The snowball effect

It happens during every project.  You think you will just, oh, refinish all your floors and all will be well.  Then when everything is moved out of the way, other ugliness is painfully obvious.  Like this eyesore of a closet:

It doesn't seem that bad in the pictures I've shared before...

But there was evil lurking underneath the pretty clothes and organization.  Boozy Suzie decided it would be a great idea to rip out the original wood closet and put in this awesomely clunky melamine closet system. In every room upstairs. Then she slapped some spackle on the scars left by the original structures and called it a day.  Boozie Suzie, if we ever meet, I swear....!  You can see in this picture how the original bar for the clothes rod went around the room at a 64-inch height.  It was poorly concealed after it was removed.  I started painting the closet to match our bedroom, but then realized I needed to sand the entire closet down:

I had always hated the ugly white color of our closet, but never realized just how bad the spackle situation was.  They never bothered to sand any of it, they just painted over it and called it a day.  Also, they decided to put these ridiculous melamine pieces with huge plastic hooks on them on the short walls between the closet and the doorways.  I'VE HATED THEM the entire time we've lived here.  They belong in a non-stylish kids room. 

Of course, this was underneath those strategically-placed pieces:

Wheeee!  That was fun to take care of.  There also was some sort of hardware attached to the ceiling above the built-in dresser, and this is how they handled that little problem:

Winner winner, chicken dinner!  They also never repaired the baseboard that had been notched out, so that's on our plate, too:

Aren't the baseboards looking so fresh and clean?  I really can't blame the previous owners, though.  We messed these up a lot during the floor refinish.  But they don't look like that anymore!  So, what was the plan for this closet?  Well, I shall tell you:

Paint ceiling, all trim and built-in dresser

Paint walls to match our bedroom (Behr Aqua Smoke)

New hardware for the dresser

New light fixture to replace the totally boring hallway light

New plush rug

New hooks to replace the silly plastic ones

New configuration for the shelves (which we have more of), also spray-painting the yellowed ones

A new look for the clothes rods, which were covered in that awful plastic sheathing that people put on wood dowels:

And here's a teaser of what's coming up next week!

Have a great weekend!

Russet Street Hoarders

Aren't you just astounded by that show?  We've definitely been feeling like hoarders throughout our floor refinish.  But after having our living and dining rooms look like this for the last two weeks:

Things are slowly getting back to normal.  The guest bed mattress has moved back into it's room.  Most of the clean laundry has been moved back upstairs, and the dirty laundry has been washed put into the laundry room until further notice.  However, since oil-based poly can take up to 30 days to fully cure, we aren't putting any of the furniture back just yet.  So, we are climbing over stuff for awhile longer.  The guest room is holding the worst of the mess...

And our room still looks a lot like this:

Just makes you want to lounge in bed, doesn't it?  I really want to move all the dressing room furniture and clothes back, but we're going to wait at least two weeks after the last coat, or April 11th to move the dresser and bookcases back in there.  The rugs won't go back in the rooms until four weeks after, April 25th.  This is the price we pay for using the oil-based poly, but it's worth it to see the rich, warm color our floors have.  Until this Sunday, we're going to enjoy being a little bit lazier and messier than usual...well, I'm going to enjoy it!  Tell me, are you a neat freak or a *little* messy like me?   

April showers

We are in the middle of a stormy couple of days in Wisconsin. 

Last night the lighting was giving us quite a show while we were watching Intervention (tear) and the thunder would sometimes shake the windows.  I woke up this morning to the rain coming down in sheets and had to DRAG myself out of bed because it was so nice to lay there listening to the storm.  Ok, I was listening and Shaun was doing some heavy mouth breathing in dreamland.  Rain is to be expected in April, but I do have mixed feelings about the extreme amount we're getting. 

Pros: 
My budding plants (no winter casualties that I can see!) and grass really need it
Our patio/siding/windows needed a good cleaning
I've always liked the sound of rain

Cons:
93% humidity does not bode well for my floor poly curing, or for our basement, or for my hair.  Seriously, 93% humidity shouldn't be legal.  Along with 93% of reality TV. 
Oh yeah, there will be puddles in the basement 
Our gutters aren't big enough on one side of the house, so water just plummets off the house and soaks all the wood trim
I still haven't gotten our rain barrel hooked up.  FAIL.
Pier 1 has a 15% off coupon good today only, and it sucks to shop in the rain
I hate getting rain on my glasses - HATE IT
It is really dark outside, so I can't take decent photos for the blog

So, the bad totally outweighs the good.  Do you like how I do a 'pro and con' list, like I can actually do anything about it?  I guess I can think "STOP RAINING PLEASE!" and hope mother nature listens.  Are you getting lots of April showers? 

Our finished floors

Well, almost finished.  I still need to repaint all the base trim and install shoe moldings.  But, the floors themselves are looking mighty fine!  Here are the goods....

As you can see in these pictures, there is a lot of variation in the stain, which was pretty much unavoidable because of the condition of the floors.  Many people think that refinishing is simply cosmetic, but that is simply not true.  Much of the poly was rubbed away up here, and that made the wood very vulnerable to wet feet (and paws!) from the bathroom, spills, accidents, and just general humidity - which we have a lot of in WI.  If you have wood floors that are in bad shape, it is best to refinish before there is real damage that will affect your floors in the future!  I actually like the dark spots, though.  It looks pretty cool, especially in the art room:

And here is the cost breakdown for this project:

4 Gallons Varathane Satin Polyurethane $148 (would have been 3 gallons if we hadn't messed up!)

24 hour sander rental with paper  $87

Hand sander sandpaper  $20

4 Quarts Varathane Espresso Satin  $28

Lambskin applicators  $18

Suits and booties  $11

Tack cloths  $6

Total -  $318. 

And we will spend another $300-$400 to do the remaining 3 bedrooms in the future. It works out to be less than $1 a square foot.  Not bad condsidering a professional would charge around $4 a sq ft!  Side note if you are considering this project, everything you've heard about dark floors is true.  Every speck of dust, every hair, anything will show on dark floors.  But I love the color, and it takes no time at all to Swiffer it all up.  I hope you love the finished floors as much as I do! 

Polyurethane those floors

The poly application is the hardest part of the floor refinishing process.  It completely kicks your butt, and makes you never want to do another floor refinish again.  But, kind of like childbirth, you develop a weird amnesia and do it again anyway!  For this poly job, we gathered our tools: a 100% pure lambskin applicator...

Varathane oil-based satin poly...

China bristle brush, paint tray (lined with a garbage bag for easy cleanup), tack cloth, and handle for the applicator...

One of the most important things when putting on poly is to make sure the floors are clean, lint and dust-free.  Let me say this again.  Vacuum, vacuum, and vacuum again!  Use those tack cloths like it's your JOB!  Block up those vents with plastic because there IS junk in your vents and it WILL blow onto your finish!  We didn't block off the vents for the first few coats and that made us have to do a fourth coat, which just sucked. 

When getting everything ready, it is imperitive that you prep your lambskin applicator.  Take some tape to it over and over again, get those loose fibers out of there.  I spent about 20 minutes with each applicator taping it to remove those fuzzies that look terrible in your finish.  Then, rinse it out with mineral spirits and let it dry a bit before using it.  If you are using water-based poly, use the applicator recommended to you for that finish. 

We started in the dressing room, and we didn’t think it would matter whether we went with the grain of the wood, so we went across it on the first coat. Don’t do this! You can see the stroke marks, so always go with the grain of the wood. Of course I don’t have any good photos of us doing it the right way.  Here's one, but you can't really see what I'm doing. 

(I swear my behind isn't really this big!)

When applying the finish, it is important to move into the wet from the dry whenever possible.  This helps to eliminate 'stop' marks that you would get from starting in a wet area and pulling into the dry.  Keep in mind that oil based poly dries slower, giving you more time to 'work' with the wet finish.  You have to maintain a wet edge at all times when working.  Water-based poly will dry within minutes, so it is not very forgiving for newbies!  We used the brush around the perimeter of the rooms, seconds before going over the middle of the same area of the room with the applicator. 

Try not to get too far ahead with the edging, you want to do the edges and the middle at the same time.  Again, do not go across the grain as this (BAD BAD) picture shows.  I ended up doing all of this portion of the hallway with the brush, it just was easier in that tight area.  Finally, we were done with the first coat.   

We let each coat dry for a day, even though the can says you can recoat after 4 hours.  We just kept running out of daylight.  After the coat is dry, it's important to scuff sand before laying down another coat.  We used 220 grit on a pole sander to scuff up the finish and get rid of bubbles, hairs, fuzzies, etc.

Don't be alarmed, you won't see any of this white stuff after you do another coat. Before coating again, use your tack cloth, and vacuum if there is alot of dust.   Always use a new applicator, don't even attempt to wash those things out.  If you are not keen on the lambskin applicator, we also tried a fancy 'professional' applicator with moderate success for the third coat, but the technique was a little to difficult to master this late in the game, so we went back to the lamb for the fourth coat.    

 

We also suited up in hats, coveralls and booties for the last coat to try to eliminate the annoying hairs we were getting in the finish:

These are really fun for seeing what you would look like in a fat suit.  Plus, my hair is in a plastic bag.  Klassy!

After all four coats, things are looking pretty good.  Finished floor pics tomorrow!

I'm a Kreativ, Sunshiney Karate Master

I have been so high on poly fumes busy working on things around the house that I haven't acknowledged some wonderful awards bestowed upon me by my fellow bloggers.  Without further ado, I want to thank these ladies for mentioning my little blog as one of their favorites! 
Early this month, I got the Kreativ Blogger award from my DIY soul-sister, Meg at House Notes.

Then, I got the Sunshine award from my almost-neighbor Kristi at Life at the Chateau Whitman.

Then, I got the incredibly funny 'Master of Karate and Friendship' Award from one of my newer blog reads, Nellie at McCarthy Designs.

I also realized a few days ago that I never put out a post when the lovely Jessica from Lavender and Lilies featured me on her site.....waaaay back in February!  Please check out that post here and also check out the rest of Jessica's blog, she is a fashionable girl, from her home to her clothing style.  Thanks again for the feature, Jessica!  And thank you so much to the other bloggers for thinking of me! 

Here are some blogs I'm getting into these days:

Eat Salt and Die

Finesse Your Nest 

EFeDesigns

The Flipping Couple

Sense and Simplicity

Cottage on Rosewood

First Time Fancy

Lovely Little Nest

One Lucky Couple

The Newlywed's Paradise

Our Poverty with a View

Wild Ink Press

Thanks for the inspiration, and please consider this a 'triple-award' from me!

ps - I just noticed that Brittney at Our Poverty with a View gave me a little blog love earlier this month.  Good thing she was already on my go-to list! 

Pop it like it's hot

When we were preparing the floor for refinishing, I knew we were going to have a hard time getting such a dark stain to go down evenly on the light oak floors.  So, I did a little experiment with a technique called 'popping the grain'.  It involves evenly wiping down a newly sanded floor with a damp rag and letting it dry fully before staining.  It opens the wood grain to allow the stain to more deeply penetrate the wood.  To test the theory, I bought myself a cheap pine board from Home Depot's scrap pile.

I sanded it well and taped it down the middle, using a damp rag on the right side only.

After waiting for it to dry, I whipped out the stairway stain we were planning to use on the upstairs floors:

This color is amazing.  Until this came out, so many online message boards were filled with people trying to 'create' an espresso stain.  People were mixing minwax Jacobean and Walnut, Ebony and Jacobean, etc.  This is one-stop shopping for the perfect shade.  Just don't be scared that it looks BLACK on the rag!

And here is the end result after one coat of stain:

The water-popping really worked well to help the stain absorb more fully.  And this is just soft pine, so I knew it would look even better on our oak floors.  Here is Shaun 'popping' the floor, his drawers were also doing a bit of 'popping', so you can thank me for not showing that angle!  

 

We let the floors dry overnight and put down our first coat of stain the next morning.  The stain had to go on in stages.  We used a lambswool applicator to put down a thick layer of stain on 1 foot sections, and then went to the next room to do the same, giving each area about 8 minutes to soak into the wood.  It looked like this:

After the allotted time of 8 minutes (this is a highly scientific measurement.  Just kidding, I don't do anything scientific.  Unless you count me trying to cook things) we would go back and work the stain into the wood either in circles or simply against the grain, like so:

And then I would come in afterwards and smooth everything out with the grain.

And so it went...

Until the entire first coat was complete.  We weren't happy with the first coat, though.  Because of the age of the wood and various water issues, we had quite a bit of splotchiness.

We also found some spots where the old poly had not been completely sanded off, which meant a light stripe was showing through where the stain didn't absorb.  We ended up doing this to take care of the problem:

Resanding those areas wasn't ideal, but it helped to eliminate that tiger-striped look.  After the second coat, things were looking better.

Because a second coat of stain doesn't absorb as easily as the first, we waited a full 48 hours to walk on it or apply the poly.  Many experts say that you should never do a second coat of stain, because the wood has already absorbed as much as it can.  However, if you allow enough drying time, you can successfully apply a second coat.  Next week I will share the 'poly' and 'after' pictures!