Our Flooring--DIY

As a side note to the projects we carefully lined out in our new home, I really wanted to refinish the hardwood floors. After all, it wouldn't be that expensive because I was planning to do the work myself. I planned a full 3 days for the sawdust--which was precious time, as we only had 2 weeks for projects before we moved in.

Here's what I started with:

A dingy, somewhat scratched, worn to wood dark hardwood floor that was probably original with the house in 1983. Yes, we could have lived with the floor. But I knew that for resale purposes, we really needed to refinish this floor. And the sawdust wasn't a mess I wanted to have while our things were in the house. So as a first priority, and as a footnote to all of our other projects, I took on the hardwood floor. It was supposed to be a quick precursor so we could move on to more important things like getting the air vents cleaned, the carpets cleaned and new carpet installed.

It turned out to be more than a precursor. Turns out that refinishing a hardwood floor is its own main event.

 This is what the boards looked like after 16 hours of sanding with the first rental sander--a 12x18 rectangular sander that vibrated across the floor. I asked our handyman to come take a look at our progress, and he showed me what a floor should look like after it's sanded.

 See the raw wood his small sander found in less than 30 seconds? He encouraged me to return the rented sander, get my money back (I had just called to extend my contract another 24 hours since I had made such little progress!) and find another sander that worked. He left me with his small belt sander, but cautioned me that it was not the proper tool--it  would burn out and take hours and hours and make the floor uneven. 

So I hurried and researched my options. I returned the first sander and rented a drum sander. The rental guys were very hesitant to rent it to me--they said this machine was only for hard core jobs like decks, not the beautiful fine sanding of an interior floor.  But they looked up the recommendations and saw that with 100 grit sandpaper, the drum sander could do interior floors. I thought I was set, so I waited for Sam to unload the heavy sander from our Corolla, and we worked late into the night on the sanding.

The drum sander did fast work, but the bolt of the lever to lift the drum kept falling off. So I'd get to a place where I  needed to lift the sander up, and the bolt would be in my hand, leaving the sander grinding into my floor. From this, we had several divets that were deep and ugly.

The next morning we called another reliable source--our woodworking friend. He brought over another handful of small sanders, and spent 4 hours sanding around the perimeter of the room. He got about half way done, then had to leave. Sam and I picked up where he left off, returned the drum  sander, gave up the idea of putting on stain that night, and kept sanding with small sanders. We were a joke. We were on our hands and knees sanding with a 4 inch square sander, and the work was slow going. Poor David was staying up late with us night after night while we worked on this, and our family was reaching a limit of exhaustion.

On Monday morning, I tackled the sanding again--we thought we were almost done. I reflected on how many man hours we had already put into this floor and how we didn't want a sloppy job after so much work. So I started calling professionals to come look, and please give me a quote to just put on the final coat of varnish on the floor, after I was done sanding.

They came. They saw. They laughed.

Some told me to call again when I was ready. Some gave me quotes for just replacing the entire floor. Some told me they wouldn't put their name on our floor, and they didn't even offer a quote. I was more than a little discouraged. The only thing they had in common was that they all said I needed to get all the color out before I put any kind of finish on the floor.

So I stopped inviting the professionals in to look at my work, I got on my hands and knees and kept sanding.

 See all that color on the board? That's what I had to take out with a 4" sander. It took hours and hours.

 Here's a contrast of the boards I had finished and the boards I still needed to do.

After I got all the color out, I called a few more professionals. Now there was really too much work in it to turn back. With my cleaner sanding (but still lots of divets, left from the drum) they entertained my floor as a job they could do. In the end, we went with the guys who would own the whole floor. They came in, used their fancy schmancy sanders to even out my work, made my floor as smooth as glass (except some of the divets, that only my eye can notice) and made our floor absolutely gorgeous--natural finish with a satin sheen.

Total time it took them laboring over our 450 square foot floor was 7 hours. They saved me another couple weeks worth of work in their 7 hours of labor--and their product is really outstanding. As they packed up, I asked them what other jobs they do. They had quite the resume--the Governor's mansion, gymnasiums all over the state, performing halls, etc. And they still did my tiny little job and made it look like a masterpiece. Thank you Kotts Flooring!

 I decided that while I could figure out how to maintain a newly refinished floor in the living room, hallway, and even dining room--I did not want hardwood in the kitchen. So my (unfinished) work is in the kitchen and their gorgeous work is in the forefront of the picture, in our dining room. I absolutely love our "new" floor.

Isn't it gorgeous!?! I love the dark grain (naturally dark, not left over from the stain) that marbles throughout it.

Hey honey, remember that carpet remnant we bought that was too big to fit into our house? And remember how we kept getting it stuck in door jams and hallways, and it turned in to a laugh or cry moment? And it was late at night, we were both overly exhausted, and we wondered if we got in over our heads again? I'm so glad we laughed.

Stay tuned for how it goes in laying our own carpet. (In just the 2 smallest bedrooms--the rest of it is hired out already, I promise.)

Helper

David has been right here with me in doing projects at our new house. Sometimes he'll go outside and splash in the creek that runs along our property line, or dig in the dirt to chase after bugs.

Then he'll come in and ask, "Mom, do you have a David chore?" so I'll do my best to come up with some contribution he can make to our projects. Like removing face plates or helping me paint.

 Vacuuming up sawdust is a favorite, because he gets to use the "ear muffs" to protect his ears.

The other day David said, "Daddy, do you know that I have just as much fun when I work with you as when I play with you?" I love this age that wants so much to contribute to the work going on around him. David has such a mechanical mind that he wants to know all of the whys and what-fors on each project. So to include him in the work is truly his bowl of cherries.

The other day we spent a day away from the house to run errands and find somewhere to play. We chose gymnastics, and David enjoyed getting out his energy in a big way.

Work hard, Play hard. Two essential ingredients in a successful family.

Home

We're in to our new home.

All of our things are here, and we're kind of unpacking.

I was so pleased with myself that I packed overnight bags with enough clothes and toiletries to get us through two days. That way we wouldn't have the same panic as our previous move out of Norm Drive when we woke up Sunday morning and couldn't find any of the Sunday morning essentials.

It worked! We could shower and dress without a single hitch. Then David asked for breakfast. It took 1 1/2 hours to find a spoon to eat his cereal. Next time I'll pack a food box as well as our overnight bags.

Some sisters came over, and we used two years' worth of Magic Erasers just to clean the kitchen. And once the shelves were lined with paper, I felt a huge burden lifted because I could move in to my kitchen.

We have a few projects to finish--namely, finishing a hardwood floor and laying carpet--before we move in to our main floor. But we're home.

This is our fourth home in four months, and we are ready to feel settled into a permanent space.

The wild card with this home was that we weren't allowed to turn on the water before we took ownership. So while the foreclosure looked very promising, that's still kind of a big wild card. We ended up calling a plumber in to look at a suspciously behaving toilet, and he pulled out a full size pencil and a long comb  (left by the previous owner). Sam patiently worked with  another toilet that was leaking from the tank, and now we have 3 fully functioning bathrooms! Now about the hot water that fills our toilets--we'll fix the regulator valve sometime soon, but for now we're grateful that everything works.

The race is on to get the home ready for our final adoption inspection before we go pick up our baby girl in MN. The thought of wanting to bring a newborn home to everything set up keeps me at the projects. Like pulling carpet staples out of the subfloor until 11 pm, hours after exhaustion sets in. My knees hurt, my back hurt, and my fingers were shredded from grabbing at the pokey staples in dim light. Or pulling the dryer out at the end of a long day to reattach the vent pipe. We want baby girl to come in to a home, so we keep on keepin' on.

My Angel Grandmother--Janet Andersen Ray

On Friday afternoon, May 17 we got an email from Grandpa Ray that said Grandma had had a small stroke earlier that day. Over the next week, we received updates as we realized that Grandma was preparing for heaven. At one point, Grandpa's email said, "GM has repeatedly told me she is ready to go whenever she can't be servicable." Another time, he wrote, "FOR YEARS NOW MOTHER HAS SAID SHE WAS READY TO CHECK OUT AND I SAID YOU HAVE TO GO FIRST BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO NAIVE TO LEAVE ALONE.  SHE WON." (Grandpa is notorious for using all caps. Maybe it was so Grandma could hear his emails.)

On May 24, 2013 Grandma drew her last breath and heaven received one of the most perfect women to ever live. As a token of his faith, when Grandpa realized that Grandma was gone, he simply said, "Oh, Janet! Isn't that wonderful!" Grandma was 91 years old, and was about to celebrate her 69th wedding anniversary. She has 12 children (9 living), 88 grandchildren (87 living) and at the time of her funeral, she had 212 great grand children. She was losing some of her ability to make decisions in her mental capacity, but she always knew each of her posterity by name. Oh, how her eyes twinkled when she greeted her loved ones!

I feel so grateful to have the legacy of being a grand daughter to Grandma Ray. 

I have to pause and share some of the highlights of gathering together for Grandma's funeral.

• I always wondered if Grandpa would go at the same time as Grandma. I kind of thought she would go first, and I wondered if he would simply go with her, like sometimes older couples will do. But when I heard the conviction of his testimony he shared at Grandma's funeral, I realized that Grandpa felt the full weight of bearing testimony with so many of his posterity gathered. It was powerful, his voice was strong like he was a couple decades younger. Those in attendance had no doubt of where Grandpa stands in his belief in His Savior, Jesus Christ and the importance of eternal families. It was wonderful to witness.

Grandpa talked to his family at a gathering the evening before the funeral. Oh, it was sad to see from sitting behind, Grandpa's sweet white head without Grandma's perfectly white halo next to him.

•  Ever the florist, I had to capture the spray for Grandma's casket. Grandma lost 2 daughters early in her marriage and went on to have 12 children all together. Every year for Mother's Day, Grandpa would Give Grandma a dozen roses, with 2 of them being white to represent their angel daughters. In 2003, they lost another daughter to cancer, and Grandpa then increased the white roses to 3. So of course her casket spray would represent their family circle--those daughters who greeted her as she slipped away from mortality.

•  Of Grandma's 88 grandchildren, 69 of us were at the funeral. We sang "Love at Home" together as a musical number, and it was one of the sweetest moments we had together. Grandma has a beautiful alto voice, and was known to "always have a song on her lips." I'm sure she was just thrilled to see so many of her posterity sing together in a song that represented the most important thing Grandma created for her family--love in her home.
• There were also numbers sung by Grandma's daughters, her sons and daughters combined, as well as her children-in-law. Lots of music to honor Grandma's life!! 

Grandma's 7 living daughters--Aunt Sharon, Aunt Norene, Aunt Launette, Aunt Judene, Aunt Beverly, Aunt Carol, and Aunt Joyce. Aunt Lana, Aunt Linda and Aunt Judianne are the sisters in heaven. Uncle Delwyn and Uncle Stan were very much a part of everything, but not pictured here.

•  There were a few funny mix ups with the youngest great grandchildren with understanding which Grandma had died. It was funny to see the poor kids understand that they were going to Great Grandma's funeral, and then they would show up and be so relieved to see their Grandma still around.
• At one point, David approached one of my aunts and said, "Have you seen my Grandma?" Aunt Carol responded, "Well, I don't know, who is your grandma?" David said, "Well, I'm not looking for the Grandma that died, I'm looking for my other one." Carol coaxed David into saying the name of his mother, and he was reunited with his Grandma. In a room full of Grandmas, many of them looking very similar to each other, that reunion was a great relief to my little guy.
• I have to include that Grandma was never idle. Even in her old age, she was hand quilting quilts to keep her serving heart happy. The week before she had her stroke, she was staying with my parents between weddings of grandchildren on 2 consecutive weekends. While she was in her home, Mom had Grandma help her with some quilts for humanitarian purposes. In 7 days, Grandma hand quilted 7 quilts. Through the years, Grandma has quilted literally thousands of quilts. She made scraps of fabric turn beautiful, and all of us are a little richer for it (and warmer, too!).  Grandpa Ray would say, "Mother spends all of her daytime hours sewing on a quilt, and all of her night time hours sleeping under a quilt." Yep, that sums it up perfectly.

 I'll look forward to seeing you again, Grandma!