Crazy Train to a new floor

A few days before Easter, I took a ride on the crazy train... and my husband rode with me.

   My kitchen floor has been bothering me for some time. We remodelled the kitchen in 2002. I love everything we did. It is big country kitchen and has a huge island that we spend loads of time at. The floor we put in was a distressed eastern white pine wide plank floor. The manufacturer suggested a tung oil finish. This finish did not hold up to the constant use. We refinished the tung oil several times but we would just wear right through the finish again in no time. The parts of the floor that were bare wood would get stained and dirty. I couldn't get them clean. This would make me discouraged but then I would be mad at myself for not being content. (Here you see my little dog Molly after her latest haircut... sitting on the worn out floor).

We are in the midst of the most ambitious remodelling project we have ever done. We raised the roof  over part of the house. My husband has been working very hard on this project and I didn't want to add to his stress but last Tuesday I just had a melt down about the state of the kitchen floor. I told him I would love to sand it down and put polyurethane on it. Surprisingly, he said "Sure, let's do it." And that is when we jumped onto the crazy train.

Oh, the mess we made! Even with a bags to collect the sawdust on our sanders... we made a huge mess. We moved everything off the counters into the dining room. The fridge went into the dining room. The coffee pot into the bathroom. We moved the range and dishwasher into the mudroom. The pantry items were on top of the piano. The desk was on the church pew. Add to that 2 homeschooling girls, 2 dogs, and some laundry. It was like chaos. I was so happy!  

I love to sand. Jeff and I had done our bedroom floor in 2006 and I was the sanding queen then. I jumped right back into that role. It was very fulfilling too. I haven't been able to contribute to the Huge project but I can contribute to this one. It was like grinding away all my frustration (literally).

My biggest fear was that we would make it too smooth. I did not want a perfectly smooth pristine floor. That would not match our house or our lives (we have worked hard at distressing that floor over the last 10 years). Fortunately, we left plenty of sanding marks and dents (it a good thing we don't do this for a living). Choosing the stain was quite the chore. With several test spots on the floor behind the stove and several phone calls to our trusted friends in CO (with pictures) we settled on "golden oak".

Today I'm going to start moving things back in. How exciting! It is like having a whole new kitchen. I'm very thankful. I glad that God gave me a husband that will indulge his wife craziness. I was thinking maybe God uses some discontent to spur us on to get stuff done. Hmmm, What do you think?