Summer Household Project- (beginning and middle)

Each year we pick a one or two major projects to work on during the summer, depending on time, money and need.  Graduate School, summer jobs and newborn babies have affected our “time” factor always.  Last summer we had a “forced” issue at home that made us decide to rip out the last of the carpeting in our home… at the end of summer.  We began with the ugly carpeting up the stairs which we decided had to have been at least 30 years old… it was old when we bought the house but taking the carpeting away would make it louder and slippery on the stairs we always thought and so we resisted.  And we removed “white” carpet out of the boys room at the end of last summer and found the worst of our wooden floors underneath.  At that point we determined to take care of it in the summer of 2010, which we did!  We tackled the job in June after school was out but before it got unreasonably hot.  Weather affects the floors curing time as well as ventilation.  We toyed with the idea of completely redecorating the room too, as it is the first room we ever decorated in this house back in 1996 for the impending birth of our first child.  In the end we decided to clean it thoroughly and “touch things up”.  It’s still a cute room and we like it. 

Here we have our boys room emptied out completely.  The big stuff we put in a storage unit for a month keeping only what was necessary on hand.  There is only so much room around here to store beds, bookcases, cribs, etc.  Rick picked up the drum sander around 7:30 a.m. and spent the entire day working on the floor.  There are lots of “cut-outs” in this room which makes it take longer. 

This floor could have given you a splinter the size of a pencil!  I am NOT kidding.  Nathan could not be put down in his own bedroom all year.

A close-up shot of a badly worn spot in the middle of the room; an example of the floors condition.

We sanded half of the landing as well… just half so that we could still get into the other room upstairs and the kids wouldn’t ALL be completely displaced from bedrooms.  The difference is clear when you see it side by side like this.  The floor at the bottom of the picture was the condition of the floor we lived with all year.

This room is now sanded completely; a very loud process of heavy physical labor.

It is ready to be stained in cherry to match the natural wood panel in the center of all the doors in our house.

A look at the new and improved floor repaired in its worst damaged spot up near and between the closet and the chimney.

The kids had slumber parties all week in the other upstairs bedroom which included our Sandy-cat, who often camouflages herself in Lindsay’s pile of stuffed animals.  Sandy snuck herself upstairs since we were trying hard not to let cats get up there to walk on freshly stained floors.  Children were also forbidden to go beyond the first half of the landing and doorway to the bedroom.

Yes!  There is a little dust involved in sanding.  Rick minimizes the dust factor by vacuuming as he goes with his shop vac, a trick he learned on an earlier flooring project.  We were down one child when Haley left for Girl’s Camp and so we packed all the rest of the kids up and moved them into the backyard for the week so that we could refinish the stairs.

The staircase is completely sanded; a long and tedious job with the wood carving on the edge of each step which had to be done by hand.

Here is a good shot of the floor showing the difference between sanded and stained.  This is not hardwood actually but soft pine.  Pine was used in the less formal parts of homes in the past.  The planks are wider.  I love wooden floors, however they come.

We added three coats of polyurethane over all since it isn’t high traffic and repainted all of the woodwork in the boys room.  We gave the stairwell a complete paint job from floor to ceiling which freshened the place up so much we feel like we’re living in a new house.  Nathan loves his bedroom now which is clean, safe and totally rearranged to meet his needs as well as his brother’s. 

My kids enjoyed campouts with Dad, who kept them safe outdoors at night, and some really great sleeping weather while the job got done.  Adding in drying time, it took almost a week.

Rick seems not to have taken any final pictures of this finished project.  I guess that will give me excuse to get out the camera again.  He really did a beautiful job on the floors and made our home a nicer and safer place for our family.