Of mice and architects

Baccarat models "walnut"

Or shall I say of architects and men?

Which, then, am I? The point is that architects ought not be mice. That's why Ayn Rand made Howard Roark an architect and not, oh, a social worker or something. One needs to be decisive. Courageous. Assured. San regrets.

Even when you have suspect you really have ample reason to have lot of regrets. It is, then, what it is. You have chosen.

Wisely or not.

Please, just don't let me dry up and explode before I get to see it waxed, in case it helps. A lot.

I went darker still. I started with one half liter container of "dark oak". It was too red.

I bought one half liter container of "walnut" and decided to use it alone, after having made a sample mixing it with the "dark oak".

My husband thought it looked very nice, but he added, "Ce n'est pas aussi foncé que le parquet en haut." It was true. It wasn't as dark as the oak floors upstairs, as worn as they are.

"Je peux rajouter une deuxième couche," I said, trying to sound decisive, but definitely not courageous, and certainly not avec regrets, but just the right amount of sans regrets. Reassuring, in other words. Rassurante.

That worked. We loaded the sander into the car, and I went back to worrying, in the sound insulated chamber of my mind.

What if you don't get it right? And do you actually even know what you want? Myself asked me. Tiresome little person.

"I am sure I will," I declared, trying to communicate just the right degree of assuredness. The problem is that myself can hear me when I am talking to myself.

Sucks to be me.

So, rather liking the walnut stain and thinking that Baccarat looked quite stunning on it, setting one another off to a tee, I got out a half liter measuring glass, several plastic containers from take home Chinese food from some restaurant other than the one over in Bonnières (they use those aluminum ones that pinch-over cardboard tops), and I dug out the cap from a bottle of Medi Bacter that has marks for 1 ml, 5 ml and 10 ml and started mixing up various blends of the new container of "walnut" and the container of "wenge" I had picked up. I made samples with the single coat of "walnut" and added either another of straight "wenge" and mixes of "walnut" and various other things.

I discovered that it probably didn't matter what the hell I used. Alright, not true. I settled on 1 part "walnut" and 2 parts "wenge". I said I wanted it pretty dark.

I probably should have just used "ebony" and called it a day.

It wasn't easy to apply. It tends to leave little glops at the joints in the flooring, even when you wipe the excess off with an old cotton t-shirt. It also doesn't blend as easily in successive areas as did the lighter stain. I am tempted to apply a third light coat of straight "walnut" to see if it works to even things out, but I am impatient and not sure it's worth the additional time and trouble.

Or, had I used a narrower brush, had one existed, that would have let me really go board by board.

I am obsessing.

I should have just painted it black.


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