Work work work

And not AT work, at home. It's summer project time again. This year we replaced the garage door which was thankfully effortless for me. That is in stark contrast to the other two projects. The first is to paint the two back porches and the side porch. I've been working on that over the last couple of weeks and have partially completed the project. I've just got to paint the floors and steps; the more time consuming prep and railings are done.

The other project is experimental in more nature. We've emptied the rooms of furniture. I've spent hours and hours (eight, but I prefer not to think about it) scrubbing the floors with a solution of dishwasher detergent (yes, really) and water and then mopping it up to rinse it off. It took out most of the dirt, bleached the spots, cleaned the floors thoroughly, and seemed to take off a bit of the polyurethane.

Why? Take at look at the hardwood floors in our living room, dining room, and kitchen. They've got lots of worn spots and scratches.




In some places they're two-toned although I suspect our project won't help with that very much. The good news is that this occurs where the furniture goes and since we have no real choice about where to put things, this won't be visible.


Sam's enjoying the wide open space. It echos.


While Sam and I are in Wisconsin visiting my parents, Ben will be here putting a couple of coats of polyurethane on the floors! Why does he always get the cushy part of the job? We sanded and refinished the floors ourselves when we first bought the house twelve years ago although I suspect that the two coats of poly we put on was insufficient. I'm hoping that the floors will look nearly pristine when he's finished and I plan to update this post with some "after" shots too. Will this be a good alternative to full refinishing and a house full of dust? I've got my fingers crossed.