Hard Wood Floors/update on 'Life After Peter'

Wow, I'm sorry. His kids can do that? I don't know the particulars, but that seems immoral, at best. How dare they.

I vacuum my floors with a canister vacuum. Wash with whatever. Lemon water, vinegar water, a little soap, etc. But they are dark and kind of beat up, so it doesn't really matter what I use.

Cat:

You are still in my thoughts and prayers!!

I'm sooo sorry that his adult children are acting so poorly. That is very sad. I am sure that Peter is looking down from above with great sadness at the way his children have behaved! However, I KNOW he has his arms around you - guiding you!! He will be with you forever!!

Now, with your hardwood floors...to be honest - a swiffer works GREAT!! I have a Hoover Linx battery powered vacuum that I use instead of a my central vacuum.

Try what works for you - it might be a swiffer dry "mop" or the wet one. IF you want to vacuum - and the floors are sealed (find out if they are SEALED) you can use wet. If they aren't sealed - get several quotes to find out how much it would be to seal them - and go from there.

If you are to vacuum - don't use your 'beaters' - just suck air.

You can call me!! Heck - I can even come down and we'll go shopping together!!!

A 1923 house! How wonderful. The wood floors then were so solid and beautiful. I sweep and dry swifter my floors. I also clean with vinegar and water from time to time. Nice to hear of your new beginning and hope to hear more from you in the future.

I have all hard woods, laminates and vinyl. No carpet. I love having no carpet. All I do is sweep or Swiffer, wipe up spills with a damp cloth and damp mop when dirty. I mop the hard wood with Murphy's wood soap when I have it, but vinegar and water is good, or just a little dish soap and water will do. It is really a lot less work and a lot cleaner than carpet. Oh yeah, no shoes in the house. Don't want to scratch up nice floors or get them all dirty.

Wow, so sorry about the experience with Pete's kids!

We have hardwood in 2 rooms of our house, the formal living room and dining room. It gets VERY dirty because, well, I have 3 boys. I sweep daily, try to get spills cleaned up right away, use a Swiffer dust mop about once a week, and every month or so I clean with vinegar and water, and follow up with a dry cloth to get the moisture off ASAP.

We had the floors stained 7 years ago and they still look great. I've never waxed the floor.

Here's a web site about how to care for hardwood floors. There are several other sites too.

I vacuum my pine floors with a brush or sweep them. I damp mob them with plain water. However, my floors are old and somewhat beat up. I think they're waxed but I'm not sure and don't want to mess with wax. it has to be applied by hand and buffed for a shine.

I worked today on a home tour which reminded me that not all wood floors are hardwood. The house I was in, built in 1909 had narrow (possibly 2" wide) fir boards. They had them cleaned and finished.

I would talk with someone who repairs and finished wood floors to find out what yours are and how to care for them if they are in good condition. Otherwise start out simple with a vacuum and water. If that doesn't work move up in products. If they are waxed do not use a cleaning product on them unless it specifies it's for waxed wood floors.

Test a small spot to see what works.

Fir is a softer wood and more porous than hardwood.

hi lovely,
oh, i didn't realize peter didn't have a will! damn. such a slap, and a stark reminder to all of us to make sure we do it!
you are such a great example of coping with grace. your new home sounds wonderful.
we don't have hardwood, so can't help you out there. but thanks for giving us an update, you've been on mind.
khairete
S.

I'm so sorry about Pete's kids. I wish he had written a will. I do hope that you didn't pay for the work on the house yourself, since they are reaping the benefit.

I have found that plain old vinegar and water does the trick for cleaning hardwood floors. If you use other products, they tend to "gum" the dirt into the wood and seal it there. (Same product for tile!)

A house as old as that either has the original hardwood, which would be wide planks, or the original wood has been replaced (maybe several times.) You can only re-do the hardwood just so many times before it needs to be replaced. If I were you, I would want to know the particulars about this floor before buying the house. How old is the floor? How many times have the floors been re-done? What kind of wood is the floor and what kind of stain and sealant did they use?

Maybe you can't get that info, but I'd try. You can also ask a floor specialist to come in and give you an opinion. It would be worth paying for that.

Don't forget that you need proper padding under your throw rugs and oriental rugs. That's really important.

Hugs!

Warmest congrats on the house and moving on! I agree with Amanda, karma will bite the estranged offspring in good time. So sorry you have to deal with that. Have experience with something similar - not pretty at all.

I'd definitely find out how the floors are/were finished. We found out too late that our original oak floors were waxed from the beginning, making it impossible to clean effectively without having them refinished. We had to use Murphy soap, and re-wax. They were sticky, and never easy to clean.

Hopefully yours are finished with something more permanent. Good advice below. Good luck and hugs!

I actually have a cannister vacuum, that I love. I have both carpet and hardwoods in my home. And various rugs throughout, so I needed to be able to switch from carpet to hardwood with ease. It is so easy to pop off one attachment and add another for whatever purpose you need. We bought ours about 6 years ago at Sears, and it's a Kenmore. It was about $500 but it was the best investment I think I have made. I bought it with a 5 year warranty, which meant that I could take it in once or twice a year for a tune up for no charge, and the warranty was like $59. Best thing we ever bought, because it has paid for itself many times over. And like Canuck says, I use water only, or water and vinegar if it's really dirty. Once in a while I will do something you are not supposed to do with hardwoods, and clean it with pinesol or something like that just to give it a fresh smell. I just like my house to smell like that sometimes. Anyway, it is nice to hear that you are moving on, even though I'm sure it is the hardest thing you've done. Sending happy thoughts your way!

Sorry to hear about your situation but impressed by your positive attitude and willingness to move forward.

As for hardwood floors- we have all laminate floors for 2 floors of my house. We love Swiffers and I have a robot floor cleaner that I set to sweep and mop once a week or so. Love it! It takes care of the basics and I just touch up and then done.

Good luck!