(The living room and dining room – I think they call that cupping)

I’ve been getting quotes for refinishing the hardwood floors and the consensus is :
Having a professional refinish floors is really expensive.

(Master bedroom and guest room. Wow. NICE paint job…)

The two bedroom floors are mysteriously painted off-white. The wood seems to be in good shape – so I think it was done for style. The awesome kind of style that also requires one bedroom to be painted red, blue, yellow, green, AND pink!

So stupidly I’m planing on refinishing the floors myself. Yes – with no experience and as my first home rehab project – I’m taking on the 1000 sq. ft. of hardwood that Lowes considers to be an “advanced” skill level DIY. I’m prepping as much as I can, reading numerous tutorials and went to the Home Depot to price out the rental tools and discuss the project with some of the team members (which was a total mistake – I think that guy was stoned – he was all slack jaw and blank stares)

It seems scary, and I will probably screw this up.
Plus – who knew that sandpaper was so freaking expensive.

(No stain – just sealed with urethane – via: Renovation Rants)

I found this great post at Renovation Rants outlining the process of refinishing hardwood floors and doing it yourself. I’m thinking more and more about not staining and just urethaning the floors to bring out the natural color…decisions decisions…

Below are hardwood inspiration pics via The Mid-Century Modernist. Yummers.

Escrow is in its final days and we should have the keys to our little masonry house by next week. Pushing paperwork around is now the final step before handing over the keys and signing my financial life away…

So far in the process of buying our first home I have learned new words like “REO“, “vesting”, “lien”, and “earnest money”. The process as a whole has been rather effortless. I’ve initialed a lot of papers that say pretty much the same thing over and over, I’ve written lots of checks and transferred weird amounts of cash around. Overall its been less stressful than I predicted, but my patience is wearing thin to get to the good stuff – like, demo and decorating.

Below is the list of “To Do” projects before move in day:

Demo:
Kitchen floors
Bathroom floors 1&2
Built-in desk
Wainscoting in den
Wall heaters (bathroom 1&2 and den)

Fix:
Patch plaster (cracks, holes from heaters, and wainscoting)
2 leaks in roof (porch and garage)

Floors:
Refinish hardwood floors
Lay VCT in kitchen and bathrooms

Paint:
Paint the entire interior including trim bright white

Install:
New front door / back door handles and locks
Shower head in pink bathroom

It looks like we should be moving in after we get the keys in about a year…

I don’t really know how to do most of these things on the list, well except for the destruction and the painting. We will be relying on the kindness of friends and family, as well as the trusty internet to figure most of it out. Luckily spring break is coming up right after we close escrow, so I’ll have 2 weeks to make improvements without worrying about the day job. I’m shooting for move-in day to be the last Saturday of March…hopefully.