Faux Wood Floor

I just completed the laundry room floor on the cheap.  We had linoleum, which I peeled off and then painted the concrete floor yellow, yes yellow.  It looked ugly so I removed all the paint and filled in the cracks.  I like the look of wood floor, but it's expensive, so I tried painting on a wood floor.  Here's the floor stripped and cracks filled in:

I used a semi gloss milk chocolate brown for the base coat:

I used a black sharpie and drew the lines for the wood planks. Next I combined 3 parts "Kona" colored stain/polyurethane and 1 part glaze.  I bushed it on the brown base paint, then lightly brushed in one direction to simulate the wood grain.  Pale webbed feet not required for this procedure (thanks dear for including my foot)

Here's the floor over half way done:

I finished the floor with an acrylic finish to protect the paint and glaze.  I put the wood plank I was trying to copy next to the floor.  I think it's a pretty close match.

 

We're thinking of doing this for the living room.  The wood floor guy quoted us $3,000 for that area, so we'll see how much we can beat the price.

Goin' Hiking

I went for a 5 mile hike today at Towsley Canyon Park in the Santa Monica Mountains.  This mountain range separates the Santa Clarita Valley from the San Fernando and Simi Valleys (or is it Vallies) hmmm.  Anyways, here are some pictures and a little history:

 Here's a tree growing out of the side of a rocky hill at the beginning.

This is the Golden State Freeway, specifically the Newhall Pass going south towards San Fernando. This was the view just shy of the top of the hike.

 A downed oak.  In the background are communication towers and Doppler radars on the ridge separating Santa Clarita from Simi Valley.

Here's a great example of tectonic upheaval.  Those two hills in the foreground are sedimentary rock that were once flat and were pushed up and broken in two.  Don't jump my stuff because I only had High School geology.

 The State flower, the Golden Poppy, blooming after much needed rain.

 

There's a lot of oil around here.  Actually, about a mile north of this photo is the historic town of Mentryville.  Back in the late 1800s Mentryville had the first production oil well in the country.  In the center of the photo is a naturally occurring pool of black gold.  Last I heard the EPA was suing God trying to get Him to stop doing this.

 

Not So Green Acres

 Some projects turn out fine, others are miserable failures.  Here's the latter:

I planted sunflower, brussel sprouts, broccoli, lettuce and onion.  They took off and grew too tall.  I either gave them too much water or not enough light.  Back to square one.  I'm planting a new batch and I'm putting them under artificial light.  We'll see how that turns out.