Before they could install the new floors in my office, the floor guys had to chip up the old subfloor – just like the rest of our house, the subfloor in the office was made out of particle board which is a big no-no for hardwood floors since it will disintegrate if it gets wet.  Looks fun, right?

Once the new subfloor was in, the new hardwoods could be installed!

Actually, they aren’t new wood floors in my office at all – we actually decided to go with reclaimed wood floors for a few reasons: (1) they’re about $1 a foot cheaper than new wood, (2) we liked the thought of having floors with a bit of history and saving them from the ol’ garbage pile, and (3) they’re actually higher quality than new wood floors because they’re from back in the day when floors were made of nicer grade of wood.  Worked for us!

After the floors were in everything got sealed off with sheets of plastic – sanding is a dusty business, even though our floor guys were using a “dust-free” system where the majority of the dust is sucked into a vacuum cleaner as the floors are sanded.

I think the sanding is my favorite part – the floors went from looking a little sad and damaged to looking brand-spanking new!  This photo kind of gives you an idea of the transformation the sanding is having on our floors:

Have you guys had any drama with your hardwood floors?  I love’em, but my fingers are crossed that this is the only issue we ever have with them.  The floor saga will continue tomorrow, so stay tuned!

P.S.  Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!  Click here to enter until midnight on Sunday, August 8.

You see, we’re getting our floors refinished.  You might be asking yourself, “Um, are these people nuts?  Didn’t they just completely gut and renovate their house a year and a half ago, including putting in new hardwood floors?“

You would be correct in asking that question.  And yes, our hardwood floors are just 1.5 years old.  And they were perfect, beautiful, just what we wanted.

But then we had that pesky leak under the house last March, right after we moved in.  We thought it didn’t do any damage but we were wrong.  Turns out that the hot water leak in the crawl space created oodles of steam that made our floors wavier than a beach in Florida.  Vacuuming felt like skiing moguls.  And it didn’t look so hot, either.

{ This picture really doesn’t do the waves justice. }

We were lucky and our homeowner’s insurance policy covered the damage, and now we’ve finally gotten around to actually having them refinished.  It took us forever to schedule a date since this process was going to be a bit inconvenient, to put it mildly.  First off, we had to find places for all of our stuff, like our master bathroom:

a guest room:

the fireplace hearth:

and the garage:

All I can say is thank goodness for movers!

After our stuff found a new home, so did we – my parents’ house, to be exact.  They are conveniently out of town so we’ve moved in to do a little house sitting.  Perfect, right?  Here’s where we’ve set up shop to work for the next week:

A little cozier than the separate offices we had at our house, but it’ll definitely work.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that my office is getting hardwood floors?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I’m just a little excited, if you couldn’t tell.  :)  More about that and the rest of this madness tomorrow so stay tuned . . .

P.S.  Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!  Click here to enter until midnight on Sunday, August 8.

Anyhoo, that sucker needs to be gussied up.  A new paint job is definitely in the works, and I’m contemplating some new hardware.  I’ll probably just wind up spray painting the existing hardware {knobs get expensive!}, but in the meantime I’m enjoying dreaming of gorgeous, luxurious knobs like these from Anthropologie:

Maybe I’ll switch out the knobs on the nightstands with one of these – I can stomach buying 2 knobs much better than buying 6!  Which one of them strikes your fancy?

While taking a break from decorating her house for Easter, Mom tackled a slew of sad little pieces with just a few coats of Minwax’s PolyShades in Bombay Mahogany.  A rich stain instantly transformed this plain oak frame into the perfect surrounding for a sweet bunny print:

The pastel, floral base of this lamp was off-putting to Mom so she never used it.  After a few coats of polystain, the base was neutralized and the bunny lamp was finally allowed to participate in the Easter festivities.  Turns out polystain works on more surfaces than just wood!

Mom recently converted my old bedroom into this warm, inviting guest room.  (What, did she think that guests wouldn’t like the electric purple room of my youth?  Whatev!)  The newly slipcovered wing chair looked great in the room, but the medium-toned wood on the chair legs simply didn’t blend in.  After a few coats of polystain the wing chair blends perfectly with the deep chocolate brown that accents the space.

This little bench is the piece de resistance.  With stains and a dull oak finish, this bench had seen better days.  Now it’s a gorgeous mahogany tone that will look great in any room of the house.

What do you feel like polystaining?  I’m thinking about tackling that awesome headboard that I practically stole at a garage sale . . .

[By the way - be sure to stop by We Chirp to check out a really cute and unique giveaway!!]

As I walked up the driveway to the garage sale, I noticed a beautiful, carved wooden bed set – for $125.  Bummer!  Not exactly the deal I was looking for – my hopes for this garage sale began to dwindle.  I kept walking and spotted another carved wooden headboard and footboard for a double bed – based upon the high price of the other bed set I figured that it was out of my price range, but took a look at the price anyway.  Score!!!!  This set was marked at only $10!!

I was totally surprised, and confirmed with the homeowner that it was really only 10 smackers – turns out she didn’t think the set had any value because it was missing the bed rails.  Details, details.  The headboard alone made the $10 price tag worthwhile!  My head began to spin with possibilities – sand down and stain, new paint, use headboard only or try to find new rails . . . and all this for only 10 beans?!?!?  How could I not pull the trigger on this fabola purchase?

Take a look at this beauty that I practically stole:

Isn’t she gorgeous??  I can’t wait to have some spare time to gussy her up for our third bedroom.  And let’s zoom in on that awesome price tag (sorry, I just can’t help rubbing it in):

Have you scored any awesome deals at a garage sale?  Got any ideas for how I should spiff up this steal of a bed set?  Can’t wait to hear from you guys . . .

When we first bought our house, our front door was nothing short of frightening.  Friends and family that weren’t put off by the huge iron bars were scared by the peach and mauve color scheme:

We assured them that we had no intention to leave the door the way it was – but we had no idea what we were actually going to do with it.  Replacing the door wasn’t an option, as we quickly learned that a replacement door and sidelites can run in the thousands of dollars.  Then we noticed that the other side of the door, the side that we could see from our entryway, was actually quite pretty (if you could look past all the glistening finishes to actually see the door):

So, finally we had a plan – the front door would be refinished and restored to its pre-painted glory.  A few days later, after the door was scraped within an inch of its life, it was stained to match our new wood floors – or so we thought!!  Turns out that the door was made out of a different type of wood than our floors, so the door took the stain much differently than our floors did.  Moral of the story – always test out the stain before you apply it!!  Luckily, we’re pretty happy with the finished product:

(The lighter part at the bottom of the door is actually just glare – the door is really all the same color).

Deciding to refinish our existing door instead of replacing it saved us thousands of dollars, and we think the end result is awesome – warm and inviting instead of a scary mix of paint and metal.  What parts of your home did you revamp instead of replace to save some bucks?