Doing the goundwork

As we set out to spruce up the kitchen, we had considered a number of things; gutting it and starting over, refacing the cabinets, painting the cabinets, but everything was hinging a bit on the floor. A couple of different people had told us that there was hardwood under the carpet, but no one really could tell us what kind of shape it was in, if there were any major issues, what kind it was, etc. Before I was ready to pull up the carpet, I wanted a plan for if it actually was hardwood, what if it wasn't, and what is the plan if we pull the carpet and there is a major flooring issue?

In any nearly one hundred old house, you don't expect things to be level and square, but we could feel some heaving in the floor just a bit. Squeaks here and there, but the worst spots seemed to be nearly in the center of the room. We pulled a corner of the carpet back and through multiple layers of carpet glue we found hardwood. 2.25" maple to be exact. At least we knew what we were working with now, at least on the edges, but what was lurking beneath the carpet in the center of the floor, eluded us.

Finally, Tom (my husband) decided we would move the table and pull the carpet back and take a peek. About half way through pulling the carpet back, he looks at me and says, "You realize this isn't going back down." Not really a question, but more of a we, "we have reached the point of no return," brace yourself.

So the carpet comes up, and the floor appears intact, no major issues through the span of the flooring. But the finish has darkened with age and the layers of carpet glue were hard to really tell for sure. Next stop, floor sander.

 I had done enough research online to have seen both camps; don't even attempt to do your own floors and the "it really isn't that hard." Being relatively handy, we figured we would give it a shot.

I had researched random orbital floor sanders online and found one nearby to rent. So off we went to collect it. It worked well, but didn't have enough power to eat through the carpet glue. Back to the store and we brought home a drum sander. This did wonders, chewed through the carpet glue and down to raw wood. I couldn't believe ho great it was shaping up.

And then we got to the spot in front of the sink. It had a dark stain, and no amount of sanding was even touching that bad boy, no wood stripper, bleach and a variety of other wood lighteners could make a dent. So we made the decision to go with dark stain and try to blend it in.

Being in the relative early stages of a Pinterest addiction, I started searching for more dark wood floor concepts. And the more I saw, the more I liked. The house has very dark woodwork and we had talked about doing dark wood cabinets, but the floor was destined to be dark.

The first coat of stain went down, and all of a sudden the many blog posts of why you shouldn't sand your own floors came flooding back to me. You could see every little mark from the drum sander and it wasn't pretty. So back to the sander we go!

Sanding, and then sanding some more, and then sanding some more, trying to get it as smooth as possible. Finally, we resorted to an orbital sander, a 6 inch orbital sander. That is a LOT of time on your knees!

So after several days of hard labor, sore aching shoulders, raw knees, we decided to try again. This time, the stain was going down beautifully and we finally could tell that all of the hard work had paid off. It was going to take several coats to get the darkness/richness that we wanted, but the stain was looking good.

This photo is about midway through the staining process and was still wet.

Finally, the floor was starting to take shape. From the monster lurking from deep down below the Berber, to a farmhouse hardwood floor. Flaws of 100 years of love and use, but beautiful nonetheless. Evidence of not just a house, but a home. A home full of love, and life and activity. Floors that my very grandfather crawled across as a child. How could I possibly see anything but love, even through the sore muscles and exhaustion. This is "home."

up next......cabinets! cabinets?