The hallway makeover (and part 2 of stripping the floors)

After stripping the gunk off the hallway floor, it needed to be sanded.  I’m very glad I ended up sanding them down a little too, it is so much softer to walk on.

The sanding didn’t help much with the water stains themselves, but it evened all the colors and tones enough to look well-aged and well-lived-in.  In fact, once I was done sanding, it reminded me a lot of all the floors I used as inspiration for the last dollhouse.

I sanded them with my little hand-held sander.  Which is actually on its deathbed.  In fact, it attempted suicide a couple times during the process.  I can’t say I was happy it didn’t succeed…this guy has given me trouble from the beginning.  But it did hold on and we finished the floor.

AND, once the floor was finished, we finally put baseboards up.  We’re not sure why, but when the previous owners put drywall up in here, they left it a good inch-and-a-half (in some spots) off the floor.  Even with the 4″ baseboard up, shoe moulding was required to cover the giant gaps between the crooked wall and the floor.

We added baseboard cap to match the house’s original baseboards, and then caulked and painted it all.  Here is our progress so far (unfortunately, the walls were already half-painted in the “before” photo, but imagine them all the dingy, flat yellow).

I also painted a little pattern on the plywood where the floor grate used to be, just a temporary measure until we figure out what to do there.  But in the mean time, it doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb anymore.

Just a few more things left to do in here and this space will be done!