Remember yesterday, back here, in the dishwasher installation post when I mentioned that we totally wrecked the house this weekend? Well, tonight I’m going to fill you in on the dirty details of the big mess weekend. Not only did we decide to completely destroy our kitchen by ripping out storage shelves and installing a dishwasher, we also decided it was high time to refinish the parlor floor. Thus, meaning we had to move everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, out of the parlor and into the living and dining rooms. This included moving the corner china hutch into the living room:
I’m really digging having the hutch (which was one of the pieces of furniture the old owners left for us) in the living room. It may end up living there permanently, if she agrees to a mini makeover (I’m thinking bright white paint). So now with the parlor cleared out the living room looks kind of like this:
And from the other angle:
And the dining room is looking like this:
But let’s step back a little bit and review (do you feel like you’re in school when you hear the word review? I do) why we decided, more like needed, to refinish the parlor floor. I didn’t take a proper “before” picture of the floor but you can get the point from this picture taken during Christmas time:
This section of the floor is actually one of the better sections. The old oak floor, which was originally covered in ugly green carpet when we moved in, is splintering and falling apart. The floor is one of Goose’s favorite chew toys. He seems to prefer oak over bones. Because being able to walk around our house barefoot without fear of contracting a case of the splinters in the toes, refinishing the floor was top on the priority list. And since we’re gearing up to create an office out of the parlor space, it was time to work on the floor.
Now, as for how we decided to refinish the floor. Originally, we thought we would hammer it out by renting a floor sander but we scratched that thought. The floor was in horrible, HORRIBLE condition and Colby feared whether or not it would survive a drum sander. Meanwhile, I was thinking that since most of the floor’s poly finish was already MIA, why not put our sanders to work and use the tools we already had. And what tools might those be? A pair of orbital sanders and a belt sander. So we taped off the two doorways and got to work.
We probably only spent about an hour, maximum of two hours, sanding down the floor. I planned to stain the floor with the same stain I used back on the dining room (check out that post here) so our goal for the floor sanding was to take off all the old poly. And also to smooth out the rough areas. It definitely took us less time than we expected. As for grit, we used a variety. We started with the grittier paper, a 50 grit, and finished with finer grits, a combo of 120/150. Doesn’t Colby have great sanding form?
Oh, and I’m pretty sure the first floor wasn’t the only thing we wrecked this weekend. I’m almost certain that I wrecked my camera. I can’t seem to take any pictures without dust spots ever since I took the above picture. I probably should have waited until after all the dust had settled before taking pictures. Live and learn. Hmmm…maybe it’s about time I bucked up and upgraded my old point and shoot camera for a fancy one? Maybe I can even justify it for taking some amazing honeymoon pictures this summer?! We started and finished the parlor sanding on Friday evening and decided to keep on powering through and stain it too.
Again with the dust spots! Sheesh! Since taking these pictures I’ve dunked my camera a few times in a cup of water (hold off on your heart attack, it’s a waterproof/underwater camera), and cleaned the lens but the spots are still lurking. Ugh! So this is where we’ll leave you tonight. We’re currently amidst a serious floor polying blitz. Seriously. We wake up early just to put a coat of poly on a section of the floor with the hope of moving everything back into the room soon and getting the living and dining rooms back together again, kind of like Humpty Dumpty.
Pssst…We’ll be back on Thursday for the reveal of our newly finished floor. We’ll also share with you our unconventional method of floor repairing that we’re not condoning or endorsing by any means, but it works!
