NewlyWoodwards

an unconventional home

Renovation progress report – week 41

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While we were loading 600,000 boxes at IKEA this weekend, Ryan was relaxing.

Psych! (That never gets old.)

Ryan’s been finishing the floors. As with every other large project, Ryan begins by insisting it’s going to be quick, smooth and easy. By the end of day one, he’s screaming expletives and swearing he will NEVER do the project again.

Welcome to Sanding Floors 101 with Ryan Woodward. He’s really quite good at refinishing floors and this is his third time doing it. While the efforts are rewarded at the end, it’s really not a super fun job. With that said, he finished sanding the kitchen, two bedrooms and upstairs landing.

He began with these rooms because they all have the same pine flooring with wider boards. He had to rent a drum sander the first day and come back with an edger on day two to get the edges.

These rooms are seriously large, so it was a big job. But by the time the sanding was done, it looked really great. The boards were just lovely. It’s truly amazing that 120-year-old boards can look so good.

I took pictures of all the rooms after sanding, but of course I accidentally deleted them from my camera before uploading. (One of those days.) So here’s the only one I have at this point, when we began staining.
That wood is seriously gorgeous, right?
Considering, this is what we began with.
When the floors are totally complete, I’ll do a proper before and after.

Last week, I mentioned that Ryan and I were at odds on stain color. We were. Usually, Ryan just gives me creative license to choose colors/styles/decor items and the like. But floors are unique in that Ryan has a strong opinion. Ryan wanted reddish-toned floors. I wanted a dark walnut. As you can imagine, these visions are pretty different from one another.

So, when we went to Menards to pick out stain, we had a little battle of the wills. Neither of us were thrilled with the other’s choice. Then, we found a compromise. But, before we could check out, I had a change of heart. Why should BOTH of us compromise and then risk NEITHER of us being happy? Instead, I decided that Ryan should choose the color he wanted because he did all the sanding.

Of course, to this he replied that I should really pick out the color. He wanted me to be happy.

It went back and forth like this for a bit before I finally convinced him to pick the color he wanted. (I’m sure it was quite entertaining to other customers.) We went with Red Oak by Miniwax.

And wouldn’t you know, I love it. Ryan thinks he should make all decorating decisions now (fat chance). The color is really rich in person and goes super well with the doors, which we plan to keep stained. Here’s a sneak peak of our bedroom with the still-wet stain and no poly.

Ryan and I tag-teamed the staining. This is unique, because we typically work on our own projects independently. But doing it together made the process relatively quick and less painful. He put the stain on and I followed behind him to immediately wipe it off. (We didn’t want it too dark or to soak in too much.) We use old socks for the task which work like a charm.

Here’s the extra bedroom.

We’ve still got to stain the kitchen and poly everything, but progress is being made. And nothing is better than finishing the floors. Just so gratifying.

(We aren’t really the tutorial types. If you are interested in steps to refinish floors, head over to Chic Little House. They did a nice job explaining everything.)

So, that was the week. We are both tired and reek of stain. And my knees hurt. Did I mention that we’re tired? But, the results are well worth the pain, right?

What do you think?

Comments

  2. The floor looks fantastic! I don’t usually like red but I love the stain. Great job!

    Also – I use socks to wipe off stain too. Its my way of ensuring my husband stops wearing socks with holes in them 🙂

  5. the floors look great!! and I am glad you guys tackled the stain together, because – after arguing about it – what better way to come together again as a couple? 🙂 the couple that stains together stays together, right?? 🙂

  6. ❤ the color of the floors. Can’t wait to get home and see it all in person. All that hard work is really becoming visible. Keep up the good work sweetie!

  7. Those floors look amazing!! I can’t wait to see the new IKEA cabinets! 🙂

  11. The floors look amazing!! I would have thought you had put in all new hard wood. Absolutely beautiful!

    By the way, thanks so much for letting me know about the crafty cutter party the other day!

  14. Those floors are GORGEOUS. Wow! And I heartily approve of the final color choice – it’s the same as our floors. : ) (And I still love it 3 years later, for whatever that’s worth)

    The house is really coming together!!!

  15. Oh my goodness, your floors are gorgeous!! I love that about old houses. What kind of flooring do we use today that would still look so good over 100 years later??
    The house is really coming along now, Kim. I bet you are so excited!!

  17. Those look awesome! I don’t know how B and I would do with this renovation thing, but I have a feeling I would definitely not be scoring 4000 wife points with generosity. Ever. You’re awesome and so are the floors.

    Oh yeah, and I think you could use chili powder, I’d throw in a little bit of red pepper flakes or something to give it some zip!

  18. Looking good! Love the stain choice! And it’s always good to let the husbands win 1 battle every now then..but don’t let it happen too often. 😛

  21. Wow I can’t believe how great the floors looked after sanding. I am liking the color. I think that would be a hard choice because I am sure there are so many colors and it is overwhelming.

  22. I’m sure either color would have been great, but this color is BEAUTIFUL! You were very generous to let Ryan have his color. 4,000 wife points for you! 😉