I love the feeling of accomplishment. The sore wrists, the lack of rest, handing over several hundred dollars...all worth it for the end result. Remember last year when I ripped up my carpet? I spent the last week or so redoing my hardwood floors. Mom helped, a lot. If she hadn't come to help, I would have been screwed. I did the upstairs apartment as well as my living room; I can now deduct half the cost!

I started Friday night, moving furniture and things into the spare room and my bedroom. Mom showed up Saturday morning about nine, and I said, "I thought you wouldn't be here until later (since I wasn't supposed to pick up the floor sander until two)." She said, "Yeah, me too, but I kept thinking of things we needed to do."

We ended up cleaning the floors first, especially downstairs, because of all the paint splatter. That really helped cut down on the sanding, so I'm glad she thought of it. We also treated a few spots on the floor with wood bleach, since they were dark from water damage or something of the sort.

I picked up the floor sander that afternoon, and spent all day sanding. In the heat. Without air. We couldn't turn on the air, since the dust would clog it up, and last weekend had a heat index of at least 110 degrees (that's like 46 to my non-American readers). I ended up with some of the worst heat exhaustion I've ever had. I even have a new rating system: that one was a two-puker. I spent the night at Chelsea and Tacia's, and I was not sociable at all. But I was very grateful for the place to stay, since the bedrooms and bathroom were taped off to dust.

I felt much better Sunday (not even much of a heat hangover), and I finished with the floor sander. I did all the upstairs first, since that machine weighed about 300 pounds. Aero Rental provided all the sandpaper, which was pretty convienent. There were three grades: course, medium, and fine, and let me tell you, the grades for a floor sander are much coarser than anything you'll find in those little foot square sheets. Them buggers were coarse. I think I did at least six passes with the coarsest, it needed less passes the finer it got, but it was still a lot of sanding. We did end up having to do quite a bit of sanding with the hand sanders. Although the sander I used got a lot closer to the walls than a drum sander, there was still a ring around the wall (hee!), and parts where the boards were just a wee bit lower than the ones around it, and the floor sander didn't get to it. Being on my hands and knees for that long hurt like the dickens. My wrists are still aching.

After cleaning up all the dust off the walls and the floor and the ceiling and all the nooks and crannies, swiffering and wiping up the floor with tack cloth (twice), I was ready to start putting on the finish. I got the first coat on the upstairs floor Sunday night, and by then I was beat and it was dark. Fortunately, I was applying the finish with a sponge-mop type deal that attached to a broom handle, so I was no longer on my hands and knees. The applying took several days, though, since it took about 45 minutes to do a room and 2-3 hours to dry, and I've been doing that in the evenings. There was one night I painted myself into my room. I can swing into the bathroom from my room without stepping on the hallway floor, so I was able to take a shower and go to bed while I waited for the floor to dry. "I'm quick and spry, clever and sly."

I finally got a good deal of my furniture put back. I rearranged the living room a bit: the television is on the other side of the room, which I like much better, traffic-wise, since you no longer have to climb over/around a chair to get from the front door to the rest of the house. And I was able to shove a lot of the wiring for the TV/cable/internet/VCR/DVD under and behind the television console instead of hiding in a corner behind my trunk. I can see the appeal of wireless systems.

And the floors look absolutely bee-yoo-ti-ful. You can't even tell where the finish in the bedrooms ends and where the hallway I just did begins. I feel like such a grown-up!

And to think, all this started because I fell in love with an area rug.