Beautiful Floor

Whew! Finally back online. And yes, I do have a beautiful floor underneath me... It was a crazy weekend needless to say. Actually, not really crazy, just tiring. David got off at noon on Friday and went to rent the sander. Upon starting we found out we had to chemically strip the floors first, as the sander was "gumming" up. We knew that we may run into this, but the "tests" that we performed did not point in the direction of having to strip them. Also, in speaking with others that had the gumming issue, they just went ahead and sanded, going through more sandpaper. But that wasn't an option. We were getting no where. So David went and got chemical stripper and needless to say he didn't get very far by the time I got home from work at 6pm. I sat down and decided it was going to be a long night, but knew it had to be done. And I was going at least a little faster than David. Thank God for the 'rents though! David had to call it an early night at 9:30 because he had to get up at 3am the next morning for work and mom and dad volunteered their hardwork and time to our effort. Dad stayed until 2am and mom stayed up with me until I took her home at 6am. I continued working as I only had a little bit more to go. David got off of work, I finished stripping as he sanded and we applied the stain at 1pm...another coat at 6pm on Sat. Sleep was good that night. Then on Sunday we came in to a "sticky" stained floor due to the humidity. It wasn't all bad, but while applying the final stain on Saturday it dried real quick and there were some thicker areas that couldn't be easily wiped up. So we had to make a decision and we decided to got ahead and poly the floor and waited twice the drying time. It ended up working out with the poly pushing the stain around a bit more, which made it look better. Came back Sunday night, applied second coat. David had to work the next morning, and before my alarm clock could even go off he was greeting me saying the final coat was done! Sweet! So we ended up being about 1 day behind, but considering the circumstances it went quite smooth. We ended up staying at David's 'rents for the weekend and they graciously let us stay 2 additional days, to allow the floor to "cure" before putting furniture on it and allowing the animals to run on it. As always, it was a learning experience. I'd be willing to do it again, but not anytime soon. It's amazing how much the chemical stripper burns. I got to do the "happy" dance while in pain, a few times that night due to the burning. Every so often you got a spot that you sat in or something and of course once one part starts burning there has to be about 2 more that start with it. Hey, it kept me awake. And mom and I had some interesting conversations. Fun times. David moved much of the stuff back into the rooms today while I worked and then I came home to hook up the tv stuff and computer. Then we got the animals. I think they had an enjoyable time with Sita and Alpa (david's 'rents), but it's nice to be home. I'll post some pics when I get the chance