So, moving onto the hallway, that was supposed to be easier...and the top layer of linoleum came up nice and easily...but it turns out there was another layer underneath (some weird blue linoleum that has to have been from the 70s). So, more scraping with a chisel :(
That left the kitchen--which was originally where Adam had started, but then he realized that the floor underneath was super sticky after the linoleum was pulled up, so he stopped in there and did the spare room and hallway and then returned to the kitchen. That was the easiest to pull up, but then we had to put cardboard and paneling over the floor in order to walk on it until we could move on to the next step because we would literally get stuck in it.
So, next, Adam used a bunch of chemicals (which he just told me was called "Adam's mixture of fun") to de-stickify the kitchen floor, and even more chemicals to deal with the dumb hallway. (Good thing we didn't have to pull up linoleum in the living room and our bedroom!)
Next, it was finally time to sand....
Adam and I both had Tuesday off; he went and rented a sander from Ace, having consulted with a worker there who assured him he'd have no problems; the machine he was renting would be great. Well, about 1.5 hours or 2 hours into the sanding and having only done about 3 square feet, we realized the Ace guy was NUTS. Adam went to Home Depot and got a heavier duty machine, which worked much better. He then went over all the floors with that machine a couple times and I followed behind with the wimpier sander to give the floors a smooth finish. We got the main areas of the floors done, but we still had to do the edges, which required renting yet another machine from Home Depot. By this point, I was pretty wiped out and went to bed, but Adam stayed up until 1:30 in the morning working on the edges. He finished that up, but then there were still some spots (like under the counter edges and in the corners) that had to be done by hand...which takes us to Wednesday.
I actually had to work on Wednesday, but Adam took a vacation day so he could work on the floor some more. He got the hand sanding done, applied the base coat and did 3 layers of the finish in all of the rooms but the kitchen, so I came home on Wednesday to beautiful floors! (And hey, even unfinished the kitchen floor looked way better than it did with the linoleum.)
On Thursday, Adam finished up the hand sanding in the kitchen (despite going to work and a church meeting, meaning he was out of the house for a good 12 hours). He even put down the base coat before going to bed. Then Friday morning, he got 2 coats of the finish done before going to work and came home on his lunch break to put the final coat on.
So, after tons and tons and tons of effort...we have nice floors!! YAY!
This is the before and after of the living room. The living room actually had a nice floor, but it was faded in one spot, and we knew it would be pretty much impossible to match the stain of the other floors to it, so we sanded it down and refinished it anyway.
This is the before and after of our bedroom. It's hard to tell with the rug there, but this floor was pretty scratched up...but still the second best floor in the house.
This is the before and after of the spare room...which had the UGLIEST linoleum in the history of linoleum. Brown parquet? Seriously? YUCK. I have hated that linoleum from the second I saw it!
This is the before and after of the kitchen. The linoleum in there wasn't as ugly, but it was very worn and needed to go.
We didn't take a before picture of the hallway, but the linoleum in there was brown and white-ish and not terrible but definitely not as pretty as a hard wood floor!
Anyway, I'm thrilled with the new floors and very appreciative of my amazing husband and all of the hard work he does to improve our house.
