I managed to get up during daylight today (opposite to my current sleep cycle) and went out and painted until I ran out of paint.

Had to go pick up another can of poly/stain (this is really adding up, I think I’ve bought at least $150 worth of the stuff, but it only comes in quart cans).

Came home, and by the time I grabbed a bite to eat, it was already dark, so I waited until later to go out and paint, with my new double LED flashlight/lamp setup. I made sure to bundle myself up quite well under my painting clothes as it was only 4°C out and being out there for 2 hours can get you quite chilly.

I had to do about an hour of sanding before I could put the final coat on everything. By the time I finished painting and brought all my paint gear inside, it was half past midnight! I was so thoroughly chilled (despite the bundling), that I had to take a long hot shower in order to be able to warm up.

I think I’ve probably finished all my painting, but I’ll have to wait until daylight to see if there is anything that needs another coat or is missing a spot. There is rain expected later on today (Sunday evening), so I’ll have to bundle everything back up in tarps to protect it from the weather.

A few days after that we should get a break in the weather and hopefully I should be able to arrange for help to get everything brought inside and begin final assembly.

It’s nice to finally be approaching the final steps of this massive project!! 18 months ago

Of course, I’m still not adjusted to the earlier sunset, nor the switch to daylight savings, so I tend to get started too late in the day – which means that I’m often trying to work in the growing darkness.

There is no lighting available in the alleyway; other than opening my curtains and turning on the lights in my rooms to give a slight bit of illumination outdoors. I’ve been using my camping headlamp to help me so far.

However, I happened to purchase two emergency LED flashlight/lamps at Canadian Tire the other day for 55% off, which was only $15 each; so it was like 2 for 1.

I had already charged one of them, so I was able to use it to help illuminate my work, in addition to my headlamp. So I got another coat of stain/sealer on 6 cupboard doors, 4 tall support struts, the insides of three cabinets, one tall kitchen stool and one folding TV tray.

All in all, I’m getting better at painting after sunset! ;-)

I’m getting closer and closer to having everything painted. We already moved in most of the dry stuff and set up two of the module sections into my bedroom. Still need to screw in some X-cross support struts, but I’ve only put lightweight stuff in them so far, so they’re good for now.

I’m really happy that I’ve managed to get so much done, considering that we are already at the end of November and that we’ve had lots of rain this fall, and even some snow earlier this week! 18 months ago

I managed to coordinate with my brother and his son to come and help me move the two bigger 6 drawer units back into my apartment.

The first two sections of the bedroom wall unit have been assembled. On the bottom is a roll-out drawer on wheels (mainly used for linen and blankets), then a 6-drawer unit, then two shelves. They look awesome!

The rest of the unpainted wall unit modules were also brought outside on the weekend. Unfortunately, the weather report changed quickly and they got caught in a light rainfall. I managed to wipe things down quickly and wrap them up in tarps. Yesterday when the weather cleared up, I unwrapped them to finish off drying, then did a base coat on them.

Today the weather is holding clear, which is great because originally it was supposed to rain. That means that the furniture can stay uncovered and I can actually begin to put the second coat on them. I’ll also need to tape up the glass sections on the glass-panelled cupboard doors.

I’m very happy with the progress so far and I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel of this very long project! 18 months ago

The weather has not been very cooperative this month, in terms of having days that are either not too cold or windy for painting.

I’ve had to spend several hours on a few occasions, dragging all the 30+ pieces (shelves, drawer units, support struts, etc.) of the wall units outside to paint and back inside when the weather turned to rain.

Since they are made of pine (which is a very “thirsty” wood), I’ve been needing to do 3-4 coats on each piece to get the right finish.

I still have at least 3 big modular units (2 cupboards, 1 drawer unit) that are still inside that I can’t move on my own. I will need to find someone soon to be able to help me clear them off and move them outside so that I can paint them. Won’t be much longer before the snow starts flying!

It certainly is a time-consumming project, but it will be so nice once it is all done and finished. 18 months ago

I had to haul all my painted shelves and such into my apartment last Wednesday night because rain was predicted for a few days.

I couldn’t lift the big drawer units so I wrapped them really well with my painting tarps to protect them from the rain and put some heavy things on top of them so that they wouldn’t blow off or expose anything. I’m glad I did – we had some really windy rainy days with huge gusts of wind and nothing got wet, so I did a good job.

However, we’ve had rainy weather since last Thursday (5 days in a row) and it doesn’t look to clear up for at least a week. I have no idea when I’m going to get to finish painting with such yucky weather! 19 months ago

I did 30 sides of shelving (approx. 20” x 30” each), 7 support struts, 2 six drawer modular units and 3 wheeled floor drawers. It took me about 5 hours.

I’m exhausted and my back is quite achy. I just took a long hot shower to try to soothe the aches and to scrape the last of the paint splatters off me.

I will probably have to take all the units in tomorrow as the weather forecast looks like a slight possibility of rain—originally the rain was supposed do hold off until Thursday. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it stays clear so everything can continue to dry and the fumes evaporate. 19 months ago

This is going to be a really huge physical task for me!

I have two large modular IKEA Ivar wall units. One of them that used to be in my dining room was partially stained a few years ago, the one in my bedroom was still unfinished pine.

Now that I’ve moved, I need to mix and match some of the pieces and of course they don’t match. Even if I wanted to match the original wood stain, it’s mellowed over the years and deepened in colour.

So instead, I had decided I wanted to finish it in a satin black finish; but I knew what I was looking for just couldn’t find it—it’s a stain that has a built-in poly finish in it. Finally did find it, by Minwax.

The new satin black will look great with all my existing stuff and is a timeless classic colour. “Satin” is neither mat nor gloss; just a slight sheen, but a very durable protective coating.

Seeing as much of the wood is still unfinished, some of it might take 2 to 3 coats.

I did some test work with the stain, trying it out on some vintage solid wood nightstands that I found last year. It took about 3-4 coats in some places and I was really happy with how it turned out, so it gave me the confidence to continue to use it on my wall units.

I started with a few of the support struts and some of the flat shelves, but then it rained for about a week straight. Yesterday was the first day without rain for a while, so I set out some tarps alongside the apartment building so I can get the rest of these done.

I started on some of the other shelves, because I could manage lifting them; however I will be waiting for a friend to help me with the larger modular drawer units, so that I don’t strain my back.

(I’ve attached a photo of an IVAR modular unit, so you can get an idea of what they look like. Mine have some of the same pieces, as well as 6 drawer modular units and glass-front cabinets.) 19 months ago