ORC: Staining the Treehouse Wood

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It’s Thursday and you know what that means! Time for my One Room Challenge update. Every week for 6 weeks, I’ll be linking up as a One Room Challenge guest participant with Linda of Calling it Home. There are so many amazing rooms being transformed! This week I worked on staining the wood of the treehouse. All of the beams, railing and decking now (mostly) blend in with the trees.

After this weekend that was bitter cold, I’m thankful that the weather has been a bit more cooperative these past few days. Working on the treehouse is a bit of a challenge because it’s so far out in the woods. There is no access to water or electricity, which is difficult. The deck needed to be cleaned before I could start staining it. And the stamps on the lumber needed to be sanded off. Luckily there weren’t many of them because I had to do it by hand.

The cleaning part was accomplished with a mop and bucket. I added a bit of bleach to the water and carried it out to the treehouse. I felt pretty ridiculous mopping a deck for a treehouse! But it got the job done. I also scrubbed it with a brush to get all of the stuff off. Then I had to carry out another bucket of water to rinse it.

Once it was dry, I started staining it. I chose a color that would blend in with the trees. My daughter was horrified that I had chosen black. She wanted pink or something. Besides, it’s not even black. An invisible treehouse is much cooler than a colorful one! Plus, the inside details will have plenty of color.

I’m using this experience as a learning experience for when I stain our big deck. The first coat went on streaky. I blame using a crappy stain pad. The big nice one that I bought was too big for the paint tray. It turns out that my hardware store doesn’t even carry one that’s big enough. I waited a day and I applied a second coat by brush and it looks much better. So far, I’ve spent 2 days staining and I’ll have to spend a few more hours on it, at least.

I went back and got in between the cracks with a paint brush. There are still a few places that I missed. I’m hoping to reach them with a ladder.

I like that the stain is almost the exact color of the tree bark! And apparently I missed an entire beam…

Thank goodness for podcasts to keep me company.

I’m lying. This crazy girl also kept me company. Isn’t she cute? She stands at the ladder and whines and I swear it sounds like she’s saying, “I love you.” Which is more than my good for nothing children have said so far about my hard work… (I’m feeling a little bitter after they didn’t even want to go see my progress.)

 

Today, I’m starting on the walls. And the windows and doors. I even have a real helper with hands, not paws! I’m hoping to get the harder parts done in the next few days so that I can start on the fun part: the decorating and the shopping.

And if nothing else, my husband and I are going to have an amazing treehouse to hang out in. We’ll call it The Love Shack. 😉

Check out the other ORC participants here (featured designers) and here (guests)!