First off, hope you all had a wonderful holiday, spending time with your loved ones, etc!
This is what my house looks like right now: I need to get the new toys upstairs- plenty time for that tomorrow!!
We made it!!!!
Refinishing hardwood floors?? Why! It's a piece of cake!!
For fun, here is the living/dining room on move-in day:
Here is the antsy-hubby less than ten minutes after we got our keys:
After carpet was ripped up we were left with this:
Scared yet?? Nah, I wasn't.
We got our paint on:
Things were looking a little better.
That gorgeous wood panelling wall? Eight coats later is this:
Then the floor was sanded:
Then the floor was stained with Minwax Jacobean.... and sealed with a water-based poly/low odor/fast drying sealer... 4 times!!!
We followed this tutorial.... {LOVED HER FLOORS!}
Totally got her simple instructions.
Here is the floor, sans sealer-
{notice the front door?? Different color! Will cover that in a later post}
AND- after 4 coats of the sealer (before the quarter round was up & before the baseboard touchups)-
We are in-love!!!
Here is the written version of what we hubby did-after research!:
1) Prepped the floor (pulled staples, more staples and more staples)
2) Filled all holes with stainable wood filler (there was ALOT)
3) Taped off doorways with plastic
4) Sanded around the edges with a palm sander-the big floor sander can't go to the edges
5) went to home depot and rented their floor sander- and bought several sheets of sanding paper- over buy and save what you don't end up using- they will take unused product back! We only wanted to have the sander for 24 hours (so we didn't have to pay for additional days)
6) Sanded and sanded the floor- along the grain with the big sander
7) Cleaned and returned the sander
8) Cleaned, vacuumed, swept the dust (!) out of the room
9) Applied Minwax pre-stain conditioner.
10)Stained the floor.... as I read from the blog I used as my guide, don't apply then wipe off. It became very blotchy. We globbed it on very thick with a 3" paint brush- then let it dry (it was still pretty tacky after 2.5 days)
11) Sealant-We were in a huge time crunch- I knew I was working tons the following week, then it was Christmas- so I remember reading my inspiration, and she said she applied the sealer and the stain dried almost instantly. With the stain we used, it did! We were shocked. I was able to apply each coat directly right after each other. Starting in one corner of the room, and finishing each layer on the other side. Letting myself rest for a couple minutes per coat. All with a 3" paint brush!! (I felt like I had done 2,500 squats the next few days!)
I took the photo above on a Sunday afternoon- which I finished sealing the night before at about 12:30am.
The very next day (Monday) My mom and I spent a few hours painting the newly installed quarter round trim and baseboard. We tried taping off around the floor (NOT A GOOD IDEA!!) My hard work came off in small sections where we had pressed the tape a little too hard. So needless to say, I broke out the sealer again, and had to go over my work.
After the taping/sealing/painting misshap, we decided to let the floor cure until this last weekend (about 5 days) before we put any furniture on it.
I decided to move the piano (!!!) a smidge and sure enough a little piece of sealer came up... So needless to say it must've needed a few more days than five to cure.
If I ever do this type of floor work again, I would use the same products again in a heartbeat. Just wouldn't give myself a week and a half to have the room ready so we can throw a party!!!
Cost breakdown-
We figured after the rental of the equipment, initially purchasing supplies (the pre-stain conditioner, stain, wood filler, sealant...we exchanged extra stain and the conditioner for one more bottle of sealer), sand paper... we have about $250 invested in the floor.
Time?? About 30!
Our space square footage- 378
Undecorated/Finished product-
This photo was taken this past Saturday afternoon {please excuse my slippers in the middle of the floor!}. On Sunday my mom came over and we hung stuff up on the walls and made the room a little more 'festive' for Christmas Eve! I will share those photos later- I need to take better photos than with my iPhone!
What's left in here?
-window treatments of some kind...still thinking about it
-new hardware for the front door
-a hanging light/lamp...have a funky idea for above one of the side tables
Other than some minor tweaking, I am pretty happy with how the room turned out, and can't wait to get started on another space (after we decide what to tackle next!)
