Y’all, I was so determined to see some major progress in our bedroom suite that I was on my hands and knees until 10:30 last night staining the floors. I was determined. So let me back up a bit and tell you everything.
In a post last week, I expressed a bit of frustration with the sanding process. An issue with living in a small-ish city is that there aren’t a whole lot of options when it comes to hiring out a job like sanding hardwood floors. Obviously, that’s not a job you want to hand over to a random handyman that you found on Nextdoor. So the flooring company I used to install the floors recommended a person for the job.
He started last Thursday, and he was such a nice man and has clearly been doing this all of this life because he had a ton of knowledge about the process, the products, the proper techniques, etc. I could tell he’s literally been doing this for decades, and has probably been using the same equipment since the day he started back in 1850 or so. 😀 His big drum sander looked like it was being held together with duct tape and hope. So it was clear that he’s had lots of experience, but my goodness, was he slow! (The age thing probably has a lot to do with that.)
Anyway, I expected it to be a two-day project, with him finishing on Friday so that I could have the weekend to stain and polyurethane. That didn’t happen. So I was kind of a bundle of nerves on Friday and over the weekend. I just wanted the job done.
So imagine my excitement when he told me at 1:00pm yesterday afternoon that he was almost finished. I immediately thought, “Oh good! I’ll still have plenty of time to go to the store, purchase my supplies, and get the floors stained today!” Because when someone tells me they’re almost finished with something, I imagine that they’re about 30 minutes to an hour away from finishing, right? Wrong.
He finished up at 6:00pm. 😀 But y’all, I was still determined. As soon as he walked out the door at 6:00pm, I headed to Lowe’s to pick up the supplies. I got home at 7:30, and then debated whether or not I should start then or wait until today. I wanted to use the exact same process and products that I used in the rest of the house so that I’d have the best chance at having the same outcome. And in the rest of the house, I used wood conditioner on the whole floor before staining it. I had no idea how long it would take to put wood conditioner on almost 500 square feet of flooring, and then once that went down, I’d have to stain the floor within two hours. So that meant that if I started last night, I’d have to finish last night. And I also had no idea how long it would take to stain all of that flooring. I was afraid I might be up until 1:00am, but I was so determined to get it done that I decided to go for it.
Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry that I didn’t even stop to take pictures of the freshly sanded floors before getting started. This is the only picture I have of the sanded floors, but I took this before they were completely sanded.
So at about 7:45 last night, I had all of my supplies unloaded from the van, and I was ready to get started. I started with the wood conditioner, which I applied by hand, on my hands and knees, using a staining sponge. I started at the far wall of the bedroom and worked my way towards the French doors.
I got that finished about 8:45. I gave myself about 15 minutes to check on Matt, take Cooper out, and then started the staining about 9:00pm. Applying the stain took longer than the wood conditioner, but it actually went faster than I thought it would. Once again, I started at the far wall of the bedroom and applied the stain on my hands and knees using a staining sponge. This took longer because once I applied the stain to several rows of flooring, I had to go back and wipe off the excess.
But I finished up right at 10:30 last night. Obviously, the floor isn’t finished yet. I still need to add at least two coats of polyurethane. I’ll probably do three.
And right now, the floor looks very grainy. That’s just the nature of red oak hardwood flooring.
But the magic will happen with the first coat of polyurethane because I’ll add stain to that first coat, just like I did in the rest of the house, and that will give the floor a more uniform appearance.
The grain will still show, so the floor won’t look completely uniform. I do, after all, want it to still look like real hardwood flooring.
But the first coat of polyurethane and stain mixture will even out some of the grain, and will also give the floors more depth of color.
I’m hoping to get all coats of polyurethane on the floors today, which means that by the end of today, the floors should be completely finished!
The lighting in the closet is so poor right now, so you’ll just have to trust me that it really does match the rest of the flooring. 😀 That hard line in the doorway is just a shadow.
And that bright spot in the middle of the floor is just a reflection from the one solitary light in this room.
Anyway, I’m just ecstatic to finally be seeing some serious progress!! And now, the project is in my hands alone. So from here on out, if the progress isn’t fast enough for my satisfaction, the only person I can get frustrated with is myself. 😀
If all goes as planned, these floors should be done by the end of the day.
The A2D Daily:
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
