Adventures in Remodeling - Hardwood Flooring

You buy a beat up old wreck of a house and what's the first thing a girl does when she gets the keys?  Well, pull up the carpet and see if there is hardwood underneath.

Yay! Wood floors!

The next thing you do, because you don't know any better, is rip the baseboard out in an effort to "update" not realizing how incredibly expensive it will be to replace it.  Lessons learned....

Sanded, stained and finished

I rented a gigantic sander and went to work thinking it shouldn't be all that difficult since my Mother Units husband is a furniture refinisher and I had done a lot of work for him, mainly sanding and staining because it's really hard to do that wrong, but I figured finishing couldn't be all that difficult with the right tools and some advice from someone who actually knew how.

I had help sanding, it actually only took a couple of hours to use the giant sander and get the main part of the floor done, living room, dining room and one bedroom downstairs (the second downstairs bedroom was being used as a "tool room" and completely inaccessible).  Thank the Gods for help!  Sanding the corners and edges though, took the better part of an entire day.  So, 17 hours after starting, I had a sanded, stained and ready to finish floor.  Yep, SEVENTEEN hours!  Of course I was doing this on the weekend between school and work and it needed to get done before I moved in on the first of April and it was impossible.

Once that was done, I turned to a trusty co-worker who had done this type of project before for assistance/advice in finishing.  He was kind enough to not only give me instructions, but take time out of HIS schedule to come over and actually apply the finish while I stood around helpless wondering what I could do to help.  "Nothing, it's pretty much a one man job" is what I was told.  Allrighty then!!  Still, I am forever grateful for the help.  It took 3 more days, or evenings I should say, to finish the job and at that, it still needed another coat but I was running out of time and needed to get moved in when the house I was staying in was being turned over to a new renter.

The "tool room" switched from room to room as finishing of things was needed and my little brothers actually ended up sanding and staining the room that didn't get done initially when they came to live with me for a bit. The tool room also remained the tool room until May 2011 only being moved to the garage (probably where it belonged to begin with) temporarily during the time my little brothers were staying with me as all the space in the house was being occupied by humans.  My precious tools had to go to the garage.

What remained of the Tool Room May 2011

Finished Product May 2011

I bought the house in Feb of 2007 and it wasn't until moving out in 2011 that the baseboard had been replaced.  Never rip perfectly good 10 inch baseboard out of a 100+ year old house.  Just don't.  You'll be happy you didn't even if you have to paint the crap out of it to make it look right.