We're sitting on the couch looking at pictures documenting the day's work. It's 9:15 pm and we are freshly showered. "Honey, my washrag was actually dirty." "Mine too. That's the dirtiest I've been in a long time."
We spent another full day sanding. Are we as far along in this project as we thought we would be by Sunday evening? We both say, loudly, NO.
This morning, the plan was to pick up where we left off last night: we needed to do a regular, with-the-grain sanding using 36 grit. Then we'd be done with cross sanding and could move up the chain to 60, 80, jet out to rent the buffer after lunch, screen sand with 100 grit, wipe everything down to get rid of all the dust and put on the Rubio Monocoat. So, we started with the regular 36 grit sand. Still, the floor wasn't completely clean. Some streaks of stain were left, the floor was still a little wavy in parts and not totally smooth. Knowing (and dreading) what was before us, we referred to the sanding progression flowchart Kadee gave us for creating a test patch (even though we were beyond test patches at this point). We decided to go back a step and cross sand at 24, straight at 24, cross at 36, and straight at 36 to get the floors completely bare. This meant that after more than an hour of work this morning, we were somehow behind the position in which we woke up. Like what residents of Tonga must feel when they see people in American Samoa celebrating New Year's Eve on television.
Friends, we were so tired just thinking about what seemed to be a step backward. But we pressed on because we didn't want the floors to look like garbage. (We've lived with terrible floors for five years and are oh-so-ready to turn that page.)
We spent another full day sanding. Are we as far along in this project as we thought we would be by Sunday evening? We both say, loudly, NO.
This morning, the plan was to pick up where we left off last night: we needed to do a regular, with-the-grain sanding using 36 grit. Then we'd be done with cross sanding and could move up the chain to 60, 80, jet out to rent the buffer after lunch, screen sand with 100 grit, wipe everything down to get rid of all the dust and put on the Rubio Monocoat. So, we started with the regular 36 grit sand. Still, the floor wasn't completely clean. Some streaks of stain were left, the floor was still a little wavy in parts and not totally smooth. Knowing (and dreading) what was before us, we referred to the sanding progression flowchart Kadee gave us for creating a test patch (even though we were beyond test patches at this point). We decided to go back a step and cross sand at 24, straight at 24, cross at 36, and straight at 36 to get the floors completely bare. This meant that after more than an hour of work this morning, we were somehow behind the position in which we woke up. Like what residents of Tonga must feel when they see people in American Samoa celebrating New Year's Eve on television.
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| Streaks of stain between boards. |
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| Part of a board sits a hair lower than the floor. |
Mr. H. was an animal with the edger. (He found our preferred brand at Menards this morning, the very one we used in our class!) I focused on using the drum sander. I sanded, and sanded, and sanded, and sanded. It's incredibly boring, but you have to pay attention so you don't screw up. It's impossible to listen to music or a podcast or anything because we both we wearing professional-grade hearing protection. Endless sanding, struggling with the cords for the sander and the vacuum, switching the sanding pad, blah blah blah. At one point, I was so tired, I went outside for a break and ended up laying down on the front porch. I almost couldn't get up.
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| Edging is fairly quick, but golly - what a beast of a machine! Very aggressive! |
We carried on. Mr. H. busted out his secret bag of fruit-flavored Life Savers (how appropriate); I had a banana-pineapple popsicle from the batch I made earlier in the week. I sanded; he edged. Sometimes he edged; I rested. I sanded; he went for supplies.
Finally, at 7:30 pm, we were done. A successful pass with 80 grit left us with a bare, beautiful, smooth floor.
We are still behind where we thought we'd be. Mr. H has the day off tomorrow and I don't have to be at work until noon, so this is what we're going to do. Return the equipment (to 2 different places: HHD and Menards). Sand and scrape by hand in the corners of the living room, dining room, entry, and coat closet. Pick up the buffer. Use the buffer to screen sand with 100 grit. Then, remove the dust barriers we have taped up (including over doors and vents). Vacuum EVERYTHING and wipe everything down METICULOUSLY. Walls, windows, trim, doors, vents...everything. At that point, turn on the A/C. Then, FINALLY, apply the finish. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help, but Mr. H will press on in my absence. He's a real go-getter.
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