Todd's Tiny Home: The Osmo Saga

As I mentioned in my post about wood conditioning, deciding on what to use to on the inside walls, and then obtaining the stuff, has been a bit tricky. Craig and Ruth hooper, however, have had a lot of experience with Osmo polyx and really like the stuff. It isn't easily available in Canada, and the replacement that I was able to get - Saicos - has a different set of solvents that (for me at least) require a gas mask during application and for the next few days afterwards.

Craig and Ruth, however, helped me overcome my misgivings and also obtain some Osmo Polyx, and then came over for a short tutorial on how to use it. The short tutorial turned into three days (not all day each day, thankfully) of Osmo application. It was kind of like a barn raising party actually, with lots of good food (thanks to my mother) and many hands making the work much more enjoyable. Thank you very much Craig, Ruth, Mom and Dad!

Application of Osmo involves rubbing it on with a kind of scratch pad, letting it sit for a few minutes, and then rubbing it off with a heavy-duty paper towel. It would have been a good task for Mr. Miyagi to give to Daniel in the The Karate Kid as a kind of "wax on, wax off" exercise. All of this loving attention gives a lot of good energy to the place though, and the wood seems to quite like it, glowing happily when it's done. :-)

My father, not doing one of his favorite things...

The upstairs ceiling, looking so much better, and not silver anymore from the insulation. Yay! This is also my mother, doing her "no, don't put me in the picture" thing.

A snack and a refreshment break...

Craig doing his "Osmo dipping". A small bit of Osmo goes a long ways, so one doesn't want to waste any of it. He filled our small containers by dipping a stir stick into the main can and letting it run off into the small can. This was not as time consuming as it may sound, but he became our main Osmo dipping guy...