And now, help has arrived for a critical part.
My husband is a career long union electrician. 
I know how to do everything except bend pipe (he taught me what I know!) Guess what I’m going to learn to do? 
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I was this many years old when I saw this new way to stand on a stepladder!
Doing some stepladder work later today and I am going to try it out.🪜
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He’s super tall, I could never stand like that!
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My husband is also super tall – I’m going to show him that photo. Standing like that on a stepladder might come in handy when hanging a fan in the barn.
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Replying to my post to say that it’s more sit standing, correct?
Seat weight on the top of the ladder with left side leg weight on the ladder rung (in this photo), with right foot touching on the not-a-rung on the other side for balance. Correct?
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Hes tall enough where he’s just standing, but if your feet reach your way would work too!
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Woo boy am I no good at pipe bending. It feels like a puzzle/riddle and I hate those. Learned a lot though.
… but relegated myself to the hole saw for most of the work.
Here’s the floor color (leftovers from my mom’s house). Ideas for stain colors? I don’t want it to be mega woody/cabiney.
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Where’s this going? Is this a stain you’re looking to put on your t & g or are you putting wood on the ground?
I just refinished the inside of my barn with waterlox and very highly recommend it, especially since you’re starting from scratch. It gives just a lovely finish. I wouldn’t add a stain to the wood you’ve got–that bright look is so nice. Waterlox would warm it up a little.
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The LVP will be the floor of the tack room. I was looking for a stain for the T&G on the walls. I do like the light tone it’s got now.
I’ll take a look into the waterlox
I used three coats of the marine sealer + one coat of the marine finish, and loved the outcome. Inside space would take four coats of sealer. It’s such a nice product.
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Lord have mercy, that stuff is expensive! 45+ a quart! It does look very nice though!
I didn’t find it that different price wise from any other similar coating. A good spar urethane is about the same. A gallon is 90 bucks (I think I bought at maybe 75 on sale?) and covers 500 sq ft.
Eta, yeah, $75:
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With my barn’s T&G pine the builder sanded and finished with nothing but oil-base semi-gloss clear polyurethane. I has a nice rich look without using any stain at all. Over the last nine years it has slowly darkened to a nice rich amber hue, and I like that look. See the photo of my above post showing my tack room wall.
If you choose water-base polyurethane semi-gloss it will go on the same, but will not develop the amber hue with time.
In the barn areas that are exposed to weather and direct sun, like the outside walls under my stall overhang, the polyurethane did not hold up well. So after 5 years or so, I sanded it down to bare wood, and applied spar oil base polyurethane. That has held up to weather very well.
Since your T&G is in sheltered areas, I would not use spar urethane as it is quite pricey. Just like every other product designed for boats and marine applications.
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Best remember, we used a basic Minwax I think it was, comes in different stains, ours was honey-something.
Has held well over the years.
Your place will look great any you choose.
Thanks for the pictures and letting us learn from you. 
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Water based poly looks like it’s running $70/gallon?
Which is about the same as spar:
And about the same as waterlox.
What really got me into waterlox is it doesn’t have to be sanded when it’s time to reapply. Urathanes need to be sanded between coats for adhesion, and once it starts to peel, it has to be sanded to bare wood.
Having just sanded off a shit application of some sort of urathane and stain, I 110% wasn’t game for even more sanding 
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A white/pickling stain would keep the light tone, and prevent it from yellowing a lot once you put a varnish on.
But that Waterlox stuff looks nifty, if it really works that well without yellowing/darkening the wood, I’ll have to keep it in mind for future projects of my own.
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Waterlox does bring a warmer tone to the wood. Less than linseed oil, but the tung oil base isn’t clear.
Doug from paint source did a whole series of using waterlox in barns that I found very informative:
He’s got a bunch, but I think you should be able to find them from there. @endlessclimb that wood in this video is probably about where your T&G would wind up with waterlox, color wise.
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I really like seeing your building achievements. I am thinking that perhaps there are a few lookers thinking about doing similar things who don’t appreciate what you have had to do before the pictured actual sawing and drilling. Just getting all the necessary building supplies calculated. ordered, picked up or delivered, unloaded, and positioned is a significant behind the scenes undertaking.
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So for that, for me, I grab a manila folder and label it with the project. Material list gets roughly calculated right on the folder (pencil, because I’m going to get it wrong). I add 10% contingency because I hate running out of stuff, then I panic and add another 5% to that because I really hate running out of stuff. Receipts and sketches and ideas and everything go in the folder, or drawn on the folder.
Most of the time I pick things up - this load got delivered due to the 20’ headers and the sheer number of pavers. I utilize my horse trailer a lot.
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