Wood Floors

I am currently working on a few projects at the moment so I thought I will go back to the hardest project to date.....WOOD FLOORS!  If you followed my old blog I have a version of this post there http://joshinkansas.blogspot.com/2010/10/wood-floors.html
I have always wanted wood floors and thought they added a lot of character to a home.  When I bought my house almost five years ago there was carpet everywhere.  It was the right house for me so I didn't think much more of the wood floors for the time being.  After a few years I kept thinking and thinking about wood floors.  It was all I could think about.  My friend told me that there was probably wood floors under my carpet and that I should pull a corner up in the dining room and to take a look.  That evening when I got off of work I did just that......but I didn't stop there.  I pulled up all the carpet in the dining room and there on the floor were some wood floors with a ton of potential.  I decided to tear up the living room carpet also.  Once that was finished came the part I hated the most....ripping up the hundreds and hundreds of staples everywhere and removing the tack board along the edge of the floor.  I wanted to quit during this process.....well I wanted to quit a few times during the entire process but this was the first time. :)  After all floor was clean of all other things I rented a sander.  This sander was so heavy!  I spent an entire evening sanding and sanding and sanding the wood.  There were few places where there had been water damage and the old stain was still visible so I got out a hand sander and sanded like a mad man.  During the sanding process is when I wanted to quit the project again....but I didn't.  I got some stain and some varnish and after watching youtube video after youtube video I decided I was ready.  I applied the stain with a mop and then applied two coats of varnish....the fumes were very intense.  After two days of letting it dry I repainted the baseboards and the window trims.  With  A LOT of hard self labor and $219.00 I now have some beautiful wood floors in my living and dining rooms. 

Living and dining rooms before and after..... Notice the new paint color also!