wood ‘breath’ . The oil finish is slightly higher maintenance as it needs to be re-applied occasionally, but I think worth it.

Progress has been fairly good recently. I've been a bit tardy updating the blog because of the long days and general tireness.

Some more of the plumbing has been completed with piping runs to the kitchen area and bathrooms. The hot water tank has also been installed, however not operational yet. Most of the pipework is turned off, isolated at the valves, whilst the bathrooms are being tiled. The only other work upstairs that has been completed is that the floors have been cleaned (with methylated spirits) and varnished.

The majority of the work is being concentrated downstairs at the moment, the reason being is because the staircase is due to be fitted in a couple of weeks and the lounge and corridor was still a mud floor. Also the oak floorboarding we ordered was available for collection. The floorboards have to rest in the room for a couple of weeks before laying to acclimatise, so we had to dig out the mud floor to lay the joists. Each joist is 6m long by 15cm by 5cm. The mud floor was covered with a plastic membrane then each joist laid at 40cm centers on the membrane and packed with concrete 'pads' every meter or so to ge the levels correct. This had to be done before collecting the floorboards, and the floorboards have to be laid before the staircase arrives. Everything has been a bit hectic, with everything, tools, equipment etc. all packed into the kitchen area, which still needs tiling, but there's no floor space, so the floorboards need laying, but… arrggg!!!!

Before laying the floorboards we have had to build the fireplace hearth using an old granite lintel and some other bits of stone, install the stainless steel chimney liner and woodburner (don't want rain and/or soot all over the new oak floor), new front door (the old one was rotten and too small and the rain blew in underneath), run electric cabling in the lounge/corridor for lights, cockets, TV, Telephone, heating etc, varnishing the oak beams, and what seems like dozens of minor jobs that should be finished before the floor and staircase.

Oh, the crazy picture at the top. That's the floorboard laying plan. The floorboards came in a variety of lengths, about 80% of them between 1.3m and 1.7m with some other shorter ones. Hence to avoid wasteage and cutting we have the plan .