The happy smile that says "We're done sanding"

Yup that's right, we're done sanding. Can you believe it? I almost can't although I've put all the orbitals and stacks of unused sanding disks away. (And by 'away' I mean I stuffed them under some sill seal in the back of the truck).

Even the ceilings on the first floor are sanded. I did those all by myself, and let me tell you ceiling sanding is pure torture. Especially when the ceilings in question have been doused with Raid earth blends (as a result of the week long battle with the carpenter ants that invaded our stack of floor decking before it got turned into actual floor), and you can't wear safety glasses because they steam up when you wear a dust mask. Our bottle of eye wash is quite a bit lighter than it was last week. Then there were the dead ant bodies still stuck to the ceiling, and the stains they made in the wood when they got squished. Gross, huh?

But this weekend we did indeed finish sanding, and also completed all the prep work needed before we could start varnishing. Erick sprayed all the walls and every nook and cranny with the air compressor hose, and I swept and vacuumed, vacuumed and swept. My mom came to help too so that was great. After everything was all sprayed, swept, and vacuumed, we then did it all again, and then dusted everywhere with microfibre dusters before vacuuming a final time.

After that Erick put clear plastic garbage bags over all the windows to protect them from the varnish, and we started varnishing. Which, as a passtime, is a huge improvement over sanding.