Back in Business

We're back after an almost two week break - one week of 'camera gone missing', and the other week with the computer taken down to refinish our office and kitchen floors.

So first off, we now present last weekend's project:

(edited to add: I found the BEFORE BEFORE pics and just had to show you this is what the floors really looked like when we moved in 16 months ago - ugly linoleum and all. We also decided multi-colored walls just weren't our style either as you'll note in the new floor pic. Oh, and only refinishing the original wood floors was last weekend's project - we'd already done the other stuff including removing several layers of linoleum shortly after moving in.)

BEFORE

AFTER

I love the contrast of the darker flooring against the white walls. Don't know if we would've normally chosen the reddish stain, but it ties in with the existing woodwork in the rest of the house. I adore the "new" floor now. Much easier to clean than the dirty (no matter how much I tried cleaning it), unfinished floor.

The process we used: lightly sanded, applied a pre-stain, applied a single coat of stain, and applied 4 coats of water-based polyurethane waiting proper amounts of time in between each coat.

A close-up of the character of the wood floor.
Oh, and don't you like our beautiful peonies? I had to cut some because they're so heavy, they lay right over on the ground and with our recent rains, they were weighed down even more.

We're excited because tonight's the night we get to put the furniture and fridge back into the kitchen/dining room. We wanted to make sure the floor cured properly. It also means no more eating out - yay! To tell the truth, we get sick of eating out. Although it makes for less housework...

We'll post more pictures shortly. Especially a video clip of our little Houdini.