Love our finished floors

This was the easiest improvement yet.  We leave the house.  Come back in four days and viola the works is all done.  Perhaps that is how "normal" people do home renovations. Maybe we will have to try this on more projects around here.

Jim and Nate started on Tuesday afternoon (November 4th) by sanding the floors throughout the first level of our house.

Nate sanding in the entry way

And the dining room

After finishing the first of three sanding passes, they filled the cracks between the joints as well as some of the larger "imperfections" in the wood and sanded again.  

"Filled" floor

We spent some time working out the specifics of the stain color.  We had a sample from a flooring store that complimented the wood that we are keeping on the stairs leading to the upper floor so we wanted to match to that color.  After multiple attempts at mixing various colors - walnut brown, medium brown, red mahogany - and trying to match it at Sherwin Williams, we couldn't quite get the right color.  Jim and Nate showed us a process called "water popping" the wood.  Water is applied to the raw wood which opens it up so that it takes the stain differently.  Using this technique and a 3:1 mixture of medium brown and red mahogany gave us a formula that was very, very close.  We moved our stuff out and went to stay with my brother, Tim, for the rest of the week while the boys worked their magic. 

Floor after water has been applied (Photo courtesy of Jim D.)

The water had to completely dry so the floor was left over night before the stain could be applied.  Wednesday morning the stain went on and after a couple hours of drying time, it was ready for polyurethane.  

Stain dry and beginning of poly applied

The polyurethane is oil-based so it has a very strong smell.  Additional coats were applied Thursday and Friday and then we were allowed to come back on Saturday.  We spent a couple of hours cleaning up the dust - it got everywhere and even though the guys cleaned up really well, there was still more that needed to be wiped away. The smell was so bad that we opened doors and windows even though it was rather cold outside (43 degrees) but that didn't help enough so we planned to go for a late, slow lunch and ended up enjoying Happy Hour (starts at 3pm) at The Big Bowl with Tim and his girlfriend, Andrea.  Had a great time catching up and got away from the smell.  It really didn't clear much at all on Saturday so we headed back to Tim's for another night. Yesterday (Sunday) I roasted some vegetables, baked homemade pizza and cooked in the crockpot which really help to lessen the poly fumes.  It is still noticeable when you walk in the house but it's not as overwhelming.  I am happy to put up with the smell to get the beautiful results that we got! 

Dining room into the kitchen

Entry way with stairway wood that we were coordinating with. 

 The floor is not as red as it looks in the picture above - I think it's the lighting that makes it look so red.  It really looks more like the picture below.

Back hallway

We are now waiting for the cabinet maker to come back and finish the cabinet install.  Today we occupied ourselves with installing the dishwasher.  Technically it is ready to use but I am not loading and running it until the corner drawers are installed and the dishwasher can be fastened to the cabinets.  I can just see it falling forward and smashing dents into the new floor.  Bad things happen when dishwashers are not secured and I have a fiberglass cast that fits Matt's 9 month-old arm to prove it.  But I will save that story for another time.

New dishwasher installed

We are getting there.  Next up cabinets worked on sometime this week and the counter is tentatively scheduled to be installed next Monday (11/17).  I am praying nightly that the counter company will stay on schedule.  I really want to cook on my new cooktop.  Emily and I already have the recipe that we want to make all picked out.  We are hoping to have Spinach and Kale Stuffed Pasta Shells for dinner on Monday.  Who's coming to join us?

Thanks for reading and we hope all the Minnesotans reading this are doing so in front of a nice hot fire.