The One Major Project I Forgot About (That I’d Like To Get Done In 2026)
Have you ever placed a stack of boxes in a corner of a room, even a room that’s used all the time (like your bedroom, family room, kitchen, etc.) with a plan to move those boxes to their intended destination (storage, thrift store dropoff, friend’s house), and months later, those boxes are still there and you’ve become “blind” to them? It’s like you become so accustomed to seeing them there that you no longer think, “I really need to take care of those,” when you see them. They’ve become a fixture in the room that you glance right over, and it usually takes something like a visit from an out-of-town friend for you to “see” the boxes again and realize that they don’t belong there. I’ve done that. Several times.
Well, I don’t have a stack of boxes in the corner of a room that I overlooked, but I do have a big project that I overlooked when I was making my “to do” list for this year. And it’s a doozy. But it’s something that I’ve become so accustomed to seeing over the last few months that I looked right past it.
I’m talking about our floors. If you’ll remember, I stained and sealed the floors in our bedroom suite not once, but twice. The first time I did it, I stained them to match the floors in the rest of the house, so they were dark. Here’s what the bedroom floor looked like after that first round.
And here’s what the bedroom foyer looked like…
I had dreamed of having lighter floors, but I thought I had already locked myself into having dark floors because the rest of the house had dark floors. But after giving it some thought, I realized that if I wanted to change the color of the floors in our house, this was my opportunity. I needed to start in the bedroom suite, and I needed to get it done before I started moving furniture into the closet, foyer, and bedroom.
So I sanded down the floors again, and redid them in a light, natural color. I don’t have even the tiniest bit of regret over that decision. I absolutely love these light floors. I can’t even imagine our bedroom suite with dark floors. These light floors are perfect, in my opinion.
But my “stack of boxes in the corner of the room” that I’ve become so accustomed to seeing that I’ve become “blind” to it is this very clear line between the bedroom suite flooring and the rest of the house.
That looks terrible. But it hasn’t bothered me because in my mind, I’ve known that the plan is to lighten the floors in the rest of the house. There are five room/areas that have dark stained red oak floors that need to be sanded and sealed in order to make them look like the bedroom suite floors — the living room, music room, kitchen, dining area (sitting room), and pantry.
The main issue is deciding when the best time is to redo these floors. There are two issues I need to think about. I want to redo all of these floors at the same time rather than one room at a time. The first issue is that I’ll need a place to store all of the furniture while the floors are being redone. It seems logical that I should do the floors before I start on my workshop since my workshop is pretty large and fairly empty at the moment, so that would give me the perfect spot to move all of the furniture for storage while I’m redoing the floors.
But if I do that, that means that I’ll have to sand around the current kitchen cabinets.
And once I’ve done that, I’m kind of locked into keeping the exact same layout for the new kitchen cabinets that I want to build in the future. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Almost everything in the new kitchen will be in the same footprint as the current kitchen with the exception of the back wall of cabinets.
That’s the main change I have planned for the new kitchen. Instead of the lower and upper cabinets with a countertop, I want to do floor-to-ceiling storage on that wall, and I don’t plan to have a center part that juts out like I currently have. So I really need to think through this. I’m so tempted to just go ahead and do the floors soon after I finish the bedroom suite, but the kitchen seems to be my one roadblock.
One option would be to go ahead and remove those lower cabinets on that back wall, redo the floors, and then add some temporary storage along that wall until I get to my kitchen remodel. I could even go to Goodwill and purchase an inexpensive buffet or something like that to put against that wall. Or maybe there’s another solution that I haven’t thought of yet.
Either way, I need to figure out if there’s a way that I can get these floors done sooner than later. I just feel like right now, before I start working on my workshop, is the best time to take advantage of that big, free storage area that I have sitting in our back yard. Once that workshop is finished, I’ll lose out on that free storage, and I really don’t want to pay extra money for temporary storage.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
This is why my renovation paralysis has me in its clutches. It can be overwhelming to think of “but then, but then, but then….”
Oh my goodness, SAME SAME SAME! I really don’t know how to get past it other than through it. I guess the worst that can happen is it’s inefficient, I have to redo stuff, and it takes more money than I planned. No biggie, right?! =)
I know it wouldn’t look nice, and it would probably be frustrating, but why couldn’t you do all the floors except the kitchen, then do the kitchen floors when you are ready to do the rest of the kitchen?
That’s definitely an option. It wouldn’t look great, but what I have right now with the change in flooring between the music room and bedroom foyer doesn’t look great, either.
I feel like that could work out bc the direction the boards are laid would give good stopping/starting points along the sides of the kitchen (not sure about to the living room but 2 out of 3 ain’t bad).
Couldn’t you just remove the feet on the part of the cabinet that sticks out? You said before that those cabinets were too shallow. Is the storage area going to be as shallow or stick out a little more? If so, then your problem is solved.
It’s the dreaded DIY spiral.
I want to redo my hallway laundry closet “but then” my 16 yr old hot water heater is in a recessed corner and not easily accessible. So I should replace that first “but then” I need to replace my washer and dryer with a single unit to gain storage space………
We all just have to push thru because we know when we do it all works out.
Oh boy! This seems like an overwhelmingly big job to me, but then again, we have snow on the ground so it wouldn’t be happening here! LOL
Here’s an idea I used in a dining room a few houses back. Take out those lower cabinets in the kitchen a put a countertop on shelf brackets. It could be just painted plywood. Then put a curtain under the countertop and some cheapo shelves to hold the stuff you have there now.
Taking out the bottom cabinets was the first thing that came to mind. I also thought about the sunroom for storage, but forgot you are putting the exercise equipment there and totally forgot the workshop. I think doing the floors now while there is less stuff is a good idea. What about the piano? Maybe, it could be rolled into the bedroom foyer for now.
I know you want to jump into the floors and just get them done, but really think through the process before you start moving anything. I get the sense that there is no wood floor UNDER your kitchen cabinets and island. Plan to fill in those spaces with wood flooring before you move anything else. Having a full wood floor under your entire kitchen opens up many more possibilities for layout than being locked into your existing layout when you redo the kitchen. You’ll hate that lack of flexibility! Take the extra time now and get the flooring fully installed. You won’t regret it!
Most attack plans never survive the first contact on the battlefield…so, do what you can with what you have. The workshop is an awesome way to save on storage. And like you said you want to do it all at once, but even you, The Mighty Kristi, can only work so fast. Play the “Chiclet” game, moving pieces around to tackle a large space, wait till dry and cured, and start the game again. It will also help you in not trying to kill yourself with smaller sections and they will dry faster than having to keep the fur team off and out of the house. Just my two cents, and I am sending you all the extra strength I can spare, this is a big project, but one that guarantees HUGE results.
Cheers to you, Matt and the fur babies!
If you have your floor plan locked down could you build that back wall storage out as planned? Is a fridge going back there? I dunno. I would want to get the rest of that floor done in one fell swoop.
I think your idea to remove the cabinets and put a large temporary buffet there is genious. Go for it! It will probably look nice and you won’t have to look at an eyesore during the time before you re-do your kitchen.
If it was me, I’d do the thing that won’t cost anything…not one penny.
Whatever you are storing in those cabinets can go in your workshop or studio, or sun room but I’d challenge yourself to do this 100% free.
Honestly, I’d do them section by section. It will take longer, for sure, but much more manageable. But I get why you’d like to do them all at once.
I’d live with it and re-do the floors later, this is on deck, not a priority…Focus on the other areas. So next year hit the ground doing this. I’m assuming an additional drive is to buy the finish before it gets discontinued or changed. Almost all your rooms except living/foyer have potential for the flooring to change. You made the point the cabinets and footprints for the kitchen is changing. I thought the pantry was as well. The bookcase wall in the music room who knows you may shift the doorway.
Storage-wise you’ll have room to work next year, you’ll have 2 big closets (studio, and utility/storage) with the sunroom for a temp project existing. Do focus on the storage room. Right now the rooms that have furniture, that need refinishing are few: Music, living, and sitting/dining. The Pantry & kitchen have cabinets, that have about 2-3 big rolling shelves of stuff to be boxed and stored (I’d spend $ once). Stack the buffet and foyer table along a wall in the storage room. The soft stuff can fit in the sun room one last time. Maybe build simpler vs big cabinets to minimise things to store until the floors are done then add doors.
Later, gives you more layout flexibility to iteratively refine the final footprint. Do it closer to the big renno. As a celebration of converting the sunroom, do the floors after and use that sunroom one last time. Enjoy what you got for now. The doors deliniate (and cover the transition) for now. Moving that transition doesn’t remove the same drive. It is most hidden where it is.
Ok, maybe (truly) I don’t understand all the construction, but…is there any way to temporarily retro fit the bottom cabinets and put them right back where they are AFTER you redo the floor .. until you get ready to do the kitchen remodel?
Kristi,
The floor change between the music room and your bedroom suite is well divided by the doors and doesn’t look bad at all. I would knock out a few more projects on your to-do list before tackling the floors. You have survived your biggest DIY year yet. Get your workshop built out, your equipment storage area complete and a final kitchen plan. As for furniture storage for the floor project, you could easily rent a POD type storage unit, then bang out the floor project. But the other areas of your home would be fully functional for you and Matt.