A Discovery That Saved Us $7,000

One of the earlier discoveries that we had made about our house was that all of the original flooring was 2.5" maple, on both the first and the second floors. We were thrilled, but discouraged at the same time. It appeared to us that all of the floors were in various conditions and that we would need to refinish them all. We even got a couple of quotes to have it done professionally.

There were a few issues with this option, the greatest of course being the price. We were quoted $3,500 per level which meant $7,000 for all the floors in the house. Ouch! Secondly, we would be required to vacate the premises and ensure that all furniture was removed from each level of the house since it would be done in two stages. With a houseful of kids, not to mention the 550 pound upright grand piano, this promised to be a real headache. Especially when one keeps in mind that we are more than 2 hours away from any extended family. Thirdly, we were told that because our floors were maple, once sanded and finished, they would be more blonde in color and not the deep red-brown of the original floors. Bummer....And finally, we would be exposed to all sorts of wonderful noxious chemicals. Great....just great.

We decided to just live with the floors for the time being. It wasn't a tough decision - after all, the kitchen floor at the time was still covered with adhesive and so were two of the upstairs bedrooms. In the meantime, we talked with the local Amish woodworker that has been building our furniture and he said that he would help us try to find out a way to stain the wood the color we wanted. In other words, we could have really good experienced help if we decided to finish the floors ourselves. Still, a daunting task.

But then a little accident saved the project and us $7,000. I had heard about a homemade cleansing paste that could be made by mixing hydrogen peroxide with baking soda. I was in the process of scrubbing out a Coleman cooler with this paste to remove the funky smell it had gotten from being in the garage all winter. In the process, I splattered some of this paste mixture onto the kitchen floor. I finished cleaning up the cooler and set it upstairs in the tub to dry. I then had to clean up the mess on the kitchen floor.

You can imagine my surprise when the paste picture seemed to sand the floor down and remove all the grease, stains and paint. Hmmm. I kept wiping it down with water because the floor seemed a bit gritty. In other words, I could still feel the baking soda. I decided to use some of my homemade orange cleaner, which is mostly vinegar, and wiped it down again. Now the baking soda residue was gone, but the wood looked dry....really dry.  That got me thinking. I had heard that back when our house was built, a lot of times oil was used to finish wood. So out came the olive oil. And wow! What a difference. My husband and I literally sat and looked at the small finished section of the floor, to see what would happen, over a period of three days. And nothing happened. I don't know what were expecting, but the floor continued to look awesome.

Those of you that actually read our blog can probably guess what we did next....Yup. We did. We refinished the entire living room floor as our test project. Once again, the results are awesome....especially since we got the color that we wanted! Of course, seeing is believing, so here are some photos for you.

Here is what the floor looked like when we started. Kind of a dingy gray looking wood with a lot of paint spots. I mean, the people that painted in this house never seemed to clean up their paint messes or even protect the wood to begin with. Anyway, I think we can all agree that sure isn't pretty.

I know that in this picture it is kind of hard to see, but in the upper right hand corner, the floor looks a little bit duller than the rest; and a bit whiter. Scrubbing the floor with the paste made from hydrogen peroxide and baking soda really did a great job of cleaning up the wood. The "gray" appearance turned out to be mostly dirt. I don't even want to think about how many years worth I was scrubbing away. It also removed the majority of the paint. You can kind of see where I stopped because you can see all the paint spots!

After scrubbing the floor with a paste, it looked like the floor, of course, but with a white powdery finish with swirly marks. As a scrubber, I used a Scotch Brite Dobie Sponge. It really did the trick and held up pretty much until the end. Of course, the last few boards were a bit challenging because the sponge finally gave up and fell apart. The next step was to wash down the area scrubbed thoroughly. Again and again with really hot water. The goal was to get all of the baking soda and peroxide residue off the floor. And then the fun really begins. You get to sit and watch the floor dry.

Exciting.

I know. It's almost as fun as watching paint dry.

In this picture, the floor is all scrubbed clean and I am waiting for the floor to dry. That is why the clean part looks a little bit shinier than the section below it which I have not started. Once the floor is dry, I thoroughly sprayed it with my homemade orange cleaner. Spray, spray, spray...and then wipe, wipe, wipe. The vinegar in this cleaner does an awesome job of removing any residue from the baking soda and gives you a really clean, kind of dried out floor. Of course, once you are done wiping it down with the orange cleaner, you get to....

You guessed it.

Sit and watch the floor dry. Again.

Once the floor is dry again, then you can start pouring on the oil. We used an extra virgin olive oil packaged in Italy. It costs about $6 per bottle and I used three bottles on our living room floor. Our living room roughly measures 12 feet by 14 feet, just to give you an idea. To spread the oil, I used a swiffer type mop with a washable attachable cloth. I simply poured the oil on the floor and then spread it around.

The number of "coats" of oil that you want to use is up to you. The more you add, the darker it gets. We have put down two heavy coats to achieve the look and color that we wanted.

We are not quite done with the floor in this picture. I still have to move the couch and end table, but it did provide an excellent "before" and "after" comparison. What a difference!

To clean the floor, we will be using a mix of vinegar and olive oil until we can seal the floor. I am still researching the best option on how to do that, but will be sure to share once we decide on something.

Now just to wait for my arms, legs, and back to recover to move onto the next room.

Waiting....

Up here in the frozen tundra, winter seems unwilling to release her hold on us as we anxiously await warm spring days. It is hard to believe that last year, at this time, we were enjoying warm, balmy days and were hard at work taking down all the trees in the yard. This year, as you can see, no such luck!

This snow is actually fresh...fresh, as in it fell last night and was added to on and off throughout the day today. Which means that we are still working sporadically on interior projects, like scraping the trim in the upstairs hallway. Boy, that's about as exciting as it can get. I am sure you are sorry to have missed post after post about how we have been scraping. And scraping. And scraping. Hours and hours of it. We have killed about four scrapers thus far, with more left to do.

A few years before we bought the house, someone had the brilliant idea of painting all the original trim white. Except that they must not have known about such things as sandpaper or primer because the paint was not sticking too well and could actually be picked at and removed with fingernails. Not that I recommend that method be used!

 

So this is what we started with. Underneath all of that white paint is beautiful trim, most of which was originally installed in the house when it was built. And here is where we are at today.

This hallway has two windows and four doors. Originally, though, the hallway had five doors and one window, but the window pictured above replaced the original door. We are planning on reinstalling the door. Why, you might ask? Because we hope to someday add a two-story greenhouse onto the back of the house. We have been told that at one time, there was a double glassed-in porch on the house, but that it was torn down when it became unsafe due to neglect. 

So, as you can see, not a whole lot is happening that is really exciting to write and read about. Hopefully, this cold spell will go away soon and then we will have more updates. We are planning on painting the house this year! And of course, we are putting in the vegetable garden. We are also planning on adding four more gardens around the house and yard. So, stay tuned for painting and landscaping....eventually!