Varnishing woes

Upon deciding that staining was unneccessary and taking several days off, we resumed our flooring quest. It was polyurethane time! Before getting started, we decided to read the directions on the can. Unfortunately it's black, size 6 font on a brown, curved background. So there was no way we were getting any info out of that.

It was a dirty job, but somebody had to get soaked in oil, covered in sawdust and stuffed in a garbage can. RIP cookie monster towel!

But instead of the natural inclination to just go ahead anyway, we decided to consult the Home Depot website to check on timing of coats. We browsed around for a few minutes but could not find the item we purchased. Apparently they had dissavowed all knowledge of Minwax 2.5 Gallon (or any other size) High-Build Polyurethane Semi-Gloss since our purchase. After much hunting we found something we thought comparable that claimed one could put down a second coat after 5 hours or when no longer tacky. Thus we set out: start varnishing at 3PM, put down second coat by 9PM and be done by 10.