First I must say THANK YOU to everyone who uses this wonderful site - it was a valuable resource as I researched how to refinish my hardwood floors and troubleshoot along the way. I thought I would post my experience and finished product, so as to help anyone who is in the same position I was.

I bought a 1939 cape cod home just over a month ago (my first house!). Refinishing the hardwood oak floors on the first floor was our first project. Here was the process for us:

1. rent a drum sander from home depot. go over the entire foor 3 times, first with 36 grit, then 60, then 100. be careful not to push the drum sander into the floor, let the machine do the work (my boyfriend pushed down too hard and it left 'dips' in the floor)

2. rent an edge sander. go over 3 times, same grits as with drum sander. be VERY CAREFUL with this machine. the home depot guys told us you can move against the grain with it and there would be no problem. WRONG! we went against the grain and ended up with all kinds of swirl marks. then we had to take an entire day to sand the swirl marks away with an orbital hand sander. totally backbreaking. we were luckily able to fix most of the blemishes, but i can not stress enough how much hard work it was. i'm talking 8 hours bent over or on your hands and knees sanding. bleh.

3. rent a floor buffer. go over the entire floor with a 100 grit screen at least twice. this will smooth the surface and help to blend the areas you sanded with the edger and the drumer. the buffer is really hard to maneuver if you've never used one before. be careful! (it was actually really hilarious watching my bf try to get used it. luckily no one got hurt).

4. vacuum up any sawdust with a shop-vac (you also have to do that between grits with the drummer and edger).

5. wipe the entire floor with mineral spirits (just dampen a rag). this will pick up any loose debris and sawdust.

6. apply stain with a lambswool applicator ( I used minwax early american).

7. wipe entire floor with a tack cloth (rag with a little poly to make it sticky)

8. apply first coat of poly (I used Cabot water based satin)

9. sand poly with 320 grit paper.

10. tack entire floor (again!)

11. apply second coat of poly.

FINITO!!

the part that sucks is continuously getting on your hands and knees and bending over, especially with the edger, and with all of the tacking. For about 600 square feet i spent about $700 on supplies and rentals. the estimate we got to have it done was $1500, so we saved about $800 in labor. the sandpaper is the most expensive. rentals are only about $45/day (we never kept any of them more than 1 day). if you can afford it have someone do it. i feel like we definitly put AT LEAST $800 worth of time, effort and stress into it.

Unfortunately I don't have any before pics, but here is the after: