Today's project: looking for the floor's finish

The more research I do, the more convinced I am that I should go with a "green" finish for my family room floor. Not only are they environmentallly friendlier, they are typically lower VOC than standard polyurethanes. And the people who have used them seem to be quite happy with their results.

Problem: The pros are not willing to work with me on this. They all want to put down 3-5 coats of oil-based poly and charge me $2.50/sqft for it. I will not spend top dollar to have people come to my home and do what I don't want. So I've now decided to DIY the floor.

My husband thinks I'm kinda nuts for even considering it. He redid the dining room floor at our last house, and vowed never to do it again. I do not have the benefit of his experience though. ;) Sooo, I'll rent an orbital sander from a local place, and then probably go with tung oil and wax, or "hardwax oil."

As exciting as all this is, I still think I'll need to move my family out of the house for a couple of days while I do all this. Good thing my in-laws have a big guest bedroom. :)

Oy- what have we gotten ourselves into?

So as we finished uncovering the wood floor, I realized the amount of grime involved. yuck. And the guy who was going talk to us about sanding for us has yet to call. So I have to call around to some other places. Why does nothing in home repair ever go smoothly?

Family room floor project, -- day 1

First step, pull out old carpet. It's actually a nice shade of green, but it shows every single speck of everything. And with two young kids, there are LOTS of specks of everything.



Pulling up the carpet isn't an easy task, as the half-wall built to keep people from falling into the basement was built on top of the carpet. Who builds walls without removing the carpet underneath?



And when I pulled carpet away from this wall, the beaverboard paneling was damaged. So I removed it, too. Under it -- more fiberboard paneling! And water-damaged to boot. I guess I'll also learn to hang drywall in this project. Old houses are one learning experience after another. I think that's a good thing.
That is a good thing, right?
Riiight?



But this is what is under there. We believe it to be heart pine, like the rest of the first floor. I'm calling floor guys (or gals) for quotes today.



And this is what we hope it to look like when we are done, minus the gouges that the previous owners caused by trying to DIY the floors in the past. There is a time for DIY, and a time for professionals. The owners of this house over the years have had troubles finding that balance. ugh.

First post -- how exciting!

You see, I tried to start a website to chronicle the updates we do to our 1900-ish house. I got a photo album up and everything, but then I tried to subdivide it by room and add comments. Apparently websites are smarter than I. So I decided to blog it all instead. I'll start tomorrow with pictures of our family room floor project's humble beginnings.