Going with the flow ...

Right now I am listening to the hum of a wood sander on my kitchen floors. I love construction. I love the process and I love the progress. But sometimes it is just not what you had planned.

We had a water leak (uh, refrigerator) and have to refinish our beautiful maple wood floors. The wood extends throughout the kitchen, mud room, small bath and the family room, which means the entire space has to be redone. When we had the floors installed 12 years ago, we were able to put an oil based finish on them. But now, with the environmental restrictions, we can only use a water based product. With the oil base finish, and a little help from the sun, the floors turned a rich golden color. This time, our choices were to stain the wood to achieve that same patina or embrace the lighter color.

The funny thing (funny?) is that this all happened in the middle of redoing our kitchen. We recently replaced our dark granite (12" squares) with white quartz and put in a honed Carrara marble backsplash. Those changes came about because our oven died and in order to get the range I wanted we had to replace our counters ... remember this post? 

quick iPhone photo at Christmas - new counters / old cabinets / range half-installed!

Last November I decided it was finally time to get a new range. Our oven had gone out the previous Fall but the broiler still worked and I discovered that if I put a cookie sheet on the top rack to keep the food from burning I could still use the oven. I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with that because it bought me an entire year. I made my Christmas cookies and even baked a cheesecake that way. But then one day the broiler went out too and I knew I would have to make that decision to replace the oven. The problem was that we had an under-the-counter oven and a cooktop but what I really wanted was a range. And that would require new counters. 

I used to pray wish that the oven would go out so that I could replace those old granite counters but when it actually happened it wasn't where I wanted to spend my money. And so I struggled. Should I just replace the old oven with a new under the counter oven and call it a day (the less expensive option) or should I do what I really wanted (a range) and move forward with something that would bring the kitchen more up to date with the look I wanted. 

I wish I could say I was that person that would have been happy with just replacing. I tried. I went down to the appliance store and selected a decent replacement. But in the end, I couldn't do it. I went back and bought the range and had the counters replaced. And if this story isn't long enough... I then had to decide to paint the old (23 years old) cabinets that didn't match the refrigerator and dishwasher panels that I changed 6 years ago trying to move forward or get new fronts and be done. It's just never ending! So that is where we were, in the middle of replacing the cabinet doors, when the refrigerator died and the ice melted and the floor in front of the refrigerator buckled.

Here is what the floors looked like before the damage:

If you look close you can get a glimpse of our new counters and backsplash and the new cabinet door fronts that are waiting to be finished and painted. 

Here is the floor all sanded down:

In this image, you can see the old with the new:

What looks like a shadow is where they had not sanded yet. At first I was wanting to hold on to the old look but I think the lighter floors will be a nice change and will look great with our new kitchen. I am thinking they will look something like this once they are sealed and the final coats are on:

source

I am trying to just go with the flow and embrace the change(s). Out with the old ... in with the new!

images: pinterest