Got the 1st coat of polyurethane on today!!!

Now only about 10 more to go, before it'll hold up to the rollerblades, scooters, dog claws, and toys that are about to beat at it.

Here are some pics of the progress....

first off, we chiseled off a ton of faux brick and morter, where the pot-belly stove was sitting. Such a TEDIOUS job, I sat for hours, slammed my thumb who know how many times...and after I finished I totally had my doubts to whether it would sand down ok....the wood was totally cupped at the seams from the moisture of the morter, a lot of large knicks from my chiseling....but I figured worst case senario, we'd put the couch there. As you can see, it was in pretty bad shape. The fam room, living rm, and hallway all had this 50's hardwood on top of an older hardwood underneath.
I was TOTALLY amazed how well it sanded down. We took off a good 1/8 of an inch. Adam emptied the bag on the sander several times. Finally, ready for staining.

I left the stain on a little longer than I should have, in hopes that it would be darker, but didn't realize it would be a TOTAL pain to rub off the excess once it starts drying....WAY more work that it should have been. Oh well, rookie mistake.

Today I got the first of many coats of polyurethane on. It was pretty painless, and I actually kept all pets and kids off it till it dried!! I just checked it out a few minutes ago, it dried hard, I'm HAPPY. I have had my doubts about this, every step of the way, but it really worked! Yeah!!