On Wednesday morning they started work on our hardwood floor. We were originally told it would take 5 days. Barf. That’s five days of living out of one room, or having to duck under plastic to get anywhere in the house.
Thankfully, the estimate was wrong. The last coat of varnish was applied on Friday afternoon. But we (including the Humph) were forced to find temporary accomodations for two of those days. Gary and Michelle offered us a room in their house on Thursday night, while Humph stay with Erica and Drew and their two pooches. Not wanting to impose on them again, we asked Alicia is we could all crash at her place on Friday since the floor guy said we’d need to stay away until at least Saturday afternoon. She immediately obliged, no small feat for her with two kids and two dogs running around her house. It was a busy, busy place that night. But it was perfect. And Jaia had such a blast with the girls. Good times.
Big thanks go out to everyone who put us up and put up with us. So appreciated. And I cannot even begin to describe the amazing feeling of being able to sleep in our own beds and unpack the car (our temporary storage facility) on Saturday evening. It was heavenly…minus the horrible varnish smell. I doubt very much that Heaven smells like varnish.
Now, the floor. It is beautiful. Beyond beautiful. If you’ve been to our house you’d know that the hardwood we chose before we moved in was a wide slat in a deep chocolate colour. No one has ever walked into that house and not commented on how gorgeous it was. Trouble is, though beautiful, that floor was a lot of work. Combined with how much sunlight tumbles in, every pet hair, footprint, particle of dust, and paw print shows up and 10 minutes after you’ve vacummed and washed it, it looks dirty again. It became a full-time job to maintain it.
So when refinishing, we chose a slightly lighter stain and the results were amazing. It doesn’t have the same ‘knock your socks off’ feel when you first walk in, but it is equally beautiful…and worth every penny. We couldn’t be happier.
I took pictures before we moved all the furniture back into place, but forgot them (surprise, surprise). Check back soon if you are curious what it looks like now…
***Our floor guy was amazing. Reasonably priced, efficient and a perfectionist to boot. What more can you ask for. Let me know if you want his contact information.***
Dan - Isn’t it ridiculous that people fix up their house just before moving? We did the same thing with Goose River … painted all the walls just in order to sell it.
Maybe we should do the work right away in the new house and enjoy the fruits of our labors!
Kris - Funny enough, we also scrambled to finish all those last-minute items at Briarfield before we moved out and let someone else enjoy the fruits of our labours. I think I enjoyed our finished floors for a total of about 3 days, and I never even got to walk up the brand new oak stairs in the front hall, since Kurt installed them after we moved out. Sad!
jason - floor guy’s contacts would be appreciated. Not sure if i’ll get to the right away, but probably in the next year