Refinishing our hard-wood floors...a journey.

It's the first week of school for Scott and I and I'm actually rolling into a new school year feeling ready to be back to work this year.  I honestly feel like I had a fulfilling summer home with my family and am ready to see all my students and get back into what I love doing.  Don't get me wrong; we had a great summer!  But, it had some challenges too.  I guess home projects will do that to you.

New roof and gutters.  Yup, that was painful to the bank account.

And now freshly re-finished hard wood floors for the first floor, thanks to my handy hubby.  This project was no joke and about three times the amount of work it took for him to do that to our floors in Clawson years ago.  Knowing we'd need to be out of the way, I took the boys and Bailey to my parents' house in Troy for the week.

My least favorite part?  Moving every single thing out of the first floor, including all the closets and the china cabinet.  I don't think we'll ever do that again unless we're moving.  It was quite the project!  As can be seen above, the floors were in pretty bad shape when we moved in.  But, with our growing family and dog, we knew we didn't want to put the work in initially.  And we're glad we waited.  The kids and Bailey have both been rough on the floor.

Scott and his dad worked hard on Monday and most of Tuesday sanding the floors and then cleaning them up so Scott could stain on Wednesday morning.  Tuesday night Evan had his last t-ball game, so we came back home and checked out the floors before going back to Troy.

Wednesday morning the stain was applied.  And then it got interesting.

The stain did not dry in the time it said it would.  Thursday morning Scott was hoping to put the first layer of polyurethane on, but they were nowhere near ready.  He had some spots to touch up where it looked like it streaked.  Scott was freaking out on Thursday morning when they still weren't ready.  Luckily, his mom came out to help him do more touch ups and to check them out.  Finally, Friday he was able to poly the floors.  Woo!

We opted to use a satin finish so it wouldn't be shiny and I'm glad we went that route.  He applied the second coat on Saturday and the final coat Sunday morning.  He cleaned up the house, packed a few things, and drove up north to meet up with me, the boys, and Bailey as we started week 2 away from home.  We were lucky to have his parents' cottage to go to while we let the floors cure.

And then it was finally time to come home the following Sunday and it was my first time seeing the floors!  They're not perfect, but they are pretty darn awesome and a huge change from what they were before!  We're waiting a few more weeks before the rugs come back in and we have been very cautious with moving everything back in and letting the kids play on them.  But, I'm so proud of Scott and all his hard work!  Aren't they something?!

My parents helped us move everything back in and a few days later his parents came back to put the shoe moldings back up and do paint touch ups to the white moldings.  This place looks great!  And I'm excited to add back in the rugs to make it more like home.  I think after everything we accomplished this summer at this house, we'll go easy on ourselves next summer.  Maybe paint the upstairs hallway?  Maybe do nothing?  I'm good for a while.