Our New/Old Floor!

On Monday, I set out to refinish our 1911 hardwood floor that is in the living and dining rooms. My dad had promised to do it for me in January, but I got anxious, and curious to see if this was something I could do. My brother, Paul assured me that any idiot could, so I set out to prove him right! The first step (and the only step on which I received any help) was to remove the furniture and put it out on the front porch. John was my muscle-man...thank you Johnon. Next step was to rent the floor sander from the rent-a place in Pomona. It was $80. This is me, sanding with that mother-of-a-power-tool:After that, I had to return the sander and go rent an edger from the same place. $40 later, I was in a squat position, scooting myself around the edges of the room, trying to keep control of that CRAZY edger that wanted to pull me in any direction but the right one. Also, whenever it went over a nail head that I hadn't pounded far enough into the ground, sparks shot out and threatened my wool socks!

When the sanding was done, the floor looked like this:
The next step was to vacuum and sweep and wiped down all of the dust. Then I stained. I used a red mahogany stain, and applied it with a rag...at this point, I reminded myself of Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid, waxing on and waxing off. My shoulders, forearms, thighs, and buttox had all gotten very sore by the time these 3 steps were over. Here are some pics of the staining process:

Gotta protect those lungs!!!
At this point, John and I moved some of the furniture back onto the dried part, to protcct it from an especially misty night.

The next step was to polyurithane it all. This, I applied with a brush. I tried a bristle-type brush for awhile and then went with a foam one, which I preferred. It seemed to go faster. At this point, it was my knees and lower back that were hurting mostly. After one coat of the clear stuff, I lightly sanded with 220 grit paper (I wish I had used 320 or even higher, but it's ok) and then wiped it all up...and applied another coat of poly. So, Friday night, at 6:18pm, it was finished! I threw my arms up and drove to get expensive take-out food, because, man...I deserved it. Here's the finished product! We're loving it! Total cost...$165
Oh yeah, the hole in the floor is our old-fashioned gas heater (that is not in use...we have central air/heat) and someday, we will replace the flooring over it, but for now, we cover it with a grate and a round rug.

Here are some of my favorite boards. I know them all intimately now: