Our Home Renovation

Just a quick update on the bathroom. The tile around the tub/shower turned out great:

I used a matte white tile for the field and a double row of khaki colored accent tiles all the way around with bright white unsanded grout.

The floor is slate with a natural gray colored grout. Both the shower and the floor still need their final cleaning, ao the floor especially will look a lot better than it does now.

Still to do: wainscoting on the walls (hopefully later today), paint, trim, install light above sink, mirror above sink, sink and toilet.

Of all the projects in our house, refinishing the hardwood floors is a task for which we decided to hire a professional.

The basic process is pretty simple, actually:

1. Sand the floors with a drum sander, use an edge sander to get in the corners and areas that the drum sander won’t reach
2. Apply two coats of polyurethane (or whatever you decide to use for protecting the floors)

Really, that’s all there is to it. Sure, there are a few minor things to take care of; like setting all the nails so you don’t sand them, repairing any damaged areas, etc.

So why did we hire someone to do it? Answer: the sanding. Drum sanders are easy and fairly cheap to rent, however you have to be extremely careful with them, as they’ll very quickly sand right through your floor. In our case, this was important because the floors throughout most of the house are very thin - about 1/4″. Sanding them down too far would be easy to do and would require expensive repairs or even replacement.

Time is another factor, as it’s taking a professional three days to do the floors. We can’t afford the time it would take a non-professional (i.e. me) to sand them down and then finish them.

We talked to friends and neighbors and got some referrals, then we looked in the phone book and called everyone we could find who was listed for refinishing hardwood floors. We got about 7 quotes all of which were pretty comparably priced. We chose AAA Floor Refinishing because we felt the most comfortable with them and were impressed with their quote and follow-up.

Today was the first day, and it’s already obvious that the floors are going to look amazing. Everything had been drum sanded and is waiting for the edge sanding. Then Chris will put on the first coat of polyurethane and then the second coat on the third and final day. By early next week, the floors will be completely dry and ready for furniture (though we still won’t be!).