Sue volunteered to stain the beams in the newly opened up living room ceilings, and so Thursday morning 02/02/17 we drove up to the new house.
Were it not for the fact that the beams in the original dining room had been stained over 30 years ago, I would have loved to have kept the rough hewn look of the wood. But the contrast between the stained beams and the newly exposed beams just seemed awkward.
It's important for us to keep the period character of the house while at the same time providing a comfortable and cozy environment for us to live in on a daily basis. Not ever having met with this type of challenge, we relied on our contractor Steve Chorba, who has experience in older buildings, to guide us.
It was a good day to do inside work; really bitter out. In fact, it spit snow a little bit while we were up there! It took both of us 3 hours, but when done you could hardly tell the difference between the originally stained beams from over 30 years before to what we did. Not perfect, but at least it provides better continuity to the room.
