From the very first time I stepped into our OC Cottage, I fell in love with the original wide plank floors.
There was no question in my mind that with a little love they could be brought back to life. Like most of the major stages of this project, it wasn't without stress and maybe even some tears.
In recent months we have started getting estimates for most of the work (Drywall, Floors, Tile Work, Painting, etc). One, it gives us an opportunity to have an expert come in and give us their professional opinion. Two, we can evaluate our time and money versus the contractor's. With DIY sites galore, the home depot, and HGTV, it feels like there is not much that the average homeowner cannot do themselves. We first took the us vs. them approach with the drywall. We seriously considered doing this work ourselves instead of contracting the work out. After getting three estimates, we finally decided that our walls were something we needed to leave to the professionals. (they turned out awesome, and it took them only about a week)
We approached the task of refinishing the floors no differently. However, all the contractors we had come in said that in their opinion, our floors were not worth salvaging. In fact, we would be better off using the existing boards as a sub-floor and laying down new flooring. One guy quoted us a great price to do the job - we even paid him the deposit. After waiting for two weeks to get him in to start the job, he called Andy to say the floors were beyond repair. *TEARS & BREAKDOWN* I literally pouted like a small child. Finally I sucked it up and we started looking into new floors. No surprise, the only flooring I liked was hand-scraped (distressed) and authentic hardwood. Also no surprise? This is currently the most popular and most expensive. $10/sq ft to get the look of the floors WE ALREADY HAVE. $5,120 for just the materials! Specialty stores, home depot,
metro hardwoods (this place deserves its own post), lumber liquidators... nothing could compare to looking at our original 1915 pine floors every day.
Last Thursday Andy came home from working at the house and proposed that we rent a sander and try the floors ourselves. I truthfully, have
no idea why it took us so long to come to that realization. I even resisted him on it and said that we didn't have the time. Patiently, he waited until I came around... I didn't just come around - I became obsessed!
Yesterday I took the day off of work and finished the kitchen (the living room was done earlier in the week). We had only planned on refinishing the floors in these two rooms. The back hallway was previously the kitchen and had layer after layer of tar over the wood from whatever type of flooring had been put on over it. Our idea was to either put flooring over this area or sand it smooth to at least paint it. Well, like I said, I became obsessed. Knowing that the
vibrating sander we had rented (picture above) would not cut through the tar - I exchanged it for a heavy duty drum sander. These things are no joke. While trying to figure out how to turn it on, the sander took off on its own down the hallway! I eventually figured it out and 3 hours later had all of the tar off and the floors sanded down to the original wood.
We aren't done yet -- still need to sand the edges, stain & coat. There is one section of the boards we need to replace that will be a little obvious. I'm going to stencil a
chevron pattern over this strip prior to the final coat to add a little color and distract from the wood transition. Hopefully it comes out as I am envisioning. Final Before & After photos to come. For now, before sanding & After sanding shots:
We are
so excited with not only how the floors look but that we were persistent and ultimately ended up saving ourselves
a ton of money! Here is the project breakdown so far:
Vibrating Sander rental: | |
Drum Sander rental: | |
Sand Paper | $126 |
TOTAL: | $261.00 |
