The Floors are Dry!

Yesterday after work, I stopped by the flip house to open up the windows and let some fresh air in...and some stinky air out. The floors are dry to the touch now, so we are safe to walk on them in stocking'd feet. The strong smell in the house is starting to dissipate finally, which is good, because before it was hard to be in there for long without your eyes burning. As we get some nicer days, we will be able to open the windows more and let the fresh air in!

While I was there, I decided to go explore the bedrooms and take some pictures. Here you go!

As you can see in the pictures, there is blue tape along the baseboard on some of the bedroom walls. This is because while the floor guy was trying to apply the polyurethane to the floors, there was insulation coming through the gap between the sheetrock and the floor, and it was getting stuck in the poly. He was nice enough to tape off these troublesome spots for us so that we didn't end up with bits of insulation fuzz stuck in our brand new floors!

Soon, we will get trim, baseboard, and doors put on, and then we will be about ready to clean clean clean. We are still planning to tackle the bathroom in the basement before we put the house up for sale, but our plan of attack is still being refined. That will be the last project, aside from some minor landscaping outside, such as cutting back some overgrown trees and brush and planting some bushes.

Thanks everyone!

Poly Want a Cracker?

The polyurethane is on the floors, and boy do they look shiny! And boy does the house STINK! I don't know how the floor guy stands working in that stuff. We weren't in the house more than five minutes and our eyes were already starting to burn. Once these floors dry, we are going to need to open the windows and air out the house ASAP!

Take a peek at the new poly covered floors...

We definitely had something darker than this in mind when we first envisioned staining the floors, but we couldn't find anything darker that didn't look black. And I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and now I know why we couldn't find a good dark stain: after seeing the natural characteristics in the bare floors, I did not want to hide them with a dark stain. These cherry floors are absolutely beautiful, and they blend so nicely with our cabinetry as well!

Tomorrrow morning, one more coat of poly will go on the floors for a total of three coats. After that, the floors are finished! We've been given important instructions to tread very lightly on these new floors for the next week. We aren't supposed to set anything on them, not even a rug by the door! No rosin paper either, so that pretty much means the next week will be work-free at the house, unless we are doing something in the basement. After that, we can start getting busy with the trimwork and doors!

We are quickly approaching the end of the West 18th Street flip! I am looking forward to being finished and having a nice break, but I'm also going to be sad to see the house go. I only hope the family who ends up moving into it will recognize the time and hard work we have all contributed to this huge project. We have had many fun times working on this house as a family and sharing it with the rest of our family and friends. It will definitely be a great memory for all us!

And The Winner Is...

Cherry! We chose the cherry stain over the natural polyurethane simply because it made the floors look a little "warmer". The cherry, out of all the other stains we tried aside from the natural, allows the individual characteristics of the floor to come through without "blending" them too much. Also, as the stain dries (as in the pictures below), it lightens a little. Once Matt from Accel covers them in the polyurethane coating, the color will get deeper again and the individual variations in color/grain, etc., will pop out even more. The floors look absolutely gorgeous, even though it was dark outside when we got ot the house and we couldn't turn the living room light on. Matt left the hallway light on, though, so we could at least get a peek inside the living room and down the hall to see the effect!

The color of the floors blends VERY nicely with the kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanity!

Chad peeking around the corner to get a look at the floors. We obviously can't walk on them, so all we could look at was what we could see from the kitchen.

The floors look even better in person...I really don't think the pictures do them justice. I'm very excited to get the polyurethane on them and see the "shiny" final effect. I'm beginning to get a little jealous that we won't be moving into this house ourselves when it is done...ha! I love our little house...we are just all getting pretty attached to the flip house after all the time we have spent there!

I will get more pictures taken when the next change happens to the floors, which will most likely be finished up on Friday. I know this is something everyone has been excited about, so I will update the blog right after pictures are taken. Thanks everyone!

The Staining of the Floors

The time all of us have been waiting for has finally arrived! This is the week of the floors: sanding, filling, staining, and polyurethaneing. I'm sure that's not a word...:)

Accel Wood Floors is refinishing our floors, and we were told to pick out a gallon of whatever stain we would like. Initially, Chad and I found a gel stain color that we liked. However, when we showed the color to Dad, he thought it would be really dark once it was applied to the floors. So, we decided to go with a lighter stain. Then Matt with Accel told us we should not get a gel stain but just a regular interior wood stain, so back to Menards we went to look at more colors. We found a Walnut color that appeared to have the look we were going for. We wanted darker floors to really make the walls and white trim pop. We also had a spot on the living floor where the previous owners had glued down tile, and it left a black tar-y residue on the floor. We were concerned that this would not come up with sanding, so we wanted a darker color to help camouflage if necessary. So, proud of ourselves for picking out a pretty stain that was still lighter than what we originally were eyeing, we bought the gallon and dropped it off at the house.

Yesterday, the flooring guy came to the house to start his sanding. The floors look awesome when they are stripped down. They have a lot of character and color variation. I absolutely love them.

A spot in the hallway that has not been sanded yet... You can see the big change that has taken place!

A closer up look at the living room floor... The color variations are beautiful!

Well, when the floor guy saw our stain choice, he had some reservations and mentioned it to Chad. He put down a sample on one of the floors to give Chad a visual. Thank goodness he did, because the stain looked HORRIBLE! It was so dark, it was almost black. I can't imagine what we would've ended up with had the guy not questioned it, and I can't imagine how dark the original stain would've been when Dad told us we should go with something lighter. Wow...I had no idea. So, last night we picked out two different stains that we thought might go well and dropped them off at the house. One was a Red Chestnut and one was a Gunstock. Over our noon hours today, we stopped at the house to take a look at the samples. Oh boy. We were getting closer...they did look much better than the Walnut, but they were too red, and believe it or not, the Gunstock was more red than the Red Chestnut. Go figure. Our floor guy encouraged us to go with something that would flow with the stain of our cabinets. So, we grabbed a cabinet drawer and off to Menards we went again to find something we might like better.

I wish we would've taken the drawer with us initially. Right away we picked two possibilities...Cherry (which I never would've thought) and a Golden Pecan. Back to the house we went. While we were gone, Matt with Accel put down a plain polyurethane coating in one spot to see if I liked that. I had told him how much I loved the character in the floor, and he pointed out that stain will blend your floors more, where the polyurethane will let the natural characteristics pop out. I didn't think I would like it, but when I saw it on the floor, I loved it! Ugh...now what?? Well, we put down the Golden Pecan and the Cherry...and now we had six different samples on the floor. Take a peek!

This is the natural polyurethane...

This is the Cherry...

And this is the Walnut we originally purchased. Needless to say, it has already been returned to the store.

After putting all the stains on the floor, we ruled out the Gunstock and Red Chestnut for sure. We also ruled out the Golden Pecan because it looked very similar to the natural polyurethane, and why buy a can of stain to more or less get the same look? So now we're down to the Cherry stain or just using the natural polyurethane. The floor guy called us about 7pm tonight and he was just leaving the house, and he said he left the samples on the bedroom floor in case we wanted to come back tonight and take another look. He also told us to wear socks or dry shoes on the floors now, because wet shoes could leave a footprint that only shows up after the stain has been applied. So...dry shoes and slippers in hand, off to the house we went to take another look.

We decided to try putting a piece of white trim next to the colors, since the floors will have white base board around them when finished. Matt with Accel also pointed out that stains will "lighten" a little when they dry, and when you put the polyurethane coating on them they will deepen again, but the stains will also blend your flooring characteristics more as well, as opposed to leaving it natural.

First up, Cherry and white trim...

Natural and white trim...

And back to Cherry with white trim...

Chad enjoying the fact that even those this is a tough decision, we are thankfully at the point in the flipping process to have to decide!

Cherry, bedroom wall color, and white trim...

Natural, bedroom wall color, and white trim...

One final look at the line-up...

Tomorrow, the floors will begin being stained! We are already excited to head over after work and take a peek through the kitchen. I am confident it will be beautiful when finished! So...which color did we decide on?? I guess you will have to wait until I update the blog tomorrow night to find out!! :)

Painting

After Dad had finished texturing the three bedrooms, it was time for Chad and I to paint. We needed to primer everything...walls, ceilings, and closets. Then we needed to put two coats of paint on everything. We did the walls a color called "Reticence" and the ceilings a color called "White"...:) At first, we weren't happy with the wall color. We chose the color one shade lighter than the living room color, and it just wasn't as different as we were hoping for. It has grown on us, and you can tell in adequate lighting that the color is different from the living room; however, we would've preferred it to be a more noticable difference. But, it is what it is, so onward we go.

Chad cleaning out our paint brushes...

After we had all the wall and ceiling painting finished, the electrician could come in and finish installing the outlets, switches, and light fixtures, including the ceiling fan in the living room which we absolutely love! The blades are reversible, so we may switch them to a different color after the floors are stained if that color would look better. But for now, it is on the rosewood side, and it looks spectacular!

We now have light above the kitchen sink!

Finished outlets and switches really make things look more complete!

The bathroom light fixture looks beautiful too! Right now, it appears pretty high up on the wall, but hopefully once we get a mirror installed it will help balance it out. If Chad is standing in front of the bathroom sink, it is actually a great height for him. He doesn't have to bend down in order to look into a mirror, and the light isn't eye level with him if he stands up straight. So I think it will look even better once we get a mirror installed. Now to find a mirror...hmm...

Those are the painting and electrical updates. Now...on to the floors! Next post coming right up!