I hope the second time's a charm

So you all have been involved in the progress with our wood floors. As you know, Brian and I love the fact that our house had some beautiful hard wood hidden beneath nasty carpeting. It was a treasure yet unknown. You saw it when it turned into this after removing the carpeting and matted padding.



We shopped around for estimates and decided on a friend of Brian's co-worker. We didn't get to check out any of his prior work, but he came with praise from her....and his last name was the same as ours (no relation). So, how could he not be perfect? :)

We were so excited to see the floors after we returned from vacation. It was going to make all of the fatigue and stress of our missed flights that much better. We stood at the entry door and told each other, "Let's look at the same time. Cover your eyes." We walked in, and my smile turned upside down. The color of the stain is beautiful - a perfect match to our other wood work. Beyond that, I found nothing but flaws. This makes me sound like a picky snob, but that's really not the issue (this time).

Apparently, the floor guy thought the wood was oak, not pine. Pine is much softer. Therefore, his amateur sanding abilities lead to the creation of many, many (I mean hundreds) of visible horizontal grooves in the wood. I'm no pro, but it seems that he also should have followed with a finer sand paper, as we can find areas where scratches from the grit of the paper are clearly visible. Also, his polyurethane coating skills leave something to be desired. The floor is glossy, but not smooth. There seems to be a fine layer of dust adhered to the coating. In some spots, I can even find one of my blond hairs, or a wood chip, stuck in the coat.

If you squint your eyes, it looks great...much better than before.



But upon closer look, you'll find the marks I despise so much.



So, the plan is to move all of our furniture into the basement AGAIN, and have the floors sanded AGAIN. This time, a different company will do the sanding. Our guy will do the staining and he best figure out how to do a better job with the polyurethane. I cross my fingers. There is only so much thickness to wood. The second time will have to be a charm.