After: Living/Dining Room

We absolutely love our *new* old floors! They make the space look so big and light! It reminds me of a dance studio floor. My dad was dancing the waltz on it in his floor-protecting booties on Monday!

Hmm, now all it needs is some furniture. But I was just getting used to the dresser as a make-shift kitchen island. And the main floor bedroom, dubbed the *tool shed & furniture barn*, now lives up to its nickname.

Flietstra Family Bonding...

Labor Day weekend is supposed to be a relaxing time, right? Hah. Not around our house! My parents drove down by 7:30am Saturday morning to meet us at Home Depot to rent our hefty floor sanders. Amazingly those don't fit in the *Focus.* Andy and Alysha (round 2 of reinforcements) arrived not long after we got back home!

Major thanks to Jack, Chris and Andy for the Saturday Sanding-fest. Floor sanding with the big rigs took up the majority of Saturday.... they stopped to eat dinner at the cook-out with our neighbors...then back to work till about midnight Saturday. Don't have any pictures of this (sad) but it was too dusty to really see anything.

Sunday was another Sanding Bonanza. More sanding with the smaller sanders. This was more of a collaborative effort- Andy, Alysha, Carolyn, Jack, Chris & me- all inhaling the dust together! We started around 8ish in the morning and it wasn't until Sunday evening that we were able to start the *Bona* flooring finale. My dad and I put the sealer down about 5 pm. Then we grabbed a bite to eat at restaurant in dowtown Batavia - where, between my mom and I, we managed to break a ramekin and spill 2 glasses of water. Around 9-10pm, Jack, Chris and Andy put the first coat of finish down followed by the second around 1:30am.

Everyone worked SO HARD! We really appreciated all the help! It would have never gotten done without all of the fam!

Before: Living/Dining Room

Asta la pasta, carpet! Chris and I ripped out the carpet within 24 hours of closing on the house! (see pictures of the fun times below)

This is the dining room/living room as seen from the kitchen. The original oak floor is laid in such a way that it looks like there are two wood "rugs" differentiating the two spaces. We found where some of the flooring was replaced which means originally there was some sort of archway or divider between the living and dining rooms. The dark areas are some sort of adhesive possibly from a large area rug. Let's just say...the flooring I saw when I pulled up the corners was slightly misleading....