Floors Update

So this will be my last floors update until my final post with pictures after they are all done, but I wanted to just share with you how the first day of sanding went.  Now I guess it is hard to tell from these photos (mostly taken in the dark with an iphone) but after the finish was sanded off them they are a really light ash colored...sorta like bleached wood.  They are actually really pretty.

 can you see the difference from the warm honey color that they were before sanding them?

And that lighter colored stuff that appears to be masking tape is actually a sandable wood filler.  This filler is around the base of the floors covering up the nail holes that remain from the tack strip that held down the carpets being removed.  You also can't really tell from the photos but that filler is actually all over the floor filling in the holes that remained after I pulled up all of those staples.

Now the reason you see so much filler here is that the boards were REALLY bad here in the hallway.  Not only was there a lot of staining, but the boards were starting to come apart and there were large gaps between the boards.  And this filler will really help keep the boards together, as well as make my home more energy efficient (since removing the carpets actually made my house less energy efficient).

And remember the really bad termite damage?

it is now all filled in:

(the landlord didn't want to pay to rip up the floor boards and replace them...so hopefully it will turn out ok!  Fingers crossed!!!  And as you can see from this picture...the molded was just at the surface (not throughout the whole board) and it was easily sanded off. 

Here is another board that had termite damage that has gotten the first round of wood filler...

  And lastly I wanted to show you a picture of where the wood floor meets the fireplace.  The nail hole damage was the worst here as the people who put the carpet down put in two rows of carpet tacks and then folded the carpet down onto itself.  Which I guess worked great and looked ok, but it left some pretty bad damage to the wood floors underneath.  But I guess that isn't something you worry about when you are installing carpet...