The Jewel of This Home

Remember when we discovered that the dining room had hidden hardwood floors? Well, we finally got the guts to pull up the old floor and see what was there. For some reason they laid plywood down over these floors back in the 70's. I know this because they laid newspaper under the hideous linoleum they laid down. I was a nervous wreck pulling this plywood up. I thought we were going to just create a bigger mess for ourselves. There was hundreds of nails in the floor and they used HUGE nails. It took forever to get this plywood up, but when we did we were very surprised. Under the plywood there was another layer of linoleum that was put in in the 1940's (thank you newspaper), but under that most of the floor was pristine. It hadn't even been stained! So, we rented a drum sander and edger once again. This time it didn't take nearly as long. We just needed to smooth out the floors. My dad is pretty sure these are oak floors. They sanded out well. After much debate and sampling, we decided to stain them a color called Black Cherry. I could not be happier with these floors. They are truly the jewel of this home.

Total Spent 

Sander Rental $50

Sandpaper $20

Stain $15

Polyurethane $38

Misc $10