Baby Room - Update 1

Work continues in the room for Mini Moore. After getting all of the major grunt work done (with alot of help from Joey - thanks Joey!) we moved on to the next fun step: sanding. And more sanding. What we can salvage of the original details we're trying our best to. The windows are original to the house with sash weights for moving them up and down. With the help of Travis' parents we sanded every nook and cranny of those windows. Afterwards a coating of tung oil* made the wood look absolutely gorgeous and worth all of the effort. We also discovered a nook in the wall when taking down the old wood. As a future shelving unit it will give us a little added storage - something we'll never turn down.

Travis managed to save the molding when taking it down, so we sanded it for painting later. And that is sanding by hand with strips of sandpaper, no palm sander allowed for those delicate pieces.

Then the front door. This door leads from the baby's room to the front porch. We knew the stain wasn't going to match once we sanded down the windows and other details, so we took it off the hinge and got sanding. I don't think any of us expected how pretty the wood would be underneath the years of weathering. It instantly brightens up our front porch, and now has us wanting to sand the other front door. (One project at a time here...) We'll add a coating of tung oil to the inside and and exterior finish to the outside so we can keep those gorgeous colors.

*While neighbors told us about the tung oil for the windows I was of course picturing tounge oil. Not so. It's from the seed of the tung tree and it hardens/dries when exposed to air to create a satin finish on wood. The oil is even considered one of the few environmentally friendly wood finishes available. The best part is that it resists water better than most other finishes - perfect for old windows. Definitely something we'll be using again throughout the house.