Staycation 2011

We have a big 'to-do' list.  We live in a nice, older rancher home that needs alot of updating.  We still have the original 1978 kitchen!  It seems that one projects balloons into another.  For years (no kidding) we couldn't decide on what to do in the hallway.  Carpet or wood?  Carpet or wood?  So we did nothing.  Then we began to talk about remodeling the bathroom.  I had a crazy idea to move the bathroom from one part of the hallway to another, creating an extra huge closet.  That was two years ago.  Doing the bathroom made us decide on flooring for the hallway! Yeah!  We put hardwood down and married it into the hardwood floor in the family room which has been hidden under carpet probably since the house was built.  So for at least a year we had unfinished wood in the hallway that needed to be finished. 

Enter Staycation 2011... 

 New wood meets old wood.  You can see how dirty the 'new' wood was compared to what was under the rug.  

 This was after the rug, padding, staples, and tack strips were removed and before the plastic went up.  Once we started we couldn't get to our bedroom or bathroom except by climbing through a window on the deck!  

Don't be fooled.  My husband did ALL the sanding.  I tried it and lasted about 5 minutes before I thought my arms were going to shake right off.  He sanded from 2:00 in the afternoon to 11:00 and then had to keep sanding the next morning.  He literally had to use the hand sander for most of the old wood to get rid of dots from the padding.  

All sanded, vacuumed, and given a mineral spirits bath. 

 This was the scary part, actually starting to stain.  We used Minwax Provincial.  It looks darker in the picture than it really is.  The wood is Red Oak and the old finish had a yellow/gold color to it.  I love the darker brown!  The fireplace didn't look so bad with beige carpet but now I am thinking about painting the fireplace a light tan/beige color using glazes.  Any input?? :)  

We were supposed to put the polyurethane down yesterday but the humidity was working against us so that will happen today.  We still have a dining room and a living room to do. I think that will be staycation 2012 and 13!  I'll need some time to recover.  

Here's hoping your vacations or staycations are more relaxing than ours!


Blessings!