Phase three of our main floor renovation project is complete! We have been waiting a long time to check this off the list of ‘home reno projects’ and it feels so good to have it done. Phase one {removing the wall between the dining room and kitchen} and phase two {kitchen renovation} were incredibly rewarding but this was the piece of the puzzle that pulled it all together.
It wasn’t the easiest piece of the puzzle. The easy part was hiring someone to refinish the original hardwoods that were in the living room, entryway and dining room. We had considered taking this on ourselves and, honestly, I’m so glad we didn’t. While we love tackling home projects as a family, this one was out of our league.
Fortunately, several years ago Max’s parents had to refinish the floors of their late 1800’s home so they had a great recommendation for us. Their project turned out beautifully so when we found out they had used Maschino Wood Floors to achieve their dream floors, we knew we wanted them to work on ours as well.
Not only did Maschino’s refinish the original red oak floors in our home, but they were able to install matching hardwood in the kitchen. There’s still a slight transition between the dining room and the kitchen because we couldn’t get all the way down to the sub-floor {long story 😉 }.
But back to the reason why this wasn’t the easiest project we’ve ever taken on in this home. Hiring Maschino’s was the easy part. The work it took to prepare for their team to come in was the challenge. Between tearing out the two layers of kitchen tile and the parquet that was covering the original hardwood in the dining room to moving all of our furniture out of the main floor to our garage… it was quite the undertaking.
| BEFORE |
My one regret is that we didn’t refinish and install the new hardwood floors before we moved in. The process of moving everything out of our main floor was not overtly difficult but rather inconvenient for a family of four. We were incredibly fortunate to have Max’s parents host us at their house for just over a week. There’s no way to get to our three upstairs bedrooms without walking across the floors so it would have been nearly impossible to continue living in our house while this project was underway.
The other challenge that came long before we moved anything out. Choosing a stain and finish was one of the most stressful decisions we’ve had to make for this home renovation. You want to get it right and there’s no re-do. But ultimately we are really pleased with the way it turned out and feel we absolutely made the right decision.
We actually chose to go without a stain color and we went with a matte, natural finish. It looks very much like natural red oak. The color different from when they sanded it down to when they put on the finish was really minimal. It’s exactly what we had hoped for.
The matte finish eliminated the glossy look that the floors had when we moved in; something we never cared for with the style we were working toward with this home. In case you’re looking to achieve the same look for your red oak, we went with Bona Best Sealer and two coats of Bona Naturals.
| AFTER |
We couldn’t be happier with the end result! Now we plan to continue refining the furniture we have on the main level as there are a few “holes” in our rooms that we wanted to wait to fill until this project was complete. One piece in particular that I have my eye on is this cabinet for the dining room!
If you have any questions about this process, feel free to comment below. I’m happy to help!
And if you’re wondering which home project we plan to tackle next: our downstairs bathroom! Stay tuned!
xo
-M
| KITCHEN |
| KITCHEN DECOR |
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| DINING ROOM |
| DINING ROOM DECOR |
| ENTRYWAY & LIVING ROOM |
| LIVING ROOM & ENTRY DECOR |
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This looks great, Maren! I’m looking to do the same project in my house. Did you remove the old flooring and prep the sub-floor yourselves or did you hire that out? If so, who did you use? Looking for recommendations. Thanks!
Hi Nicole! That’s so exciting! We took out the parquet ourselves but we had the guys we hired take out the old flooring in the kitchen because it was much more difficult and we didn’t have the proper tools to really do it. We used Maschino Wood Flooring to do the entire project and they were great! Good luck – it’s so worth it!
xo
-M