Going Oregonic: Daniel-san, Show me 'Sand the Floor'.

I casually mentioned on Friday that we were planning to refinish the hardwood floors in our new house this weekend. We had high hopes to finish it all up in one weekend, but now we realize that's crazy. It's a looong, complicated process: Sand with 40 grit, edge with 40 grit, sand with 60 grit, edge with 60 grit, sand with 100 grit, edge with 100 grit, buff with 120 grit... and that's as far as we got. Now we have to clean up all the dust, seal them, let them dry, put one coat of finish on, buff again, clean up the dust from the buffing, and put one more coat of finish on. Why, on earth we thought we could finish all this in one weekend is beyond me.

You see, we had someone come out and look at the floors to give us an estimate on refinishing. They said, "These are in such bad condition, they really aren't worth refinishing... you should just have them replaced." Too bad replacing them would have cost $15,000. Sorry, floor people. We don't have that kind of cash sitting around without a name on it. Anyway, these people also offer classes on how to refinish your own floors, which Justyn and I both attended a couple of weeks ago. It was really great, because they let you use the drum sander and edger to get a feel for what they're like, and you can practice on some floor samples they have. Anyway, if you're going to refinish your own floors, I'd recommend finding a class like that and taking it. It was $40 but totally worth it.

Part of the reason we didn't finish in one weekend (but not the only, let me assure you) is that our floors were NASTY. After we did the 40 grit, there was still some of the old finish showing, some weird stains and streaking, etc. So, we did the 40 again. And then after the 60... same thing. So we did the 60 again. We're overacheivers, Justyn and I. When we took our class and they were listing the steps, they said "DO NOT SKIP STEPS!!" Because, really after the first round of sanding, your floors already look a lot better, and it is tempting to just be like, "Eh, that's good enough." But noooo... not us. We add steps because we're just like that.

Anyway, like I said, we're totally not done yet, but I wanted to give you an update and show you some 'before' and 'during' photos.