We like 'em shiny!

Do you remember way back in the fall when we had the ceiling fixed in our living room and the rest of the first floor painted? Well I'm pretty sure I mentioned it because it has been a source of stress ever since, but all the dust and debris did a number on our newly restored hardwood floors. They covered everything in plastic, but still the dust settled into the fine cracks in the wood and it didn't seem to matter how many times I cleaned them, they never looked like they once had. I tried everything from apple cider vinegar to the Bona floor cleaning system. Nothing worked.

Now that spring has come and sun actually shines in our windows, we've decided it's time to tighten up and get some of our ongoing unfinished projects finished up. Things like stripping and repainting the door hardware, touching up paint, finally finishing up the fireplace surround and tile and tackling the floors. We had discussed resanding and repolyurathaning them, but since we do live here there was the big question of what will we do with all of our furniture? So instead we opted to give this product a try.
I've been itching to finally get the guest room (which is currently our room) put together, so we started there. After emptying out all the furniture, I got down on my hands and knees with one of my mother's hand knit wash cloths and worked those floors - twice. After it drying I was honestly surprised to see that they really did look clean (finally!) but still there wasn't that new floor shine. (Since we have a satin finish on the floors they were never super shiny, but still...) So I did a quick test patch of the Minwax Hardwood Floor Reviver in the closet and then took it to the floors. It's a bit of a sticky liquid that comes out in a crazy florescent purple color that you rub in and then wait 2 hours. The waiting was the hardest part - I'm impatient - but I was super glad to see that YES! IT WORKED! Since the product recommends waiting a full 24 hours before replacing the furniture we had to do a late night moving shoving of the mattress up the staircase so we had somewhere to sleep, but it was so worth it. At least our floor if finally clean!

Look at the results:

BEFORE
dirty, dusty & dull


AFTER
yip-yip-yipee!
(the bedroom)

(the dining room)

So far I've tackled the bedroom, dining room & my girl cave/2nd guest room. What a way to spend your day off, huh? It's not hard, just time consuming. The hard part is going to be the rooms that we pass through everyday, like the hallway and kitchen. Maybe we should go away from the weekend to make it easier!