Floor Refinishing

If not for the Polish music drifting from the basement, I'd think I was alone in the house. It's so quiet, so empty. So ... very ... foreign. Sunlight mingles with dust in the living room and I wonder what's more striking: sunshine after a dark winter ... or is it the floor?

GC and his crew have cleared out the house. Gone are the ladders, saws and cans of paint, the scraps of wood, piles of molding and plastic bins over-flowing with trash. The house has been emptied for tomorrow's appointment with the hard-wood floor refinishers.

The bride is donning her veil.

I'm very nervous. I OK'd the floor stain weeks ago based on a four-inch test area in front of the refrigerator. We tested several colors, with the end goal of having very light floors but not so light that they look naked. We tried cherry, golden oak, natural, driftwood, early American and some other stains whose names escape me now. We also tried 50-50 blends, but I didn't love anything. How do you love something you can't envision? Emmanual, the floor-refinishing overseer, was adamant that I go with natural, which looked fine on the new floors but yellow on the old. A decorator urged me to blend natural with "just a touch of brown but no yellow or red." The painter suggested cherry to match the cabinets, but to my eye it was too matchy-matchy. Miguel the architect liked early American. I felt it would be OK if it was lighter, but when GC mixed early American with natural, the blend came out yellowish on our old, yellow-oak floors. In fact, none of the blended stains turned out well. Adding to the dilemma is that old floors take color differently than new ones.

So I decided to move on. I OK'd early American and let it go. But now, as I stand on dusty floors in this sunny room waiting for the floor guys to arrive on a day that's so bright my head hurts, the worries creep in. What if it's too dark? Too brown? Too mottled? What if I hate it?

Well, whatever goes down this week will be better than what's there now.

The hallway floors are a dark stain and are in dubious condition:

Since we expanded the dining room, it has both old and new floorboards:

The stairs are a very ugly orangish-yellowish stain that doesn't match the rest of the house:

Comments

[Lisa Rae]

Belated thanks for your colour advice of last week. I have looked at the Maritime white you suggested. I am liking the HC-35 in your living room and I'm sure the floors will turn out well!
Cheers!

[Kate]

We're dying of curiosity to know what's going on! It's been SO long since you updated the blog that I only suspect you're staining those floors yourself! Or you're all moved in.

I hope you keep this blog going when it's all finished. You're such a terrific writer.

[adrienne]

Kate,
That's so nice of you to check in! I haven't been able to update the blog because I've been spending so much time shopping for door stoppers and light fixtures! There is so much work yet to do...the blog will keep on going. Hope you are well,
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[Kendall]

Adrienne,
I have SO enjoyed reading your blog. I stumbled upon it this morning while researching flooring options for my kitchen renovation. We too have selected costa esmeralda counters and have red birch cabinets (similar shade to your cherry). I am stuck on hardwood floor color. I LOVE your color in the photos of the living room. What type of wood do you have in the kitchen? How are they holding up? We have three kids and only one dog, so I am worried about wear w/a darker shade. Any help/guidance you can share would be greatly appreciated. Keep on writing - you have a great talent!

[laminate flooring]

The floor is so dirt!

[carriage house garage doors]

Just wanted to take a moment to thank the author for their post, great info!

I had the same issue with my garage door in my old house. Hopefully I never have to do that again, what a PITA to fix it was! But it was even more annoying not getting a working garage door, so after putting it off for awhile I finally went to the hardware store to get new parts. I've in no way had to repair one before but it turns out that it's fairly straightforward to fix. Best of all the components are simple to discover either online or at the local large box hardware stores. It only took a couple several hours to take out the old components from the garage door and get it in functioning order once again, so I was pretty happy about that, and so was the wife!

[commercial garage doors]

Just wanted to take a moment to thank the author for their post, great info!

We recently had the exact same problem with our garage door. What a pain it had been to replace those parts! My wife likes to park within the garage though so I had to get it fixed otherwise I would never hear the end of it. I didn't have any experience fixing garage doors but fortunately there's quite a bit of info online and it's not that difficult. Best of all the parts are simple to find either online or at the local big box hardware stores. It took less than two several hours from begin to finish to obtain everything squared away and functioning again, and hey presto! functioning garage door!

[bathroom lighting]

I'm sure when the floorboards are finished it'll like a totally different flat ;)

[Kathy Carbone]

I'm excited to see your new floors! How does it look now? I am thinking of replacing my old wood kitchen flooring with tiles. I think it will be more appropriate to have tile floors in the kitchen, right?