bedroom series part one: re-finish hardwood

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we moved in our house in january 2010.  the closing took forever and we ended up not getting to move our stuff in until two weeks before our wedding.  so at the time, i didn't get to do much updating or personalizing.  our living room and front bedroom are hardwood, and as far as we know and can tell, it's original to the house.  our back two bedrooms and hallway are a dingy berber carpet.  let me rephrase that.  our master bedroom had dingy berber carpet.... :)

 

and as i mentioned in our about us, our home is really small.  and our rooms are really small.  like so small that it's hard to fit much more than a bed and a dresser.  more cozy, right? :)  so my husband went on a trip this past weekend and i recruited my wonderful parents to help me rip up the carpet and finish the hardwood in 48 hours.  yes, i tend to be a little crazy with projects.  my parents didn't help me--they did all the work. 

 

so friday while i was at my day job, this is what my dad was doing while my mom watched my kiddo:

 

 

 

this is a small glimpse at what we're working with.  see the teeny, tinyness of the room?  also notice the dresser.  it will appear in a later post.

 

 

 

carpet up!

 

 

closet door off.  see the chimney in the closet?  not great for little to no storage in our house.  but it's my husband's closet, so it's not quite as tragic. :)

 

 

here's the big helper.  he loves his grandpa!  check out that awesome floor!  no holes and no stains.  wait.  is this a potential project with no major disasters?!

 

 

 

ready to sand now.  not bad, eh?

 

 

here's a close-up of the wood.  it looked to have a maple stain, which makes me believe even more these are original to the home.  our house was built sometime in the late 60's-early 70's. 

 

 

 

the shiny portion of the floor is what dad had sanded in this picture.  he used a palm sander (because the room is so small) for a more even sand.  we started with a 100 grit sandpaper, but it didn't strip the wood as much as we were hoping for, so we had to go back over it with a 60 grit.  i wanted the floor to match what we already have as close as possible. 

 

 

here's my daddy putting on the first coat of polyurethane.  i went with minwax super fast drying polyurethane.  it was the only one that i could find that dried faster than 24 hours and it really did dry fast.  i put a second coat on after 3 hours and let it dry another 12.  it was fine to walk on after that!  it could have probably used another coat, but my husband was due to be home early sunday afternoon, and i really wanted the room to be put back together by then.

 

 

ta-da!!  don't you love it?!  i do. :)  it looks a little darker now, i think, but not to worry....lots more pictures to come. :)  i plan to do the hallway and our son's room, too.  now that we know what we're doing....kind of. 

 

stay tuned for more bedroom series posts!  in the meantime, don't drool over my hardwood too much.... ;)