Friday, May 21, 2010

The Floors, Part Two!

As Dad finished one room, Mom and I would get to work cleaning. Sweep, shop-vac, vacuum, big dust mop, and then microfiber dust mop. I decided not to stain the floors, because I really loved the tone of the white oak (it antiques as it ages). I went with a water-based poly, as it dries much quicker than oil and doesn't smell nearly as bad.

Start in the corner farthest from the door so you poly yourself out of the room. Mom cut in the edges with a brush and I followed with the synthetic applicator. Go with the grain of the wood, and always keep a wet edge (this helps avoid lift marks). They recommend 3 coats of poly to make the floor durable, and you'll want to scuff sand with 220 grit sandpaper between the final two coats.

After several hours of sanding and cleaning and sealing, two weekends of hard work, here's the final product:



I'm SO happy I decided to do this instead of hiring someone to do it (though I'm not sure my parents would agree, haha). But I saved a TON of money and I have the satisfaction of all of our hard work resulting in beautiful floors.

The living room is the only room not done, but that's on the to-do list for this week.

A big thank you to my folks for spending so many hours helping me.

If you are thinking about doing this, I recommend visiting Russet Street Reno and looking through her instructions. I used those as a guideline for doing my floors. Very helpful! Thanks Sara!

The Floors, Part 1

Do you remember what the floors looked like when I moved in? Carpet. Old carpet. Old carpet that appeared OK upon closing, but after a few weeks the newly shampooed smell wore off. No matter, the plan was always to yank it out and reveal the gorgeous (hopefully) wood floors underneath.

Roxie dog. She's ready for the carpet to go.

This lovely carpet was in the living room and all three bedrooms.

With the help of my amazing parents, we spent a few solid weekends pulling carpet, staples, nails, tack strips, sanding, sweeping, sanding, sweeping, cleaning, sealing....well, you get the idea.

Good riddance carpet!

Close-up of the LR floor.

The floors were in OK shape, but there were a lot of stains, scratches, stickers, paint, glitter...all of that needed to disappear.

Scraping at a stubborn sticker/paint in the pink room.

I rented a drum sander (we ended up needing it 2 separate weekends) and we got to work. Though not a difficult task, it definitely was dirty, dusty, and very time consuming. We sanded each room multiple times, starting with the lowest grit (30) and moving up (100). It is a very good idea to tape off the room as you're sanding, otherwise there will be dust EVERYWHERE. Oh, and turn off the a/c and tape off the air vents too.


You also have to sand the edges with a hand-sander where the drum sander won't reach. After the rooms have been sanded with all grits (finishing with the 100), and the edges have been sanded, it's time to clean, clean, clean!

Stay tuned for Part Two and the reveal!!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I Heart Faces

I heart them. Go check em out.


And I just entered the 'Celebrating Mom' photo challenge with this photo. There's so much happiness there! Love it!


Cornerstone sings the National Anthem (take 2)

Here's a better video of us singing the National Anthem at the Ruff Rider's game. Even though you can't see me (you can hear me!). :)