Refinished Floors
When we moved into the new (old) house, it smelled slightly of cigarette smoke so I knew the carpet in the family room had to come up immediately. Plus i am not a huge fan of carpet and the rest of the house is almost all hardwood. We were delighted to learn that the carpet was hiding a beautiful hardwood floor underneath it. The plank sizes alternate wide and narrow and there are wooden pegs inlaid throughout it. Though the plank sizes and wooden pegs were not carried out through the rest of the house, we knew that a drum sander and coat of stain would make it blend in.
Here are the before and after shots:
Since we were already renting the sander, we decided to go ahead and rip up the linoleum in the kitchen and refinish the hardwood underneath at the same time.
Remember the outdated kitchen with linolium floor pictured here?
.jpg)
Well now it is even worse, but only temporarily. It seems that underneath the linoleum was a layer of plywood. Underneath the plywood was the original floor which was a thick layer of a black tar-like substance. My husband was able to sand that off and uncovered a nice wood floor, except it was full of staples and nails. The staples he was able to remove but it took 4 hours - whoever stapled down that plywood must have been trying to set a world record for most staples used in a 10x10 space. The nails were sunk into the floor so we figured we would just leave them and chalk it up to the character of the house. Then we ran into a roadblock: the drum sander wasn't able to reach under the cabinet overhangs and the hand sander wouldn't stand a chance against the black tar. So after way to much work and trips to Home Depot, we decided it just wasn't worth it.
Outdated kitchen, now complete with even nastier floors:
Ah the joys of home ownership! ;)
Here are the before and after shots:
Since we were already renting the sander, we decided to go ahead and rip up the linoleum in the kitchen and refinish the hardwood underneath at the same time.
Remember the outdated kitchen with linolium floor pictured here?
Well now it is even worse, but only temporarily. It seems that underneath the linoleum was a layer of plywood. Underneath the plywood was the original floor which was a thick layer of a black tar-like substance. My husband was able to sand that off and uncovered a nice wood floor, except it was full of staples and nails. The staples he was able to remove but it took 4 hours - whoever stapled down that plywood must have been trying to set a world record for most staples used in a 10x10 space. The nails were sunk into the floor so we figured we would just leave them and chalk it up to the character of the house. Then we ran into a roadblock: the drum sander wasn't able to reach under the cabinet overhangs and the hand sander wouldn't stand a chance against the black tar. So after way to much work and trips to Home Depot, we decided it just wasn't worth it.
Outdated kitchen, now complete with even nastier floors:
On a trip to Chicago, we picked up several boxes of amazing porcelain 12x24" tiles at the Tile Outlet. I highly recommend this place for the prices - the tiles we bought were about $1 per sq. ft. cheaper than the porcelain tiles I found online. The tiles are a chocolate brown but have a patina finish that is teal colored in the right light. I love them! I tried to capture them in pictures but it didn't quite translate:
Annnywayyy, we aren't ready to rip out cabinets and walls yet and don't want to lay the tile until we are ready to redo the whole kitchen so now we are living with a unfinished wood floor in the kitchen complete with a border of black tar!
Ah the joys of home ownership! ;)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Comments