Wood floors = our nemesis

Looking back on this project, I think both Kody and I would agree that we probably won't tackle this one again. We heard from so many people along the way about how this is like the least-fun home improvement project you can attempt and about how difficult and awful it is. I think we concur.

Here are a few before pictures and a little explanation of why we wanted to attempt this project.

The study - I didn't take great before pictures, mainly because I just forgot and this is my first time needing before pics! But in most of the rooms you could see a line along the edges where you could tell a rug had been covering most of the floor. The edges were dull and faded, while the areas covered by rugs were bright and shiny. We were hoping to get rid of those lines.

Secondly, there were a lot of big "wear" spots. Again, no good pictures of it, but in our living room there was one in the bottom right corner of this picture. We were hoping to get rid of those and also just make the floors look new, nice and shiny. They were showing their age and looking dull and dingy. We were also hoping to change the color of the stain, although we had a hard time agreeing on what color, as you'll find out soon. We also decided that if we were going to refinish the floors, we were going to do it before we moved it or not at all. Hence the quick start.

And so begins the sanding process...

And there was a lot of dust. Like every surface of our entire house (walls and all) was wiped down after we were done.

Almost immediately after closing on the house, Kody's parents came down to help us. While Kody and his dad worked the sanding machines, Marla and I unpacked the kitchen (the only boxes we had brought down with us).

We rented an edging sander and a floor sander, so Kody manned the edges while his dad did the middle of the rooms. It ended up taking the boys about 8 hours to finish the sanding process (Friday afternoon and Saturday morning).

The day before, Kody and I had picked out the stain we wanted to try, but only after way too much deliberation and going back and forth. We pretty much varied between natural colored floors and chocolate-mocha colored floors - and anything in between. We knew we didn't want anything too orangey, red-ish or yellow. Which was exactly what our stain ended up being. Huge disappointment. Although we look happy in this picture, while we're trying out the original stain!

Overnight we decided we'd rather go with a dark wood stain, but when we took the stain back the next day we couldn't return it and start over. So, working with what we'd already paid for, we had them doctor it to something we decided we really liked! Funny thing was...when the floor was stained and finished, it looked almost exactly like the original color! I couldn't tell you what color we originally went with or what color we ended up with because they mixed it (and because we changed our mind so many times, I have no idea!).

Marla working hard to get rid of all the dust before we could stain the floors.

Kevin and Marla had to go home, leaving Kody and I to finish up the staining and polyurethane coats ourselves. That part wasn't actually that bad! It took Kody the rest of Saturday to stain the floors and then we tackled three coats of polyurethane on Sunday. It took us about one hour to apply the finish coat and about 2-3 hours to let it dry. Kody finished up the final coat on Monday morning before heading out of town.

We donned air masks for the first three days in our new home, like it was some sort of contaminated, mold-infested, gross thing, which it kind of was.

We ended up going with a Varathane water-base semi-gloss floor finish, which boasted quick drying and low odor. It definitely lived up to its claims! We had heard the worst part of the whole process was the smell of the polyurethane and we barely smelled this! Doesn't mean we didn't breathe in awful things into our lungs, but at least we weren't miserable while doing it! That's also why we stayed in a hotel during this process - in an attempt to save our lungs.

However, here's the lowdown on why we probably wouldn't undertake this project again. We put on the recommended four coats of the poly-finish and let it dry for the amounted time. We actually did light walking on it a while after it dried and then let it dry for like five extra days while we were out of town! But unfortunately, we can already see scratches from Noodles, moving furniture and even painting tape that was on the floor. So that's pretty disappointing. We're having to be pretty careful on it now, until we get some rugs. But I'm sure our carefulness will run out eventually, as we live in the house longer. Additionally, it was super difficult to get the sanding to look uniform throughout the house and especially along the edges, where the two different machines came together.

All said and done though, we think the floors look a lot better than before (which was the ultimate goal) and we know we won't even notice the imperfections once we have a few rugs and some beautiful furniture (like our new couch that's coming this week!!) set up. I don't have any great pictures of the new floor, as it honestly looks the same as the old floor in photos because of my lack of picture-taking knowledge. But pretty much any future picture you see will have the new floor, unless it's labeled a "before" pic.

Home improvement project #1 complete! And Kody was a complete stud through the whole process - never complaining and working so hard to get it done before he left town! Thanks so much love!

Next up - painting the whole house!