Living Room Remodel--Part 1

When we bought our house, there was a definite theme connecting all the rooms.  GRAY.  That's right, gray.  Gray walls.  Gray trim.  Gray doors.  Gray blinds.  Gray carpet.  As my husband so lovingly put it, "I feel like all we need now is a padded room to finish off our insane asylum."  Although a tempting idea, creating a padded room seemed a little extreme, so we opted for a less drastic solution--some good old-fashioned do-it-yourself remodeling.

Although the previous owners had recently installed wall-to-wall gray carpet, our lifestyle (aka our giant chocolate lab) is not conducive to floor coverings that cannot be hosed down.  Therefore, we were DELIGHTED to discover the original hardwood floors hiding under all of the carpet.  We decided that this seemed the most logical place to start the remodel, especially considering that we were able to do this part of the reno prior to moving in (you'll notice from the pictures that this turned out to be an excellent idea!).

Project 1:  Tear out GRAY carpet and refinish existing hardwood floors.

Before starting the demo, I remembered to take some "before" photos to commemorate our first do-it-yourself project in our new home!

Living room--right side

Living room--left side

Now that's done...let the demo begin!

The husband is SO happy to be getting rid of some of that gray!

This (potentially) beautiful floor was just begging to be uncovered!

Once the carpet and pad were up and the thousands of staples were removed, it was time to start sanding.  Now, I have to add a tiny disclaimer here.  While things worked out okay for us in the end, I would highly recommend hiring a professional for any major refinishing project--especially on floors that are almost 100 years old!  We definitely went over budget by the time all was said and done, and we didn't end up with exactly the finish we had envisioned at the beginning of the project.  However, with that said, we are VERY happy with our newly refinished floors and saved thousands of dollars by doing the work ourselves.

If you do decide to tackle a project like this yourself, here are some helpful tips that we learned along the way.

The existing stain was very stubborn, so the sanding process took some time.

No, it's not snowing indoors, just very dusty...

Bare floors...FINALLY.  Now ready for a few coats of poly to finish the job.

After days of sanding, broken down machinery, countless blisters, and more sandpaper than I ever care to see again, here is the final product:

As you can see, the room is no longer empty.  Somewhere between finishing the floors and moving in, I forgot to take our final picture.  This picture was taken as we prepared for phase two of the Living Room Remodel...painting!!!  Stay tuned for that post later.  For now, I will leave you with our supply list.

***keep in mind, we refinished roughly 1100 square feet of flooring with these supplies***

--pliers and crowbar to remove staples and tack strip--already owned

--stripper and edger sanders/sandpaper (20, 35, 50, 80, and 100 grit)--rented from local shop

--finish sander/paper--rented from Menards
--1 gallon of Mineral Spirits--Menards
--6 gallons of Varathane Diamond Floor Finish (water-based) in Satin--Menards
--1 very knowledgeable and helpful friend (he was the key to this whole operation)
--patience, patience, patience