Sand da floor!

On Friday night we ventured to Home Depot to pick up supplies to finish our white oak floors. Once our floors are finished we plan to move in (shh..don't tell the County). So sanding and finishing the floors was to be my project for the Labor day weekend while Todd worked on siding. We decided on a satin finish for a nice matte look and also bought all the necessary pads to put the urethane down. We figured it would take most of the day Saturday to sand the floors, then hopefully we'd have time to clean and get one coat of finish down. Well, that was the plan.

We rented the "square buff" floor sander from TW Perry early Saturday and plenty of 12"x18" sand paper sheets to go along with it. Enter square buffer…We decided to start with a coarse 36 grit then work down to the fine 150 grit. My brother has finished floors before and he recommended starting with 60 grit, but our floor boards are pretty wide and have cupped a bit so we thought we'd be a little more aggressive. I suited up with a dust mask, ipod and ear protection and started in the master bedroom while Willy and Todd erected scaffolding to hang the firring strips on the south side of the house. Here they are…I didn't last too long with the sander. Not only was it hard to control but it was just vibrating on the surface and barely taking anything off. I guess that's why in big letters "square buff" is written on the machine. Too bad it didn't say "square eater" or "square monster." We ended up driving back to TW Perry for a heavier grit paper and soon discovered that it wasn't enough so we went back for the heavy duty drum sander. We decided to keep the buffer for the lighter work.

Enter the drum sander…We thought for sure that the drum sander would do the trick. At this point Todd took over with the sanding and gave up on putting up firring strips.He was determined that he could get the floors sanded in one day and was going to work through the night to get it done. Sometimes I think I'm married to a machine! I could barely lift my arms after using the buffer for a few hours and the drum sander is a beast. At about 10 o'clock Todd stopped and had barely made his way out of the bedroom. We performed a light test (shop light shined across the floor) only to find out that the floors were still cupped. You could still see a fuzzy raised edge. We stopped for the day and figured we'd (meaning Todd) tackle the bedroom again on Sunday, along with the main room. Surely we'd be able to get it done in one day. This time Todd decided to go at an angle, which takes off more of the cupping.He walked the sander back and forth for most of the day. I gave it a whirl but didn't last 15 minutes before handing the machine back over. We did a second light test only to discover that we weren't even close. The rough sand paper had also left hundreds of tiny angle marks in the floor and it would take some time to get those out. And that's only the rough sanding. Frustrated and beat up, we decided to throw in the towel and give up. The floor defeated us. We're calling someone in to finish the job and hopefully it's in the budget.

Yesterday we decided to lick our wounds and take it easy. We eyed the jacuzzi tub and figured it was just the right time to hook it up. We attached the bath hardware and wired in the hot water heater. Unfortunately the hot water heater didn't have enough time and the temperature wasn't hot enough for a bath. Sigh. Oh well, here's the first filling. It certainly looks nice!And last but not least, here are some photos of our driveway loop and our new sculpture creation out of cinder blocks…The loop staked and seeded around the perimeter.Almost time for the bobcatThe completed loop. We've now finished all land disturbing activities and can get our grading permit bond money back. Maybe we can use that to pay for the floors to get finished or maybe we can auction off this beautiful sculpture…