refinishing the hardwood floors

As mentioned in the flood damage summary, a section of the hardwoods in the kitchen and carpet in the dining room got damaged by the water.

We decided to extend the hardwoods into the dining room and to change the stain color.

Before pictures:

First the wood was delivered to acclimate (for almost a week) where it was going to be installed.

If you just bring it in and install it you'll likely get large gaps in your finished floors.

These funky corners that the cabinet installers decided to do near our kitchen sink have always bugged me, and this was the perfect time to fix it.

Also, you can see here how nasty the floors have been, this wasn't even a part damaged by the flood.

The finish was just old (almost 20 years) and has been worn badly by prior occupants (some of whom had dogs, who aren't exactly easy on floors).

I'll need to install some new toe kick areas, but this makes me so much happier.

First, installing the new floors...

...then sanding down all surfaces, old and new...

{The large sander did the bulk of the areas, then a hand sander and small wood planers took the old finish off of the rest of the nooks and crannies.} 

...then stain, a day later a coat of polyurethane, then a day later a buffing and then a final sealing coat... 

 {stain going down, we picked Minwax Dark Walnut}

 {still wet first coat of poly}

...and the beautiful final product

I still need to reinstall trim and clean everything up, but I am so pleased with this change.

I'll leave you with a before and after side by side.