{ Wood Floor }

**Update** 
I have received so many requests for the contact of the guy that refinished our floors so I wanted to put it on here too for those of you that were wanting his information. You can find Michael at Woodsman Flooring @ 920-728-3269.

There are a few things that Mark either doesn't know how to do or doesn't want to do when it comes to renovating this house. The list is small but one item on there that we really didn't want to tackle ourselves was refinishing the wood floors. I've heard nightmares from friends. I've heard that it takes weeks and weeks if you are inexperienced (as we are). I've heard that renting the right tools is pretty pricey. 

After much consideration we decided this was definitely one job that we would rather leave to a professional. The house had a major transformation in the floor department over the weekend and I couldn't upload the photos fast enough to share with you all.

Lets get a few photo reminders of the hardwood floors...here it is during the first cleaning.

It finally was looking pretty after hours of scrubbing

It cleaned up nicely, however, we knew we wanted to refinish them because there were a few damaged spots and the poly layer was extremely thin in the living room and even worse in the two bedrooms. 

The floors got a nice coat of dust on them when the drywall was being finished and then it got even worse when the boys did the skim coating layer to the plaster walls in the living room. 

Then this happened (drum roll, please!)

(insert choir singing here)

BeeeeUtifully sanded floors.

I was so ecstatic when I walked in to see this. Literally I couldn't hardly contain my excitement!

That was only the beginning. 

Next came the top coat.

You think I freaked out when I saw that? You're right!! EEEKKK! 

So pretty, so smooth, PERFECT!

(did I include enough exclamation points to let you in on how I am feeling right now?!)

I am in love with these floors. They are absolutely gorgeous and if they weren't still wet when I took these pictures I would have layed right down on them. 

The guy we hired, who happens to be a family friend, and extremely nice guy, Michael Coxon, did the refinishing of the hardwood floors and we are beyond impressed. He did all that in four days. FOUR days! He is amazing. If you are local to the greater Grand Rapids area and want his number let me know. I may just make posters and hang them up around town for him because I was THAT impressed and I'm not just saying that because I know him. If I didn't know him I would still be saying that.

I wanted to show you the greatest transformation of the whole thing. Do you remember the dated flooring in the kitchen? When Mark tore that up there was a section that had covered the old original floors and it was a mess. 

You can see about 8 rows in that photo above that are noticeably wood floors there, but after that it got pretty ugly. This area now looks like brand new flooring was put down. The first photo below is the sanded floor and the second is with the poly coating on in that same spot. WHAT!! Amazing. 

We really couldn't be any happier with the floors. They turned out so much better than I imagined possible.

Now that the floors are done, painting can start again. I plan on attacking the stairwell and the living room this week and hopefully I can prime the rest of the trim and get that painted very soon. Mark will be working on the tile in the bathroom. Lots more to do but it's getting there. 

Hope you all are enjoying seeing these changes as much as I enjoy sharing them with you. It makes the process seem a little more fun to be able to share each milestone, little or big as they may be!