Well, we made it to Colorado and we’re currently sitting in a spiffy little hotel room in the heart of Engelwood. Our design TV meetings start at noon today, and we’re hoping to get a peek at the DIY Network Disaster House before we leave town on Wednesday too…
We’re big Josh Temple fans! Here’s a snippet from an episode where he showed how to repair damaged wood floors…
And speaking of hardwood floor projects…we finally started tackling another big one at our house, a few days before we packed up and headed off to Denver. (Hi. We’re the Palmers and we work better under pressure.)
We’ve already refinished the floors in the future kids room and office, but we got a hankerin’ to do the living room floor the other day, so off to Russel Do-It Center we went to rent another floor sander.
Here are a couple of photos of the living room before we moved in…
That’s me, with my head out the window, gasping for air. I’m kidding- but for real, can you say “stretched out, pee-stained carpet”?
Visions of Toby danced in our heads…
…but, we bought the place as-is, and Kev ripped out that nasty stuff the day we closed on the house. Over the next few days we quickly installed some really inexpensive (and temporary) wood laminate flooring. It did the trick for the past (almost) four years, but little by little we’ve uninstalled it, donated to other folks, and we’ve slowly but surely been refinishing all the hardwood underneath.
Check it out- here’s what the floor looked like as of last week…ya know, when we got the aforementioned hankerin’…
And here’s a super short video of what we got ourselves into…
And here’s what it looked like when we got done sanding and sealing…
We used a water-based, semi-gloss Varathane from Lowes.
Pretty rooty tooty, fresh n’ fruity, eh?!
Obviously we still have that pesky little strip of concrete to deal with down at the far end of the room (don’t worry- I think we’ve come up with a pretty cool plan and we’re pretty darn excited to put it into action!), and we look forward to refinishing the hardwood in the dining room when we get back home, too. Then there’s baseboards to prime, paint and trim out…walls to touch up….etc, etc, etc.
After that, we’ll move onto the cracked, stained, ugly floors tiles in the kitchen. We’ve got a plan for those bad boys too. (Insert sinister-style laugh here)
You’re a nut, lol!
The floors look fabulous; can’t wait to see your sinister plan for the concrete strip … waa-ha-ha!!!!
S
xo
Oh! P.S. Come see my new kitchen!
S
xo
The floors look great! Weird that it only goes to that point and stops. Can’t wait to see what you do with that.
Beautiful…..and all before you packed up and headed to the moutains! Whew! I am tired to hearing about it….but it looks so pretty…I am really anxious to see what you do with that concrete………!!!!!! Have fun and safe travel!
Wow! It looks amazing!
We redid all the hardwood floors in our home too, so I know how you must be feeling. Such a great payoff though for some serious sweat-equity.
Love what you’re doing. If you ever want to come to PA, let me know! There’s not nearly enough DIY love in this state!
amazing. as usual. love how you did this! 😉
All of your hubby’s sanding work payed off! The floors look great! I love all the different color tones of the wood. Great job guys, can’t wait to see the final product!
-Heather
Oooo la la! The floor looks beautiful!!!! Can’t wait to see what you do with the nekked section. 😀 xo
Looking good! haha! We had that same Toby vision when we purchased our home. Couldn’t rip the carpet out fast enough! (gag!)
Can’t wait to see more!
You two area awesome~~ Keep up the good work!
just beautiful! you are always inspiring layla!
Oh, so much work, but for a great result, Layla!
Have a great week!
xo
Luciane at HomeBunch.com
We have the same knotty pine on our walls and cabinets. I hope I can find a post on what you used and any tips for covering those knots!
Hi Erika! We primed the knotty pine walls with two coats of oil based primer to make sure the knots didn’t bleed through. Then we painted two coats with a regular latex paint called Natural Choice by Sherwin Williams. Hope this helps! Thanks for the comment!
the floors are beautiful. disaster house? i haven’t seen that one. i am totally sure my house would qualify as a candidate 😛
The floors are g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s! Can’t wait to see how you tackle the concrete slab. I have to tell you, I have a love affair with concrete and wood mix!
~Kristin
Um, the floors look awesome. Ours are in such rough shape. They’re only coated in wax and it’s all come off in the high traffic areas….. I can’t wait to refinish them but am NOT looking forward to the dust. Poor Kevin.
😉
🙂
WOW!!! It looks fabulous!!
I sure do know all about how much work it is to refinish hardwood floors!! We did it in a previous home of ours!! But they sure look beautiful when you’re finished!! :):)
It is totally worth it! 🙂
The floor is gorgeous! I love it!
It looks great! Such an amazing before and after. We recently had our hardwoods refinished and it made a world of difference. Can’t wait to see what you do to remedy that concrete area as well!
The new floor looks beautiful! Poor Kevin- he look exhausted after sanding those floors. I can really see the pain in his eyes! It looks like it was worth it, though! Have a great trip!
Hi KIm! I was exhausted, Layla came in with the camera about one minute after I finished. I was plum tuckered! 🙂 It was 100% worth it though, it feels like a whole new room now! Thanks for the kind words!
The floors look great! I cannot even imagine tackling the same job knowing there was a large concrete strip to the one side, so I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing what you do with the space.
Way to go Kevin!
Thanks Ronnie!!! 🙂
Beautiful job! They look awesome. Can’t wait to see that concrete solution and what you do the kitchen tiles. I loathe my nasty kitchen tile so I hope the solution is something awesome (sure it will be) and inexpensive.
Very pretty. All the hard work definitely paid off! 🙂 I want to redo our floors, but don’t know where to begin. We used the back side of car siding for our flooring so it looks like old pine planked floors. We sealed it with danish oil, and it looked great six years ago, but now it’s developed a kind of orangey glow. Blah! Hoping we can sand and start over!
Beautiful! And I love the video – you guys are just 100% absolutely adorable in every way imaginable(and even unimaginable!).
Thank you Beth! 🙂
That’s a beautiful room now such hard work but it payed off look’s fab boo. The floor will be gleaming with a roaring fire in the fireplace. Have safe travels hope you get to P dub’s ranch take lots of pics….
OHMY I wish that was what I found when ripping up my craftroom carpet. Mine looked more like a jigsaw puzzle that had been slowly pieces together over decades. That’s one of my projects for this fall.
It’s always scary to pull up old carpet and see what’s underneath!
You guys are awesome!
SO tickled for y’all!!! Just thinking about your mtg. today….you’ll rock it! (the floor is fantastic….the video makes the story!)
It looks really great. Love how spontaneous you guys are. How inspiring!
The floors look fabulous! I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with for the concrete…your creativity always amazes me! Good luck with your meetings!
Looks Fab! Glad you went with the wood in the end! Looking forward to seeing the plan for the concrete area
Love the floors! I can’t wait to see what you guys have planned for your “scary” kitchen tiles – we just replaced all our cabinets and have been walking around on mastic for a month because we could. Not. Take. Our scary tiles anymore. Yanked ’em all out. Former owner had apparently seated them right on the concrete slab. Yay! We’re strategizing now!
glad you made it safe and sound. it’s funny that we both like to slip the word ‘hankerin’ into conversations 🙂 Floor is WONDERFUL!!! call me sometime soon and let me know all the HGTV details…or will they be posted tomorrow????
OMG!
you are just around the corner form ME!!
if you have/find a few spare minutes, and want to meet up..
give me a call!!
I’ll be there faster than..
well pretty darn fast!!
hugs..
Loui♥
email me and I’ll give you the #
Kevin is sooo cute in that video…poor tucked out guy. I know how he felt…I’ve been there through a few projects…wishing fairies would come out of the sky and help me. lol I really love that you didn’t go dark with the floor stain. I LOVE the light flooring…your hardwoods are gorgeous and you guys did an awesome job! Way to go Kevin!
Thank you!!!
Your floors are Gorgeous! 🙂 Great work! 🙂
fresh n fruity! no doubt!
well worth the work~ or i hope kevin thinks so! it looks really great! did you just paint the paneling in there, i love it it looks really cool!
I’m jealous! We HATE our floors…we have wood laminate in our formal dining, formal living, and den and the fugliest tile throughout the rest of the downstairs. The wood laminate is an orange-y color, I think the tile is supposed to look like a natural stone except for the high gloss crackley glaze (what the…???), and we have cheap blah carpet throughout the whole upstairs except for the bathrooms. Lowe’s is running a sale on flooring, but when we went this weekend, the stuff that was marked down was as bad if not worse than what we have. Oh well…guess we’ll work on some other projects for now. Can’t wait to see what you do with your concrete area! Your hardwoods are looking lovely!
Wow! You are so close to me right now. How exciting. If you need fun stuff to do, let me know, although it sounds like you’ve got lots going on! The floors look great. I am so desperate to get rid of our very inexpensive laminate, and put in real hardwood floor, but I fear its just not in the budget!
Is there a post about you painting the paneling in that room? I have identical paneling that I would like to paint.
You did it once again! Your hard word really shows…..Welcome to Denver! I work for Goodwill in PR and we would love to give you a thrift tour!
DeeAnna
Poor Kevin. I love the floors though. It came out beautiful and I like how light it is in there. lol at Max.
Beautiful!!! Your hard work paid off! The floors even match that gorgeous door now!
Floors look great, but where did you get your front door??
Hey Kari! We got our front door from a local place here in Alabama, you can read about it here: https://theletteredcottage.net/a-door-with-a-view
um…..POOR KEVIN! He looked so unbelievably zoned out! lol but all that hard work he put in TOTALLY payed off – it looks GORGEOUS! well done! 🙂
Thanks!
La Dolfina had a post on the Buckhorn restaurant in Denver the other day. A real old-timey cowboyish place with elk, buffalo, and venison. You should check it out. I don’t know how to get the DIY network. Can’t get it in Colorado from Comcast or in Connecticut from Cablevision. Wonder why?
The floors look great!! I feel your pain, we refinished the floors in an eighty year old home and it was tough! I think it was August. It was really hot! At least Kevin was smiling…I took a picture of my husband when he finished sanding and he was NOT smiling 🙂 He thought it was worth it too when he saw the finished product though !!!
🙂
Looks amazing! We refinished the floors in our guest room & daughter’s room last year and love the way they turned out! Our entire house has hardwoods but most of it is covered up by ugly linoleum or carpet. The sander y’all rented looks small! Great job as always Palmer family!
Hey Jessica! The sander in the video is just the edger. I only used it to go around the edge of the room. I used a bigger push sander to go over the main floor. Here’s a link that shows the big sander. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
https://theletteredcottage.net/hardwoods