Pine floors

When I first bought this old house over 22 years ago, the stairway, hall and second floor bedrooms all has beige carpet-ugly beige carpet. Although it wasn't exactly new, it wasn't awful carpet. The awful part is that it is still on the floors and now it is awful-really, really, really awful. It has been on this floor through several dogs, multiple teenagers, multiple grandchildren, and I would be misrepresenting it if I didn't include myself as one of the participants. So we decided that if the outside were to get a face lift, so should the inside. The first step was painting all of these rooms in this house and since we were going to replace these carpets, why use drop cloths when you paint? The painting is now done, so the floors are next. But since I refinished the wood floors in two of the five bedrooms on the second floor over a couple of years several years ago, Max decided they should all be wood. I really do like wood floors, but I really didn't want to refinish these floors, because it is a lot of work, and she was talking about me doing 3 of them instead of just one at a time. I love, absolutely love, wood floors. Especially the wood floors in an really old house (circa 1895)- wood that has been around so very long. Seems so very painful to cover it up with a nylon pile. But Don wasn't so sure- first of all- returning an old wood floor- especially one that has never been loved- is no small feat. Don knows- he did it on two of the fiver rooms on this floor. But I was determined- so I nagged, and nagged, and nagged, and nagged. So in addition to picking out new carpet, we also contracted to get the floors refinished. The carpet on the stairs, hallways, and 3rd floor will be replaced after they finish the wood refinishing. They started yesterday (Wednesday) by first moving all of the bedroom furniture out of the rooms and into the empty spaces on the rest of the second floor.

Below is our hallway. That's the cherry chest of drawers/mirror that belonged to Mom. Behind it is one of our queen beds. The hall is officially clogged.

This is my study, or at least it was before it got stuffed with everything else. I was able to climb over several pieces and around a book shelf to get to my socks and underwear. That was a relief. It has been quite a challenge trying to pack for a trip to Phili (we're going to help Matthew and Sharon move into their new condo- Hurrah!)- I can't get to any of my blue jeans- too much furniture between me and them- so we'll just have to "make do"- but am feeling so grateful I won't have to smell this "stuff" in the air much longer.

And this is a giant vacuum dust sucker that they put in our entry way to try and keep the dust down while they sanded the floors. This vacuum was plugged into our 220 volt dryer outlet in the basement.

The floors on our second story are solid 1X 4 pine boards that have never been refinished since they were first nailed down over 114 years ago. Some previous owner decided that wood was out and so they repainted, much like I did, and splattered paint all over these floors before putting carpet over it. But these floor sanders can take off anything and they brought out the beautiful wood that is below.

Today I came home to floors with a first coat of urethane on them. It will take two more coats that will be put on tomorrow and Saturday, but the floors will be done by Monday. The smell right now is pretty awful as the urethane dries, but we will survive.

Next they will pull the old carpet off the stairs, hall and 3rd floor and put down new carpet. So we are hopeful that in just over another week, this old house will be done.