Sanding

I called Rob this morning to see if I could come by the house today, and he suggested I come sooner rather than later as the floor guys were almost done sanding the floors and may start staining them in the afternoon.

When I first walked in, I was struck by how empty the house looked.
All the tools, building materials, and equipment had been moved out of the way so they could sand the floors.
The sander looks like a hard-core vacuum cleaner
When they had finished sanding the family room, Rob pointed out that the original hardwood floors in here were a different color from the rest of the house (red oak vs. white oak), so you could really see the difference between the old flooring (red oak) and the new boards (white oak). Yet another piece of evidence that this room was an addition, and not original to the house. Rob assured me that it would not be as noticeable once they stained the floors -- and I pointed out that we'd probably be covering most of the transition with an area rug anyway.
It doesn't show up well in the photo, but there are several different colors of wood meeting up in this doorway. I'll try to remember to take a photo of this same spot after the floors are done to see if you can still see the difference.
Here's a rare peek at the oak stairs. They've been under protective cover since John built them, and will probably be stained the next time we see them.Upstairs, Ian was installing the tile around the window in the bathroom.And Rob was installing the beadboard wainscoting in the same bathroom. Apart from the floor guys, they were the only people working in the whole house -- John hurt his back yesterday -- so why they both chose to work in the same tiny bathroom is beyond me... There were a few new things on the exterior of the house as well. The roofers had finally installed the copper flashing on the back of the chimney.
And the stucco guys had applied the base coat around the master bath windowAnd on the back of the house.
Rob set up a temporary workshop in the back yard amidst the weeds and bricks so he could cut the beadboard to size for the bathroom.
If all goes well, the floor guys will do the first coat of stain this afternoon and the second coat tomorrow and then come back on Monday to do the finish coat. While that is happening, the stucco guys can keep working on the outside of the house, and Rob may try to re-grade our back yard. On Tuesday, they should be able to get back inside and continue working on the interior finishes. At least John will have a couple extra days to recover from his back injury. Please send some good back-healing karma his way...