Redoing Your Floors Is NOT A Weekend Project

We discovered the hard, slow, and painful way that redoing your hardwood floors is NOT a weekend project. It is not a week-long project either. It is more like a two week one. Our floor quite literally has our blood, sweat, and hair in it. Who would have thought something that looks "so easy" would be so time consuming. Still, I would rather do the work myself than pay someone else $7,000 to do it for us. Here is our floor journey. First, this is where we started:

Day 1
Realize that you cannot possibly hand sand the entire floor using a Porter + Cable orbital sander. Not only will you have to change the sheets of sandpaper, but you have to sand the same spot several times. Give up! Rent a sander!

We found a round buffer sander for $21 for 4 hours or $31 for an entire day. Sounded cheap enough. We then had to pay for a red pad ($9.99) and four sheets of two grades of sandpaper: 36 grit ($9.99/sheet) and 60 grit ($8.99/sheet). Regardless, it was money well spent. We started sanding with the rented sander at around 1:30 in the afternoon; the floor was finally sanded to our standards by 10:00 pm. First, we went around the whole floor using the 36 grit sandpaper. This did a good job removing the old varnish, but left some weird black streaks on the floor.

Second, we went over the entire floor again, but this time we used the 60 grit sandpaper. It did a really good job smoothing out the floor, removing the last bits of varnish and most of the black streaks. We had to do some touching up with hand sander around the edges and in some spots where the big sander seems to have trouble. All in all, we thought that the floor looked pretty good - especially once we were all done vacuuming it and called it quits for the day.

Not too shabby, if I say so myself! I'll be honest, I was really tempted to leave the floors the natural color. It just looked so clean and nice. The dear hubby still wanted to stain the floors in keeping with our restoration goals. We have decided that we might leave the bedroom floors upstairs the lighter color, but are not sure yet. Why are we having so much trouble making up our minds? Well, we really love our stain color!

Day 2
Even though we thoroughly vacuumed the floor, and wiped it down with microfiber cloths, we learned a very important lesson here. You must use some sort of denatured alcohol or some other liquid to remove all those minute little particles that you cannot see with the naked eye. If you skip this step (as we, unfortunately did) all those little tiny minuscule mites of dust will magically appear as soon as you put on your first coat of polyurethane. Anyway, after wiping down and cleaning the floor really well (or so we thought), I added the stain with a paintbrush. We had tested the stain in a small corner the night before, but there was nothing to wipe off, so we decided to use a paintbrush and spread the stain very thinly with minimal overlap. We wanted good coverage and we had already discovered that our boards were thirsty.

Isn't that just a beautiful color? It looked so nice and we were thrilled with our decision. So we just let the floor stay and waited for the stain to dry.

Day 3
And waited for the stain the dry.

Day 4
And waited for the stain to dry.

Day 5
At this point, I admit, we were getting a little nervous and were wondering if the stain was ever going to dry. I mean, we expected a few delays since the temperature skyrocketed to 75 degrees and we had rain. The subsequent stifling humidity meant it would take longer. But four days! Come on! So we did a little bit more research and discovered that really dark stains (like ours) can take twice as long to dry! What?! So, we waited patiently some more.

Day 6
Yeah! The stain is finally dry, or so we debated. My wonderful husband wanted to wait another day just to be sure. I did not. The weather was perfect - not too hot or humid - for putting on the polyurethane. I won the day and put on the first coat.

It looked a little weird when we put it on. I mean, the surface was all ripply from the lambskin paint roller. I confess, I was very nervous and wondering if my husband was right. I had put on the polyurethane just before bedtime and by morning, this was the glorious sight.

Day 7
I was in love and doing the happy dance. I did not even notice the funny little bits in the polyurethane. I simply rolled on the second coat and thought we were done. Finished. Ready for the next project.

I just had to let the floor dry for 24 hours or more to cure the final coat. Apparently, my husband was not as satisfied as I was and had some issues with the little bumps caused by the missed grit. Sigh.

Day 8
Do absolutely nothing to the floor but admire it (me) and debate the merits of what we should do next to fix the grits (my husband). We did some more reading and research. A lot of it. We found some really great sites with lots of advice - the main one being do not do this at home yourself and why staining is a bad idea. We test a few things we had around the house, including a brown paper bag, scotch rite cleaning pads, and 100 grit sandpaper. The results were, well, scary. We finally discovered a site written by a woman that had done a lot of floors. She recommended that we sand the polyurethane floor very well with 1000 grit sandpaper.

Did you know that they even made this kind of sandpaper? I didn't. Learn something new every day.

Anyway, she recommended that you sand the polyurethane really well, clean it very thoroughly and then put on the next coat of polyurethane. So we planned a trip to Home Depot.

Day 9
I had a nice long list of things that I wanted from Home Depot anyway, so we made the trip worth our while. We purchased all the woodwork we needed to install the baseboard, board and batten, and chair rails. We also purchased another gallon of our floor polyurethane. I even found a sanding attachment for my extension pole so I would not have to sand the floor on my hands and knees. And my wonderful hubby bought me a nail gun. Oh the projects I will build! I was happy (even though I was coming home to work on the never-ending floor).

After we came home and unloaded everything, I rigged up my little sandpaper holder to the extender pole and discovered that the sand paper strips were about two inches too short. Really! Come on! I did not give up. I taped that stupid paper down good and went to work sanding the entire floor. Over and over and over again until it and I were covered with dust. Then it was time to get on my hands and knees and wipe down the entire floor with a damp cloth. In a stroke of brilliance (if I say so myself), I rigged a microfiber cloth to the sandpaper holder and polished that floor as well as I possibly could. No little grit mites were going to ruin my floor. I finally put on the third coat of polyurethane. And went to bed. I was too tired to even take a picture.

Day 10
We checked the floor again as soon as we woke up. This was becoming monotonously routine. But actually, we were pretty pleased. The sanding tip worked and removed about 75% percent of the imperfections we had seen in the previous coats of polyurethane. The larger ones were knocked down a bit but still visible. At this point, we exhaustedly agreed  to do one final coat of polyurethane. Most people stop at three coats but because this is our home and we only want to do the floors once in our lifetime (should I mention that we have seven more floors to go) we decided to do four coats. The floor had washed up very nicely with just the two coats, but we are pretty rough on our floors. They get mopped a lot. And we have dogs that have puppies. That floor needs a lot of protection. So four coats. Yep. We agreed and it was done.

Day 11
The floor is finally dry. We are just letting it cure very well before we protect it with brown paper while we work on our other projects. I must say, we are happy with the final result. And, on to the next project.

Spring is Here....Time to Get Working

Spring is finally here! After getting a final dumping of 33" inches of snow, warmer temperatures have finally arrived, which means it is time to get working once again. As I looked at my last post, I was surprised to see that I have not posted since 2016! I am so sorry! While we did not do a whole lot of work on the house that is able to be shared, we did get quite a few projects done.

First, we installed our picket fence in the front yard.

Unfortunately, our yard is anything but level! We had to step down on the sides - one more than the other - to stay within the four foot high city requirements. This year I am planning on painting the fence white.

Our second big investment, and the reason why a lot was not done on the house last year, was a new steel roof on the garage. The old roof was pretty old and in poor condition when we bought the house in 2011. It finally reached the point where the insurance company put a rider on our policy excluding the garage which meant it was definitely time for an upgrade.

Now that you are caught up on what we accomplished last year, let's review the various projects in store for this year (and which I will be much better about sharing as we go along). This is the year that we are going to really start pushing on many of the projects.

This week, we finished the first of many - upgrading the washer and dryer set. My old set was, well, old. The washer had come with the house and was super-sized. While it worked, it had a few quirks about it. The dryer was a housewarming gift from my mother and had been refurbished. The first few years we used it we kept blowing the thermostat on it. We finally determined that we could dry our clothes so long as we set the temperature setting on medium instead of high. That worked great for a few years, but lately, we had to restart the dryer to get the entire load of clothes dry. So my husband decided it was time to spoil me a few weeks before my birthday.

What a difference! I usually spent most of Sunday doing all the laundry for the week when I am busy working at the local elementary school. I was able to do a week's worth of laundry in about four loads total. And each load only took about 40 minutes to wash (opposed to 50) and 45 minutes to dry (opposed to 60 minutes). And it plays the most charming music when it is done! Happy. Happy. Happy.

We have also started working on the downstairs bathroom. This is going to be a very time consuming project, to say the least. It is a fun one, though, with each  member of the family "helping" me while I glue every single piece down individually.

It took us about four hours to do this small section. We have been saving pennies for a while and were going to wait to start this project when we thought we had enough. I got tired of waiting. I mean, we just do not use cash anymore like we used to with the debit cards and credit cards, so we just did not seem to be saving pennies like we used to. I will have to go to the bank and start purchasing rolls of them to keep working. The bathroom floor has been taken down to the subfloor. We are then gluing each penny down using an extra durable and clear epoxy that works with metal. I have decided to glue each penny down, face up, meaning that we see nothing but heads.

This is a pun for my husband who is a veteran of the Navy....as in going to the head. Ha ha ha.

Each member of the family takes a turn handing me the pennies, tail side up, so that I can dab on a little bit of glue and stick the penny in its spot. The average tolerance level for "helping" has been two rows. We have had some debate about cleaning versus not cleaning, tarnished versus not tarnished, etc. However, since I suffer with my OCD, I decided that the best option was to be completely random and to use each and every penny regardless of condition, as is.

So, how many pennies are in this first section? We estimate approximately 1,404 or $14.04. So this project will take a while and we will be sure to keep you posted. As for the other projects, here is the list for this year:

• Trim the exterior windows and doors on the garage. (We finally bought a compound miter saw so we can start doing this type of stuff. Yeah!!!)
• Repair the wood floor between the office and kitchen.
• Sand, stain, and seal the living room wood floor.
• Install board and batten in living room.
• Install built-in bookcases in living room.
• Install baseboard in living room.
• Install crown molding in living room.
• Replace two living room windows.
• Install surround sound speaker system in living room.
• Install insulation in living room ceiling.
• Repair broken lathe and plaster in living room.
• Paint living room.
• Update light fixture in living room.
• CELEBRATE THAT ONE ROOM IN THE HOUSE WILL BE FINISHED!

We are also planning on finishing the new custom kitchen this year. We already purchased the new appliances: (2) 5-burner gas stoves, undercounter dishwasher, apron front farmhouse sink, and french door refrigerator. All the appliances but the refrigerator are in the dining room. Just saving up the funds for the custom kitchen cabinets, which we hope to do this spring/summer.

Stay tuned for more pictures and works-in-progress.

In Love with Oiled Bronze

I decided this spring that while we may not have the funds to tackle the larger ticket projects, I could start working on the smaller ones - the ones that don't require an excessive budget but do need either elbow grease or time. I have always been attracted to oiled bronze finishes, but never really noticed or acknowledged it until I started to tackle some of these projects. Isn't it funny how a key component of our style has always been there but just out of sight? For example, here are some pictures of items that I had already implemented in my home with an oiled bronze finish.

 

Like this sign that hangs on the front of our house. My husband is a Navy veteran and so I proudly display this as a reminder of his service to our country.

 

And years ago I had purchased this little bell. It reminded me of the farmhouse bell that was hung at my grandparent's farm. 

 

A few years ago when I purchased a small patio set, I purchased one with an oiled bronze finish and brown woven seats.

 

I didn't even think about my pot rack until I was taking photographs of the finished projects with oiled bronze components! My lovely pot rack that we installed a couple of years ago to hold my stainless steel pots and pans and my ever-growing collection of cast iron cookware.

Earlier this spring I decided that I needed to do something with all of the exterior doors. They are all unfinished, steel doors. In an ugly gray finish. Two years ago we decided on the colors for the house - of which one of the accent colors was a charcoal. I was wandering in Wal-Mart's spray paint aisle looking at paint options for the doors when I saw the metallic collection - with an oiled bronze color. I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a "before" picture, but here is another door from the house in the same gray steel finish. 

 

Not the best looking door. And all the wear and tear and fingerprints on it appear to be dirty brown and yucky color. This made the oiled bronze a good color choice since it can hide a lot of the wear and tear that our household puts on doors. The first door I painted was the front door. And I love...love...love how it turned out! 

 

One door down and four more to go. I actually bought the cans of spray paint needed to paint the rest of the exterior doors, but they got used on a surprise Mother's Day present - a front porch swing! I have wanted a porch swing ever since we bought this house...in 2011. Yes, projects take us a very long time to complete. We are not the Turtle Construction Company like the Duggars; we are the Slow-as-Snails Renovation Company! My goal is to have all the projects done before the house is paid in full or all the kids move out!

 

I was more than happy to use all my cans of paint for the doors fixing up this swing. I really enjoy sitting out there on a nice, warm day enjoying cuddling with my quilt while reading a good book. There is nothing that compares to it.

In addition to painting the exterior doors, I decided to paint the interior doors as well. We plan on replacing the cheaper, hollow core doors with solid wood ones at some point. However, I have to live with these doors for right now. It took me some time - and cleaning - to realize that these doors were purchased pre-primed and then never painted by the home owner that installed them. I would try to clean them and the finish would turn a disgusting shade of gray. As usual, I forgot to take a before picture, but there are a lot of these doors in the house - all identical in style and type.

 

This picture does not do justice to how incredibly disgusting this door really is. Just trust me. It is nasty. Well, Wal-Mart was selling on clearance Almond Enamel paint. This was a nice, high gloss and easily washable paint that I thought would work perfectly for the doors. Cleaning them has been really easy. I tackled the dirtiest and nastiest door on the first floor - the bathroom door. This door gets a lot of handling, especially when we are working in the garden. Lots of dirty fingerprints cover just about every available surface of this room. I chose the almond color because I felt that it was a nice, warm color compared to the dirty gray. Plus, with the kids, a bright stark white just would not work. And I did not want dark colored doors as I want  our rooms to be as large, bright and airy as possible. 

 

I also chose the almond color because I thought it showcased the oiled bronze handsets beautifully. A true complement of finishes. Doesn't that look so nice?

 

This past week we had two unplanned projects land in our lap - a broken toilet and a leaking kitchen faucet. The plastic handle on the toilet snapped. I temporarily fixed it by tying a string to the chain that controls the flapper thing. We have really hard water so the guts of the toilet were in pretty bad shape after about 7 years of use. A week of flushing the toilet with the string seemed to have skewed the flapper position as well. My husband decided that we would upgrade and replace the inserts. Since we had to buy a new handle anyway, I chose one with a - you guessed it - oiled bronze finish. 

 

Doesn't that look nice? It is such an upgrade from the original cheap plastic handle. Plus, this is the toilet that has had the seat replaced - not just once; not twice; but three times! I don't think the problem is us. I think it is the quality of the plastic thingamajiggy that secures the seat to the toilet. We keep breaking those silly plastic things!

We discovered that the kitchen sink was leaking really bad. Some of the plastic gaskets had broken and the caulk was missing from around three-fourths of the sink. We had replaced the faucet about three years ago for the same reason. Instead of choosing a good, quality faucet, we went with the cheapest option we could find. It was more of an emergency and necessity. However, this time, I was blessed that my husband agreed we should invest in one of better quality. We were double blessed that Menards was having a nice sale on kitchen faucets! We were able to pick up our new faucet at quite a steep discount!

 

The faucet itself is higher up than the one that we replaced. This will make filling the watering cans, canning pots, and other pots and pans much, much easier. I also took the time to remove what was left of the old, moldy and disintegrating caulk with some nice, new caulk. No more leaks and a nice finish to the faucet. 

Now that we have recognized that I really like the oiled bronze finish, we are going to slowly integrate it into the house as we update, repair, and replace different things. So what types of finishes do you like or have you found that you use in your house on a regular basis?