The fat lady is preparing to sing

The 10th coat of acrylic went on yesterday. It dries to the touch in 15-20 minutes, can start being gently used in 12-18 hours, and after 3 months will be cured to a hard, clear finish.

 Taken in the daytime, unlike the other photos that required color adjustment, 
this is an unretouched representation of the counters IRL.

I'm able to put my coffee maker and toaster on it each morning but am not planning to leaving them in place until several more days have passed. I don't want to run any risk of indentations or permanent scratches in the finish.

After being without a sink for a month now, it's really not difficult for us to work around this constraint. And I'm pretty sure we'll get a giant cardboard check and a Mylar balloon bouquet from the County for being The Most Frugal Water Customers on our block during this drought!

In the home stretch

After multiple mishaps requiring triage and more glue, this morning I finally got the counters into a state ready to receive the acrylic coating. This is the long-shot view after three coats of acrylic (sanding in between):


And here is what it looks like close up:


It pretty much looks exactly like the bathroom floor. I like how it's turning out and will keep applying acrylic tomorrow and the next day until I get at least six, maybe 10, coats on there. Only then will I feel like the finish is really protected and durable.

PS: Yes, this has taken longer than anticipated. The big joke around here now is that I can finish the project in an evening. I'm just not saying which evening.

Update on counter remodeling project

I've been taking my time with this (as with everything else in life - heh), and had an evening off during a sister-visit, so I thought I'd make a new post on where this project is at this point.

On one section of the counter, we had some mishaps. The cat stepped on it while it was still wet and sticky, Steve tried to pick her up quickly, and she dug her claws in. That left a few tiny holes. So I went over that with some new paper. But when I opened the brew to paint it on, I stirred it with the paint brush and it loosened a bunch of stain that had settled at the bottom of the container. Like a dummy, I went ahead and painted it on. It was much darker. So I patched again, lather rinse repeat, and it just got worse and worse.

When you mess up...

Last night I decided the whole section warranted a mulligan. I spent about 45 minutes ripping, crunching and smoothing out a new batch of paper, then about an hour (or less) applying the new paper right over the old mess. This time I was more careful not to slop, to catch all the drips, and to smoosh the bumps out with my finger while the paper was still wet and pliable.

...you just put on a new layer!

Looks much better, donut? This morning I painted on another layer of brew, and I'll continue to do that at intervals today until it matches the surrounding counter.


Admitted weirdness in this photo. Taking these at night, under the stupid fluorescent lights (which are a whole nuther future project), makes the cabinets look really yellow. They're not. They're actually a color that's like a little bit of coffee in a lot of milk. I used my El Cheapo photo editor to adjust the photo for more accurate representation, and now it looks like the whole kitchen hovers over nothingness. Don't walk in there! You'll fall to China!

Aaaanyway, before applying the Polycrylic, I want to take the counters down a few more shades. Not too dark, but darker than what you see here. I'll keep posting, natch.