Stick a fork in them...

I ended the last flooring post on a note of frustration, so I wanted to update that the floors are DONE!

It took Matt a few evenings to hand make the two needed transition pieces, but we're both really happy with the end result.

 

Here is what they looked like before:

To start, he routered (is that a word?) the new floor so that the edge was straight and even.  Then he used a leftover piece of floor board and cut it to fit into the groove and sit on top of the floor.  I made that sound simpler than it was, it definitely took some careful planning, lots of measuring, and a steady hand! 

We since have spent the last couple of weeks cutting and painting trim boards.  We bought new trim boards because we knew we wanted something a little more substantial than what we already had. We also had oak trim before and it pains Matt to paint any wood he considers of quality.  So, we bought some cheaper, wider, pine boards (we can reuse the old trim in the basement).  Matt cut, I painted, Matt nailed them in place.

  So nice to finally have it look finished (though the children concurred that they liked the '80's carpet better...we resist change around here)!
 

Now we just need to decide what the next big project should be!  Bathroom? Kitchen?  Basement?

Woot! The floors are done....and yet still not really done.

I previously posted how Matt had laboriously installed our new hardwood flooring through out the dining and living rooms on the main floor (here and here).  As planned Dakota Floors came out last week to sand and stain them-what we thought would be the final step.  Well, they are mostly done...but I'll get to that later.

For now, let's focus on the positive.  I'm very satisfied with the way the floors turned out!

 

Here is the before shot of the entry way.  Not a lot of work was done in here by us, but we had them professionally sanded and restained.

 

Here is the entry way now. 

 

 

It's a little bit of a "wah-, wah".  However it does look different, even if not drastically so.  It's richer and warmer and not quite so orange.  We did go into this project assuming the entry was white oak (like the wood we purchased), but found out from the guy who finished them that it is actually a mix of red and white oak.  You can definitely tell how the different woods took the color differently.  If I could change it, I would probably prefer it to be all white oak, but I also like it the way that it is.

Moving on to the dining room:

(I decided to go way back for a before shot.)

 



This is why it's good to take photos!  I forgot that we used to just have a folding table in here.  It was where we did school and other art projects.  So, thankful that Matt built us a dining table to eat at!  The above photo also gives a nice appreciation for the 80's carpet and ceiling fan.

And Dining room now:

 



 

This room is all white oak stained walnut.  It's exactly the color I wanted and it looks fabulous with our pre-existing wood features.  This isn't really an "after" shot because we do still need to put up the new baseboards, and I have a few dream projects for this room (can I get a second for a barn door and some built-ins?)  But, I'm guessing those are on like the "C" list if we are prioritizing...

 

Here is the living room before:

 

 Again, it's nice to look back.  This is not at all how the furniture has been arranged for over a year, and we have since taken down the outdated (though quality if I do say) curtains and the broken halogen floor lamp in the corner. Ooh, and do I see a little Vietnamese wall art...

 

And, here is the living room now. 

 

 

With the rooms being empty they look pretty much the same...except one is next to the stairs and one has a chandelier. :)

 

Last but not least, I thought I would show how the floors look where the entry meets the living/dining rooms.

 

And yes, that brings us to the annoyance factor of the "final" stage of this project, and the fact that they are not really finished.  (The real "wah-wah" moment.)  Turns out that putting in the transition pieces was not on the finishers work order.  There was some sort of miscommunication that led us to assume they were putting them in, and them to assume that we were doing them.  We didn't find out he wasn't doing them until the end of day 1 after everything had been sanded.

Now, Matt has to try to construct some pieces to fit, sand and stain them, then nail them in place.  Then put in wood filler over the nails and restain over the wood filler.  The process would have made a whole lot more sense if they could have been sanded and stained with the rest of the floor! And we would be DONE and not have to look at a quarter-inch gap between the floors and Matt wouldnd't have to spend his free time working on them....AND, AND, AND. 

But...I live a ridiculously blessed life, and complaining about such trivial matters seems, well trivial. 

I pray that we don't just strive to make this house more beautiful for the vanity of it.  Let's face it, we can pump a lot of money into this house to make it look good, and in a few decades it will look not good.  So, I pray our home may be blessing to our family and all those who enter; and even as we slowly change many surfaces in our home, may our hearts be filled with gratitude and contentment.

 



Woot, the floors are done...but not done.

The floors are doooooooone!!!

OK, by done I mean completely unfinished, but every bit of our work concerning the floors is over.  It only took three weeks (sigh) but Matt did an outstanding job and they are installed, swept, and ready to be sanded and finished!  Woot! 

The main reasons it took so long is 1. Matt is a perfectionist when it comes to his own work, B. Matt has never done this before, and III. We (Matt) only worked on Saturdays and evenings.  Not too bad considering this past week Fall activities started up again and we were busy almost every night.

 

So, Saturday Matt put in a full day starting about 10:00 a.m. and finishing a little before 7:00 p.m.

Of course, it's good if you have a little helper. 

Addie would work beside Matt with blocks and paper she pretended were her hammer and wood. She even had a children's Bible out and would "read" Matt the instructions for what to do next.

 

And speaking of helpers, I need to also give a shout out to our friend Jim Koch!

Jim is a servant and loves to work with his hands.  He showed up announced last Saturday and helped Matt with the floors for a few hours.

 

Here you can also see the floor nailer in action.

 

 

 

 Ironically it saved us a ton of money to buy one ourselves.  I would have to fact check with Matt, but it seems the rental fee was about half the price of buying a new one and you only got the nailer for a week.  We considered this option going into the project when we were naive and thought maybe this was a week long project.  So...we just would've been stressed out and frustrated about the situation, and we're glad we have one now.  Matt hasn't specifically mentioned putting up wood floors in the upstairs, but I'm sure he's thinking about it! 



So, (drum roll) here is the living room:

(This was obviously taken before we removed a couple of pieces of furniture but you get the idea.)

 



 

And the dining room:

 

 (in case you don't have litte girls at home, these two rooms are now basically dance halls)

 

I should have taken a shot of the rooms with the 1980's carpet for comparison sake, but I do think I have one in the archives and will have to find it for a true before and after shot when everything is all said and done.

 

Like I said, now they are ready to be sanded and stained.   We are going with an oil finish and opposed to a regular polyurethane finish.  This basically means the final look will be matte and not shiny and it will hide dents and scratches all lot better as time goes on.  The negative is that you have to put a special treatment over it once a month.  However, it only needs to go in the higher traffic areas (no moving furniture), and it dries within a few minutes.  So, really it shouldn't be any different than cleaning your floor.  We also checked the price of the solution, and it was very reasonable. 

 

That being said, here are the color choices we narrowed it down to:

Top left is antique, bottom left is walnut, and the right side is 75% walnut 25% black.

 

 

 It's hard to get a true to life color in a photo, but we definitely want something warm and yummy (which made me just think of a cinnamon roll...they're warm and yummy).  So, although in the photos I like the 25% black option, in real life it was a little too black so we are going with walnut.

 

Finally, here is our foyer.

 



We didn't do anything in here except the prep work of removing furniture and trim work, but they will also be sanding and staining these as well.  We debated forever about whether or not we should rip it all out, but it is in such good shape it seemed like a waste.  As a side note, it also would have been a lot of work since it is all nailed and glued down.

So, the color of this will be changing so all the wood flooring is uniform in color.  That was important to me since this floor has a lot of pattern going on and I didn't want wonky floors happening all over.  The final color won't be drastically different, but similar to the door that you see in the back of the photo.

 That's all!

We will have a crazy week of just staying out of our house for the next three to four days.  But, hey if I have to eat out a lot and hang out with friends for the sake of a house project I'm willing to do what I gotta do!