Hardwood Floors

March 30th

We have hardwood!!  This idea was hatched on March 30th, and became a reality in the past three weeks.  This was a little insane to think we could do it within this time frame.  However, we needed to rush because we have a renter coming to live in the basement (Jenna).  So instead of getting a hotel room for a week for both the renter and us due to the smell, we decided to be more economical get the floors re-finished before she moved in on April 20th.  Basically we hauled.  

April 3rd

In the first week we interviewed four different vendors to get bids, got familiar with the process, and set a date.  We knew that oil-based was the way that we wanted to go; however, many people in the city has switched to water-based because it is so much faster and there is not as strong of a smell. Finally we nailed down our person - Floors by Steve.  I think it was the name that sold us because I have a brother, father-in-law, Uncle, and good friend friend named Steve.  Solid name.  

April 5th

So an evening date on April 5th we started to pull up carpet to unveil the beautiful red oak floors. 

It was the easiest pull up job I have ever done! It lasted only 50 minutes start to finish for the rip up; however, the stuff that took the longest was removing everything from the living room, hallway, two bedrooms, and drapes. However, the thing that took the longest was taking everything from those three rooms and transporting it downstairs or in the garage.  This included a hide-a-bed.  

As you can see I was no help moving the big furniture.  My idea of helping was putting the hide-a-bed on Craigslist for FREE and thinking someone was going to snatch it up that night.  FYI: no one inquired and it took over 10 days to get rid of it.  

Once we were finished tearing up the carpet, we drug all the carpet and padding into the garage to store until we could rent a pick-up and take it to the dump.  I truly believe the city is stupid for this reason. 

April 9th

Floors by Steve came on April 9th (two days earlier than expected) and started sanding everything down.

April 10th
The next day we had to pick out the color of the stain and type of finish.  The stain was tough because it would darken as they applied it.  We finally decided on the color Nutmeg with a satin finish.

April 11th, 12th, & 15th

Now it was a waiting game.  They stained it on Wednesday, apply a coat of polyurethane on Thursday, Friday, and Monday.  During this time we couldn't walk on the floors, so we had moved into the basement.  The smell was awful, but of course we are too stubborn and toughed it out.  Shout-out to Matt and Stacie for letting us bum at your house for an evening to escape the horror fumes!!

April 13th

While we were waiting to get back upstairs, we had to take all of the carpet and padding from the garage to the dump.  This was no easy endeavor.  As you can see, we stacked it sky high and drove up to Anoka (about 30 minutes away).  Evan called ahead and they quoted him $55 for a pick-up load of junk.  Well when we arrived the wanted double it because the truck was overflowing.  No way!  We talked them down for $70.  This is the true definition of throwing away money.  BLAH!

April 16th, 17th, 18th

Now the wait was on to start moving everything back to their places.  We had to wait at least three days, which turned out perfect because Evan traveled back to Brookings during this time.  It was a lot of tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock waiting.

April 19th

Evan returned back from SD around 7pm on Friday and it was time to move!  We had to put everything back: drapes, couches, clothes, dressers, pictures… everything.  You may be wondering why would we be in such a hurry.  Well remember we had a renter coming on April 20th to move all her stuff in at 3pm.  That meant everything that was upstairs originally was put back into its place, as well as moving the downstairs bedroom items (bed, dresser, vanity) into the garage AND scrub down the basement.  Evan and I worked until 3:00am to move as much stuff as we could back upstairs, and started again at 9am.  We finished with 30 minutes to spare!  

At the end of Saturday we were exhausted, sore, but so happy because now we are enjoying our beautiful hardwood rooms!