When we bought this house we knew we wanted to fix 'er up. I mean, that's why we searched long and hard for a fixer-upper! The project list is quite long - long enough to keep us busy for years and years. So, how do we choose where to spend our money first?
Choosing the first project is always the most difficult. To help decide which one should be first we made a list of our top big projects (leaving out the obvious projects like paint, lighting and trim since these will be done in every room). We came up with a top three list:
- Renovate the bonus room
- Refinish the hardwood floors
- Gut the master en suite bathroom
We decided what the first project would be chosen based on the inconvenience factor. We will be living in this house as the renovations are done and we wanted to get the most inconvenient project out of the way first. The bonus room is a space that is basically unusable right now and the future renovation would not interfere with our day to day living in the house. We also have two bathrooms in the house which would make a full renovation of one of them much more tolerable. Yet, the flooring throughout the house is mostly hardwood (about 75% of it). Which means that while the floors are being sanded, stained and protected, we will be unable to use the living room, dining room, foyer, hallway, closets, and all three bedrooms. Sanding and staining will render these areas useless for at least 3-4 days.
And thus, the hardwood floors won out in the the inconvenience factor.
The hardwood floors are original to the house (circa 1959) and in good condition. They have yellowed, faded a bit over time and have a few scratches. Yet, there are no squeaks or patching needing to be repaired.
There are a few areas where the floors have faded. Can you tell where the area rug used to be on the left half of the picture above? The original finish on the floor wore out over time around the rug.
And there's a few isolated surface scratches - which will be removed once we refinish them.
These issues could be fixed with a protectant (like Rejuvenate), but we were dreaming of those warm floors similar to what we had in our first home.
These issues could be fixed with a protectant (like Rejuvenate), but we were dreaming of those warm floors similar to what we had in our first home.
We knew that our first project was going to be the hardwood floors. And we didn't want to move boxes from room to room, so on moving day we had the movers drop all furniture and boxes in the sun room, bonus room and basement.
With the exception of the dining room table and a mattress on the floor, everything else was stowed away until this project is complete. All we had to do the morning the work began was push the mattress into the master en suite bathroom, and move the dining table into the bonus room. We've retreated to my parents house for the week (to avoid the dust and fumes) and we'll be living out of suitcases until the floors are completed.
I love hardwood floors - I love the flexibility of refinishing, the natural look of them and the softness (compared to tile). I would choose them over any lush carpet. Yet, there is one space in the house that I wish didn't have hardwood floors.
The entryway.
This is the one space that sees snow, rain, leaves, and dogs who are excited to meet the new guest. I wish there was tile here. In fact, I love when a beautiful tile defines an entryway (and holds up to doggy nails). We will not be changing this entry, it's just one of those "if I had it my way" statements...
Justin and I spent a few hours the night before the scheduled start date to make sure the house and floors were free and clear and ready to be overtaken by sawdust (like pushing unused cable cords down through the floor and back into the basement where they could be removed, and covering all surfaces we didn't want layered with sawdust).
I love built-ins, but the window seat built-in just wasn't doing it for me. The position of the window seat in the living room seemed a bit awkward, and would've required that we arrange the entire living space around it. After popping our heads into the two cabinets we noticed that the hardwood floors underneath were in tact and in great condition. There were a few nails into the wood planks on the floor, but most of the structure was attached to the wall.
We removed the window seat and was left with this wonderful, blank space. I can already see my floor to ceiling drapes. Okay, maybe that's why I wanted it removed..I couldn't' stand the thought of drapes hanging loosely above a window seat.
Once the window seat was removed we discovered that the wall was unfinished (they didn't even sand the drywall mud) and there was no trim on the base. Not a big deal because we plan to replace the trim and paint anyway.
Now that the floors were free of all items, we were ready to seal off the house. I hired a professional to refinish the hardwood floors in my last house, and I learned from that experience that the sawdust from the floor sander will stick around forever. I worked for three years to get the sawdust out of the windowsills in my last house. This time around I spent $15 to protect ourselves from the pain of cleaning windowsills and panes.
One roll of plastic sheeting (in the paint aisle), and one roll of painters tape. And thousands of q-tips have been saved.
I covered all windows, doorways (leading to the kitchen and bonus room), and cold air returns. I must've snapped this picture before I finished sealing up the doors. I sealed up the french doors to the left of the picture below.
We plan to refinish the mantle. However, we have a gas insert and we wanted to protect it from sawdust so it got sealed up as well.
We are well underway through the floor refinish. I'll share more progress tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll let you 'oh and ah' over the extra floor space in the living room.
Bonus to having plastic sheeting over the windows, doors and fireplace? This house has never been so warm. I wish we could actually take advantage of it.
Mary
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