Transforming the Wood Floors

After fixing a lot of the bones of the house, I’ve been so ready to do something that I can actually see every day and that changes the look of the place. And if you remember the look of the floors when we moved in, it was obvious that redoing the floors was an absolute must.

Living/ Dining Rooms

The main part of the house on the first floor appeared to have floors in pretty good shape. We had red oak in the dining and living room, which apart from some neglect, were fairly sound.

The living room after being sanded down.

At some point, there must have been an issue with some really squeaky floors in the dining room. Since everything was just carpeted over, previous owners apparently opted for a cheap fix, instead of a proper one. What ended was a lot of the flooring in the dining room being nailed down… with massive framing nails. This required a lot of prying and wood filler to make it right.

And if you don’t remember, here’s what the living room/ dining room/ back room looked like when we moved in:

And here’s what it looked like after the floors were refinished:

Kitchen

One of the big, happy surprises we had during our first weekend, was that underneath the horrible old tile in the kitchen were more of the original floors. In the kitchen, we had a yellow pine. While softer and a bit more sensitive than the oak, the transformation is still a huge one.

The floors here had a bit more damage from some spills that apparently happened at some point, and some careless renovations.

The threshold between the kitchen and dining room, connecting the pine floor to the oak.

The floors after removing the tile:
And the floors after being refinished:

The backroom

The backroom still has a big “?” on it as to what purpose it is going to serve exactly. But since it once was an outdoor porch with painted floors, then converted to an interior one, this room needed some major TLC. This room also had no subfloor underneath it, which had a few annoyances.

The transformation here is one of the crazier ones. Going from dark gray paint, to beautiful, shined pine.

Stairway

The stairway was a big one. Also covered in terrible carpet, we couldn’t wait to get this big focal point shined to it’s original beauty.

The stairs after the carpet was removed:

After being sanded:

The stairs after being sealed. Sophia is very curious of the new floors but is also still learning how to properly walk on them without slipping.

Second Floor Hallway

The biggest issue with the second floor hallway was with the huge heat register. There were loose flooring pieces around it that moved when you walked over them and just plainly looked bad. So some repair was needed.

The after effects here are pretty amazing.

Master Bedroom

The floors in our room were pretty decent. The biggest problems came in that at some point the walls were painted with a sprayer without covering the floors. Also, there were some holes where old radiators used to be.

Substituting some boards in to cover the holes.

The finished product:

Spare Bedrooms

The spare bedrooms continued with the trends of the rest of the house, and had the same problems on the addition areas, where the floors were painted and rough.

Nothing some repair and stain can’t fix, though.

As you can see, this was the biggest transformation we’ve completed thus far. And as we’ve now moved in, it’s helping to make the house feel less like a construction site and more like home.