When last seen, the baseboard looked like this.
For me to be able to finally check this off my list involved the following...
-Scraping the baseboard free of chunks of paint with the awesome scraper/nail remover tool.
-Measuring, cutting and nailing in place a bunch of quarter round following this tutorial 1, 2, 3.
-Filling all the nail holes (and, cough cough, the unexpected gap between baseboard and quarter round) with spackle (because I like spackle better than wood putty, but if you weren't planning to paint these, definitely go with the putty).
-Taping
-Painting
-Scrubbing the floor using Ecover floor soap. (As Sarah noted in the comments, though, this product says its not for use on sealed wood. It did clean mine really well, probably because there isn't much finish left.)
Ta Dah!
I would like to reiterate the fact that this is a somewhat temporary fix until I'm feeling super ambitious and am ready to pull up the carpet in the entire upstairs. At that point we'll actually sand down and refinish all the floors. For the amount of effort that we've put in (not that much, really) I'm super pleased with the results. And don't tell Jeff, but I kind of like the distressed scuffed up look. I think it feels more homey than a super smooth and shiny finish would.
I'd also like to add that a miter box is a crucial (and fairly inexpensive) tool if you don't already own a miter chop saw. You'll need it to get the angles right so the pieces go together properly.
Another helpful, but totally terrifying, tool that we used was a nail gun. It's not necessary, though. And if I'd had my way, we would not have used it at all. I'm perfectly capable of swinging a hammer. Do any of you remember a few years ago when there was a rash of people (OK, maybe 2 or 3) ending up in the hospital for headaches and it turned out they'd managed to shoot nails into their heads, but didn't realize it? I can only assume that they never actually pointed the gun at their heads or they might have suspected that they had a nail festering in there. Craziness. (Ya, so I had to look this up for you all. I found one of the guys here. I can't even watch it all the way through. It makes me shudder.)
Every time Jeff nailed down a piece I had an overwhelming urge to dial 91 and then hold my finger over the last 1.
So it's because of this ridiculousness of mine that Jeff insisted that I nail down the last piece of quarter round myself. And I didn't even get any nails lodged in my brain. At least I don't think I did.
-------------------------------
Related Posts-
Carpet Removal Project- The Not so Bad Beginning
Tack Strips are Evil
Randa's Room- Embroidered Shade
The baseboards look great, I KNOW what a process it all is. When ever in the future we have a chance to take all the furniture out of our main level and have the kids spending the night somewhere, we will be buffing and resealing the floor. From what I understand, it is not as messy as sanding them and it still leaves the "character". I haven't looked up just how to do it, I've just gleaned this from an ad of a company who was trying to sell the service. I have a question though, I looked up ecover floor cleaner and it says not suitable for sealed wood, so what happened when you used it? With 3 kids under 5, I am always looking for a good wood floor cleaner.
ReplyDeleteJust a note...when you don't use a nail gun (aka "the old-fashioned way") you need to take care not to split the wood when you are nailing. Sometimes you actually have to pre-drill the holes in the trim.
ReplyDeleteBTW, it seems to me that you've been complaining of a headache since the weekend. Do we need to get you some x-rays?
Sarah, we'll have to look into the buffing if I can convince Jeff that character is a good thing to have in hardwood floors. And as for the Ecover, our floors don't have much of the finish left on them anyway, so it seemed to work fine. If your floors are in better condition than ours, I wouldn't risk it. I'll add that thought to the post. Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteBeeeeeoooooooooooteeeeeeeeeful!
ReplyDeleteWe need to rewood (we're beyond refinishing - the floors are 100+ years old and thinning) our house and I'm totally dreading it. Your work came out so well, I'm sorta encouraged.
Meanwhile, I'm glad to know there's someone else that dials 9-1 when their loved one starts to go at it with a power tool.
This is Operating Procedure #1 in our house. Especially given the amount of blood we tend to spill over even the most mundane task.
It looks good! One of my winter projects is to see what is under the layer of carpet and plywood on our floors... I know there is tongue and groove pine flooring down there, but I don't know in what condition I'll find it! It's sure a big task...
ReplyDeleteEverytime I scroll quickly through your blog, I think that the top photo of the baseboard is a picture of a beach landscape with a crooked horizon!
ReplyDeleteThe light blue is the sky, the dark blue is the sea, and the white part looks like the surf where the water meets the sand! The little white lines on the dark blue background are small waves waiting to crash!
Do you see what I am seeing? =o).
Riimus, I have to say I don't. I keep coming back to the pictures and squinting and looking at it out of the corner of my eyes, but I can't see it. Funny. :)
ReplyDeleteI played a little with your baseboard photo and sent it to you in an email (to try to explain about the sky and the sea) =o).
ReplyDeleteOK, for those of you interested in Riimus Fungus' awesome picture, you can see it here.
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeleteWe've finally started some home projects too...and they always take a lot longer than you want them too!