However, those experiences taught me that refinishing floors is a noisy, dusty, smelly process. The kitchen floor in Steve's and my old house was in definite need of such treatment. Facing the prospect of a whole lot of work and a giant mess, there was only one thing to do... hire somebody else to do it.
Before
Exposed subfloor in the pantry cubby (future home of our fridge) and missing chunk under a removed base cabinet (apparently the geniuses that laid the original floor installed the floorboards around the cabinet instead of moving said cabinet, which was particularly ridiculous given that the cabinet was floating, as in, not attached to the floor or wall):
The worst section of the floor, deeply gouged, rippled from some long-ago water damage and stained with a mysterious black substance (possibly rot from past water issues):
During
First round of sanding complete, patching compound dries on the floor:
Sanding complete, a beautiful blank slate (the most heavily damaged area from the second picture of this post is right there in the foreground - all better!):
After
Polyurethane cures on the stained floor:
Since our base cabinets are black, we wanted to be sure that the floor was not dark, to provide contrast. So we picked a warm, slightly red-ish tone for the stain (Colonial Maple, to be precise).
We're happy with how things have turned out. The crew we hired has been very pleasant to work with, so it's been a positive experience. Definitely better than doing it ourselves, that's for sure. Worth every penny.
Until the floor cures enough for things to be moved back in (approx. 4 days), Steve and I are operating our kitchen out of the living room.
Steve prepares a bagel (note toaster at his feet) by the front door:
Next up: moving all of the stuff out of our living room so the crew can refinish that floor. Should be... interesting.
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