Hallelujah! It’s hardwood floor time.

Getting married really put a damper on our home-improving. Mostly because of the time. Oh yeah, and the money. We were definitely strapped for cash.

But after the dust settled (and we were officially Mr. & Mrs.), we had enough cash left over for a project we had been really, really, really wanting to do ….

Remember these babies?

When we pulled out the wall-to-wall carpet on the second floor, we were thrilled to find out that the original 17-inch planks were still there, and in great shape. We were less thrilled that they were painted brown. Now, don’t get me wrong — in the grand scheme of things, it could have been way worse. They could have been destroyed and damaged, or painted a less-palatable color. So we were able to put up with the brown paint for about a year. But the floors were getting more knicked up by the day (the paint isn’t so great as a protectant), and our patience with the unfinished look was wearing thin.

We had previously gotten a too-good-to-refuse quote on refinishing them from the same guys that refinished our living room floor (TJ Hardwood Floors — we definitely recommend them for quality, reasonably-priced work). While it wasn’t cheap, the economies-of-scale made it more manageable (cheaper to do all of them at once than one at a time). Add the good price to the cost of my time and lack of expertise in refinishing hardwood floors, and we were definitely going to pay someone to do it for us.

The first step was moving all of the furniture around, after strategizing which rooms we’d tackle first (knowing we’d have to keep those rooms empty for about a week while the polyurethane cured, before swapping again for round two). That was a huge pain. But we got it done.

Next, TJ & his team got to work sanding. Which took allllllll day long. Really, I can’t complain, because I just went off to work while Alex worked at home to watch. But out of 8 hours in a day, approximately 7.5 went to sanding, while the final 0.5 was for sealing.

Sanding, in progress… there were many, many layers of paint.

Then there was more sanding. And more. And more. Also, some hammering (they did a few repairs along the way, but not many, especially considering we’re talking about 112-year-old floors). And finally, it came to sealing! Here’s where the magic happens.

Left: After sanding

Right: After one round of polyurethane 

(as you can see it still needs more sanding & topcoats)

Sidebar: why did we go with no stain, and traditional (oil-based) polyurethane? Well…. we really wanted that rich, caramel color that comes from traditional polyurethane over bare wood. We definitely were more interested in water-based (no-VOC) polys (for environmental reasons, but also for smell — we stayed in a hotel one night the vapors were so bad), and we even did some color tests (see picture below). But you don’t get any yellowing with water-based. Which usually is a good thing (why would you want yellowing?), however when it came to getting the richness of color, oil-based was the way to go. In hindsight, perhaps we could have gone with a stain followed by water-based poly, but we feel like the floors ended up beautiful, so for now we’re happy with the choice.

Top: Bare wood with water-based sealer (Bona Waterbased Polyurethane)

Bottom: Bare wood with traditional oil-based polyurethane

See how the traditional oil-based polyurethane brings out more of the wood’s character? While we surely could have figured out a better way to use the water-based poly and get the same color, we thought this was the way to go.

In the end, we think our floors look fabulous! There are still plenty of imperfections (weird cutouts where we haven’t quite figured out the original point, more than a few knots, etc), but we love them that way.

Love them!

Hallelujah! It's hardwood floor time.

Getting married really put a damper on our home-improving. Mostly because of the time. Oh yeah, and the money. We were definitely strapped for cash.

But after the dust settled (and we were officially Mr. & Mrs.), we had enough cash left over for a project we had been really, really, really wanting to do ….

Remember these babies?

When we pulled out the wall-to-wall carpet on the second floor, we were thrilled to find out that the original 17-inch planks were still there, and in great shape. We were less thrilled that they were painted brown. Now, don’t get me wrong — in the grand scheme of things, it could have been way worse. They could have been destroyed and damaged, or painted a less-palatable color. So we were able to put up with the brown paint for about a year. But the floors were getting more knicked up by the day (the paint isn’t so great as a protectant), and our patience with the unfinished look was wearing thin.

We had previously gotten a too-good-to-refuse quote on refinishing them from the same guys that refinished our living room floor (TJ Hardwood Floors — we definitely recommend them for quality, reasonably-priced work). While it wasn’t cheap, the economies-of-scale made it more manageable (cheaper to do all of them at once than one at a time). Add the good price to the cost of my time and lack of expertise in refinishing hardwood floors, and we were definitely going to pay someone to do it for us.

The first step was moving all of the furniture around, after strategizing which rooms we’d tackle first (knowing we’d have to keep those rooms empty for about a week while the polyurethane cured, before swapping again for round two). That was a huge pain. But we got it done.

Next, TJ & his team got to work sanding. Which took allllllll day long. Really, I can’t complain, because I just went off to work while Alex worked at home to watch. But out of 8 hours in a day, approximately 7.5 went to sanding, while the final 0.5 was for sealing.

Sanding, in progress… there were many, many layers of paint.

Then there was more sanding. And more. And more. Also, some hammering (they did a few repairs along the way, but not many, especially considering we’re talking about 112-year-old floors). And finally, it came to sealing! Here’s where the magic happens.

Left: After sanding

Right: After one round of polyurethane 

(as you can see it still needs more sanding & topcoats)

Sidebar: why did we go with no stain, and traditional (oil-based) polyurethane? Well…. we really wanted that rich, caramel color that comes from traditional polyurethane over bare wood. We definitely were more interested in water-based (no-VOC) polys (for environmental reasons, but also for smell — we stayed in a hotel one night the vapors were so bad), and we even did some color tests (see picture below). But you don’t get any yellowing with water-based. Which usually is a good thing (why would you want yellowing?), however when it came to getting the richness of color, oil-based was the way to go. In hindsight, perhaps we could have gone with a stain followed by water-based poly, but we feel like the floors ended up beautiful, so for now we’re happy with the choice.

Top: Bare wood with water-based sealer (Bona Waterbased Polyurethane)

Bottom: Bare wood with traditional oil-based polyurethane

See how the traditional oil-based polyurethane brings out more of the wood’s character? While we surely could have figured out a better way to use the water-based poly and get the same color, we thought this was the way to go.

In the end, we think our floors look fabulous! There are still plenty of imperfections (weird cutouts where we haven’t quite figured out the original point, more than a few knots, etc), but we love them that way.

Love them!

Mirrored Windows

So I had been obsessed with finding a so-called “architectural salvage” store since I learned of their existence from — of course — HGTV. The idea that there could be a warehouse full of treasures that you could add to your house? So cool! Of course, in my mind, they were also dirt-cheap treasures. Did I inherit the auction-ing gene from my mom? I don’t know … I do enjoy scavenging around, but that’s only because I not-so-secretly believe I am clever and lucky enough to find true gems among the trash.

Mostly I’ve given up on that dream, because, well, I found out that these stores do exist, but you still have to pay fair market value for pieces. I thought I could walk in and find those old-school glass doorknobs (which my house mostly has, save for a few doors), for a few dollars. Instead they’re $50-75 a set. What a bummer. And I value my time fairly highly, and also put a high time-value premium on having to clean anything. So I’ve found that buying already-rehabilitated pieces at yuppie stores is more up my alley.

But then I found BUiLDiNG CHARACTER (yes, that’s how it’s capitalized) – a self-proclaimed “30+ shops under one roof”, including architectural salvage, antiques, jewelry, art, home decor, furniture… etc. And it’s in Lancaster, which is about 2hrs from Bethlehem, and someplace that I’ve never been. So we made a trip down there.

They have many cool things, and it was the right balance for me … stuff that was already “finished”, such as this recycled-wood bar that we purchased, which was made out of the old flooring of the warehouse were the store is currently located. But they also had a garage-type room with stacks of “junk”, including rows and rows of old doors and windows.

I snatched up an old raggedy window, with a wood frame and old-school single-pane glass, thinking this might make a good “mirror” project. See, I had recently discovered this paint, Krylon Looking Glass, that, when sprayed on glass, would create a “mirror-like effect” on the opposite side! This is right up my alley — instant “upgrade”, for minimal time, effort, and money. So I had to try it.

My sweet, ratty, $10 window that I found at the industrial salvage warehouse! I know you’re jealous.

Since the panes were just about to fall out of the frame, I re-caulked around the edges. I took cell phone photos of this activity, but I recently upgraded to a new phone and didn’t save the old pictures. Oh well. Either way, caulking is NOT as easy as I remember it to be. Growing up in a 200+ year old house meant getting experience replacing window panes, however doing it myself this time, I couldn’t seem to get that nice smoothed-out finish that I was going for. It was blobby and very unattractive, but whatever, this was an experiment!

I Windex-ed the window panes on the side that I intended to paint, and then went to town with the spray paint (I didn’t bother to tape off the frame, as I planned on hanging this against the wall – no one would see the back). And then I started spraying. And spraying. And spraying. Oh, and this was after I dripped the paint all over the place, because I had unknowingly removed a little piece from the nozzle. This paint looked like liquid silver, and it stained my skin for days. And it’s got an incredibly high solvent content, so if you’re looking to get high off fumes, I highly recommend it. At one point during my spraying in the basement, Alex came down and opened the cellar doors, saying “If I can smell it all the way up on the second floor, I don’t even want to know what it’s like for you in here”…. meanwhile I was just thinking “Maaaaaaan, this is coooooool!”

I got about 5 coats in, and then decided, well, let’s let the mirror thing dry, and I’ll stain the frame. Why? I don’t know, I probably was high off fumes by this point. After doing an incredibly sloppy stain job (which, by the way, I didn’t bother to prep the wood, at all, and thus learned why it’s important for even distribution of the stain), I stood back to admire my handiwork.

My masterpiece of sloppiness

Good lord, it’s awful. Here’s where I went wrong, in my estimation:

1. Buy a better canvas — of course I picked a window that had paint on the glass, at least one cracked pane, and probably decades of dirt caked on it

 

1. At least try to clean it off, first. One minute of Windex-ing did very little. And here I was feeling so pleased that I was thorough and meticulous because I took the time to carefully remove all of the old (dried out) caulk before adding new caulk

 

1. And if I couldn’t get it clean enough … replace the glass! Jeeze. Nasty old dirty glass makes nasty old dirty-looking mirrored glass. Point taken.

 

1. For goodness sake, would it have killed me to prep the wood frame a little more?At least remove the patches of old paint?

 

1. And finally … use proper ventilation, so the fumes can’t go to your head

But have no fear… I ordered another can of that Krylon Looking Glass (which, by the way, is hard to come by! I had to go to Amazon for it. And it ain’t cheap, either, at $12/can for a mini spray paint can). And I have big plans for THAT can.[Cue foreshadowing]

New Living Room Floor!

Ok, so this might be cheating a little bit, because a blog titled “How Hard Could It Be?” somewhat implies that it might be Do-It-Yourself projects. That is a reasonable assumption. And for the most part, I plan on DIY projects. But I am proud to say that I’m not so arrogant that I think I can do everything (just most things) …. and refinishing hardwood floors is truly beyond me. So let’s leave that to the pros.

Alex and I had removed all of the carpeting on the 2nd floor (in the bedrooms / office), but the carpet in the living room remained. Primarily because we weren’t sure what we were going to find under it. The flooring was a mystery — we were 99% sure that it was not the same wide-plank pine found on the top two floors, especially given that the dining room was hardwood, and a medium-light stained oak. But, because we don’t own a vacuum cleaner (due to our aversion to carpet), the living room carpeting was getting pretty filthy. It was time for the carpet to come up.

The floor we found underneath was beautiful …. and destroyed. Well, “destroyed” is a bit harsh, but it was definitely messed up to the point where we could not tolerate it. It is difficult to tell from the photo — it just looks like a nice dark red-brown floor with a few paint spots on it — but in reality the floor was covered in paint, with some of it smeared over large patches. Additionally it was scuffed up pretty badly. Whoever last saw that floor clearly knew they were going to cover it with carpet, and didn’t even try to protect it while painting the room.

While we knew we were going to have the floors refinished on the 2nd and 3rd floors, we were prepared to deal with the brown-painted-planks on those floors while we saved up some money to pay for it. Even though it’s not beautiful, it’s not so bad, and it doesn’t look messed up. But the living room floor had to be fixed. We had a parade of contractors come through (since we had been meaning to hire an electrician & handyman to repair a porch post), and got several reasonable quotes. As luck would have it, we got a rebate check (for money that we had already spent and forgotten about, so it was like getting “free” money) for the same amount that it would cost to redo the floor. So we went with it.

I didn’t get to see how the guys did the first part, because I was trying to sleep upstairs. They came at 8am on a Saturday morning, and Alex was the unlucky one who went down to greet them. I just lay in bed listening to major sanding and vacuuming for an hour. But when I came downstairs I was greeted by a raw-wood floor. It looked good.

They put the stain on right after, then told us they would be back in two days. When they came back, they said the floor was still too damp, so they pushed it back another day. After two more 8am visits, they had applied the polyurethane in two coats, and told us to stay off the floor for another 24 hours. We waited impatiently (made worse by the fact that all of our living room had been crammed into the dining room, so we had to climb over furniture in there to watch TV or eat dinner), and finally the moment came.

Our fabulous newly-refinished floors!

The new floors look great! Like I had hoped they would look when we took out the carpet. It’s amazing how much better the room looks now, with a fresh coat of paint (we painted it a warm off-white before removing the carpet, a switch from the green-tinged cool white and brown accent wall that was there before), and with these new floors. Now all we need is for our couch to arrive!! (Ordering real furniture is overrated … you have to wait for weeks before it comes in!)

Rating: How Hard Could It Be? ….. easy! $500 and a few days of cramming into one room was all it took

Fixing Up the Furniture

Like many people my age, the majority of furniture I’ve owned (and approximately 100% of the furniture that I’ve purchased) has been from IKEA. I like IKEA furniture. It looks good, it does its job, and then when you inevitably break it, you don’t feel too bad, because you can just go out and get another one without breaking the bank.

It’s hard to transition into purchasing “real” furniture when you’re moving from apartment to apartment — why buy a couch that fits perfectly in your living room when you’re going to be moving in a year anyway? Now that I own a house, however, I’m trying to switch to more permanent pieces.

Fortunately, I have a start to my collection, in the form of hand-me-downs (the best way to get real furniture, as it’s free!). My grandmother had given me a lot of various pieces, including 2 buffets, a dining room table & chair set, a dining room hutch / cabinet, a sofa table & ottomans, an upholstered sitting chair … etc, etc. All nice, solid furniture. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really to my taste. I don’t know anything about furniture, and what is valuable vs. just old, and so before touching any of the pieces, I asked my grandmother if she would have a problem if I painted it (I don’t want to desecrate the memory of her home or anything!). She responded with “Honey I don’t care if you chop it up and burn it as firewood”…. so I took that as a carte blanche to update the pieces as I saw fit!

Two years ago, I tackled the buffets first. They were a very 70’s-style orangey-brown wood, and in general, nothing much to look at.

But they were solid pieces, and useful — the large buffet could hold tons of stuff! And since we had recently moved into a 650-sqft condo (with two humans, two dogs, and two turtles), extra storage was a plus. I gave them a quick and easy facelift with some brown paint and new hardware (I’m not ready to delve into the world of stripping wood, sanding down, and staining it … sticking with paint for now).

The two buffet tables, after I got to them with a few cans of spray paint & new knobs.

That was all of the refinishing I did for two years. The rest of the furniture stayed in storage, so I didn’t worry about what it looked like. Upon moving into our current house, though, some of the other pieces came into full view.

One set that I loved was a 1970’s era (when my grandmother got all of her furniture, apparently) Drexel chinoiserie-style sofa table. It’s a great size, and comes with two matching ottomans that tuck neatly underneath — perfect for extra seating as needed!

The problem was the chinoiserie style. I just can’t get down with it. And I knew that there would never come a time in my life when I would think “Gee, what this room really needs is some oriental-style furnishings”. So after much debate with others (some who felt it was desecration, and I should at least sell it to someone who would appreciate the style, and some who were fully in favor of painting it), I thought back to my grandmother’s words, and figured that I’d go for it.

At the suggestion of a family friend (who has awesome taste and knows quite a bit about antiques and furniture in general), I went all-out with a Robin’s egg blue. I was originally going for a grey linen-type fabric for the reupholstering, but I let Alex choose the fabric and he picked out something fabulous — a dark/light gray polka dot satin. Long term, I would love to replace the black glass inset on the top with a mirrored glass (ideally one with an antiqued look), but I’ll deal with the black glass for now.

The sofa table & ottomans, after the Kelley Treatment … P.S. you are getting a sneak-preview of the new floors! More on that in the next post…

I tried my hand at giving it a “distressed” look. I didn’t want it to have a freshly painted look, so once the paint was dry I scuffed it up with a sander (Note: use sandpaper and your hands — I tried using a random orbital sander and it’s just not quite right), and then I applied some “antiquing glaze” that I got at Lowes. Basically it looks like dirty paint-mud. I guess I could have just got some mud from outside. Either way, it dirtied it up. Perhaps a little too much. But hey, now I know for next time.

Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away, and didn’t get to see how I’m treating her old furniture. Still, I’d like to think that she’d approve, since after all, it looks pretty fabulous (at least in my opinion).

Rating: How Hard Could It Be? …. easy to medium. Painting is pretty straightforward. “Antiquing” isn’t as obvious as I thought it would be. It takes skill to get that “weathered” look without it looking like you deliberately sanded and painted it with mud.