I am not sure why, but everyone on the project is telling me not to finish the raw wood. Not the floors, not the windowsills, and not the exterior.
I didn’t listen to them about the exterior and it turned out quite gloriously with the kakishibu.
I am definitely not touching the massive 2F ceiling. Raw wood is fine there. I almost accept that the windowsills and doorframes can be left as-is, though I see where we live now and how decades of daily life, humid summers, and dry winters have not been kind to the unfinished wood – it is stained, mouldy, dry.
But the floors? Don’t they need to be finished somehow? My brain is saying “Unfinished wood floors in the wet spaces are going to be a mess of water stains and food splotches before too long.”
But I don’t know much about wood finishes. I want to keep the character of the wood, but make it more waterproof. Wax? Linseed oil? Maybe kakishibu? Urethane? Varnish?
Yet another thing I need to figure out before very long. It will be much easier to finish the floors before we move in than after.
