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| Refinishing the hardwood floors in the living room |
One more project off the honey-do list. Re-finishing the hardwood floors in the living room. Photos down below.
Thursday night Curt pulled up the old carpet and pad. Then Curt pulled out the tacking strips aroud the perimeter of the room, while I started pulling out staples.
Friday morning we finished pulling up staples and nails, and went to True Value to rent the sander and purchase the polyeurothene. It took most of the afternoon for Curt to sand the floor. Three passes, moving from a courser to finer sandpaper each time. Vaccuming and removing dust inbetween each. By 8pm he was finally ready to lay the first coat of poly. We let it dry overnight. It was pretty stinky and still tacky upstairs, so we blew up the air mattress and slept downstairs.
Saturday morning we were up at 8am. Didn't really sleep too well. Curt got the final coat of poly on while I ran to the fabric store (I know... I'm a bad wife. But it was the last day of the sale.) While I was gone George tried to break through the kiddie gate, plastic, and duct tape barracade to "help" Curt. Curt made a mad dash and grabbed him before he got onto the very wet floor. More duct tape and a chair were added for reinforcement.
We're going to let the last coat continue to dry overnight before putting the furniture back in. It's dry enough now (6 hours later) that you can go through in sock-foot to use the bathroom (Woo hoo! No more trips to the gas station!)
I think it looks beautiful and well worth the effort (not so sure Curt would agree... :)
A woman at work told me that she and her husband attempted to refinsh their floors and finally called in a company to finish the job (for $800). We spent $125 on material, but I lost count of the hours Curt put in on it. It pretty much consumed most of the weekend.
[Click on photos to enlarge.]
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Old carpet
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You should have seen the dust fly when he pulled this out.
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Carpet piled on the front deck.
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The floor is revealed....along with all the one million staples and perimeter tacks that held the carpet in place. You can see chunks of the pad still held down by staples.
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George is helping.
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Curt starts up the sander. He made three passes in total, with a finer grade sandpaper each pass, and removing dust inbetween each.
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You can really see in this photo, the difference the sander makes.
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Curt starts putting on the polyeurothene. The first coat dried overnight on Friday.
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Another photo of the first coat of poly being applied. The second coat dried all day Saturday. We sanded with fine grade steelwool inbetween.
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The finished floor. Going to wait until Sunday before putting the furniture back.
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The baricade to keep George in the kitchen, and out of the living room. Plastic, a kiddie gat, a chair, and lots of duct tape.
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George hides in a fort in the spare room where we piled some things from the living room.
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George helps push the air out of the air mattress Saturday morning.
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