Thanks for your suggestions on chemicals and warnings against drum sanding. I went shopping Monday morning for chemicals, and in the meantime Mr. Weedy made faster passes on the floor with the sander to avoid heating up and globbing the shellac or whatever was on the floor. Results: Denatured alcohol did nothing. I tried wiping with a rag, scrubbing with steel wool, flooding a small area and letting it sit, all with no results. Guess it's not shellac. I then tried lacquer thinner. Scrubbing with a rag seemed to have an effect, so I did a fairly large area. Once it dried, however, there was minimal results, and less so on the unsanded wood than sanded. I tried it in one of the bedrooms that had a single sanding pass, and quit once I started feeling a little stomach cramping. :-) Yes, I had the windows open and a fan going. Sanding that didn't seem any different from the area I didn't apply the lacquer thinner. Didn't try the mineral spirits yet. In the meantime Mr. Weedy had sanded one of the bedrooms about 18 times with 60 grit (seemed to create more dust than 20 grit), and made headway. I took an orbital sander with 40 grit to the spots left behind (slightly deeper grooves/dents) and here's where we're at: Bottom left corner is where I hand sanded. Lowe's had no oxalic acid, but we've got some in our garage 100 miles away, so we'll work on the kitchen again later. Also, in the meantime, we used a belt sander on the mosaic inlay portions to get off the lippage, machine sanded over it to even out the belt sander marks, and then chipped away with a hand sander to get the residual off. This shows what our eventual goal is, but it'll be dozens of hours if we have to hand sand off this finish. I've done some more googling and may try citrus strip or Formby's furniture restorer to remove the finish. We've also got this area that had tile over it. The thinset seems to have bleached out the wood where it touched, but even aggressive hand sanding is having a tough time evening out all the discoloration. I'm still very open to additional suggestions to attack this. And I must say that I now know the answer to the question, "why would anyone cover up hardwood floors?" Anyone who asks has never personally refinished them. :-)

My 1934 old house had had a fire before I bought it. I was told to use terpentine and linseed oil mixture, it looked really beautiful..I sanded it first. Danish oil also looks beauriful on old wood. Stains? You just have to sand first, then use a stain darker than the original. Use a wood conditioner first, then hand stain the wood, trying to blend around the stain until the spot on the floor blends in better. Apply 2 coats of poly. Keep the room as dust free as possible. I still have a dark spot on my living room floor that was burned. Doesn't bother me, just reminds me that this old house has a story to tell.

Hi Estreya: I have five cats and one male sprayer named Elvis. I had Elvis on antidepressants for about three years. The vet changed from Amitryptilin to Paxil. They just kept upping the dosage and it never did ever stop his spraying completely. He was just doped up all the time. I finally hated seeing him look so out of it and took him off of them completely. Yes he still sprays, but not near as much as he did in the past. I have no idea why that is. He is 11, so I guess I will be dealing with this for a couple more years, but I am used to it and have become quite the cleaner because of it. LOL! I tried the Feliway spray when it first came out. I would have to spray the whole house because he would just spray somewhere new. It was a bit rediculous and costly. I am lucky that now in the house we have lived in for the last four years he has more room and is keeping his spraying to one room in the basement. We have cement floors that I sealed thank goodness, but like your problem we had the cheap base boards. We took them off cleaned the area replaced with new cheap base boards and this time I sealed around the top of the base boards with caulking. We now keep the door closed, but the odor is gone. It was just absorbed into the baseboards not the drywall because I had painted the wall all the way to the floor before we installed the first base boards. I really don't think there is any product out there that will get the urine smell out of carpet padding though. The enzyme cleaners like you are using are the only option for cutting some of the odor though. I use a Hoover steam cleaner on my carpet. It is the best investment I have made for my house and my sanity. LOL! I am with you about putting in hardwood floors and ditching the carpet. Go for it! If you do decide to put your cat on an antidepressant ask your vet to prescribe it in a compounded form. It is basically a cream form you rub on the outside of the ear and it absorbs into the skin. Pilling a cat is no fun as you probably know, so just to save you and your precious cat from a stressful situation go for the cream form. I also used a liquid form and it was a mess. If you ever have to have someone else watch your cat it is much easier for them to put cream on the cat's ear than pill it. LOL! Sorry this is so long, but I feel your pain. We love them so much we will do about anything for them. One more thing you might try is putting a second litter box in the room she seems to be spraying in the most and see if she will use it instead of spraying. My male cats sprays in his litter box also. LOL! I know that is not very appealing having a litter box in your living areas, but it might do the trick. Just make sure it is a hooded one to keep the smell in. I clean my three litter boxes twice a day and I have used the attract cat litter. It is pretty expensive for three litter boxes and I am not certain if it did any good, but it is always worth a try. Boy have I worn your eyes out yet? Sorry this is so long. :) Good luck tomorrow. Let us know how it all goes.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and also try to fill some holes in your story. This whole thing could have certainly been handled better, for both parties. It was an unfortunate mistake on their part, but would you rather they'd gotten it done faster with the wrong wood? Everyone makes mistakes. If I was faced with a potential 4 week delay without a stove I'd go to a used appliance store the first day, buy a cheap stove, bring it home, use it, then donate it later. In a 3 to 4 week period it's not unreasonable to think the furniture situation could have been remedied to make your lot more palatable. You could have prevailed on the floor man to set up your rooms and he would have likely complied. Now let me address the 48 days vs. 7 to 10 days. Where did the 7 to 10 day timeframe originate? It sounds implausible, at least the way I do floors. When the proper floor arrived, how soon was it installed? How long did it take to install? Did they start sanding and finishing right away? How many square feet of flooring was there to sand and finish? What type of finish was used. Answers to these questions will determine how long it really should have taken. Most of this is really pointless at this point because as the tired saying goes, it is what it is. From a retailer's perspective, if you didn't pay me, I'd lien your house. Once I liened your house (which takes my time and costs money) I'd be far less willing to provide any price concession. I would suggest you be proactive to make a settlement. The time you lost is water under the bridge but the floor finish is a real issue. Ask the retailer how much he would charge you to sand and finish the floor and suggest he deduct that amount from the bill. Tell him that in the future, you'd expect him to do the job for that amount of money, to keep him honest. In fact, make him give you a written estimate with no expiration date. I've done that in the past when something didn't turn out well and there was no time to re-do the job. Contact another reputable finisher for a quote so you can compare. Or get the other quote and deduct it from the invoice. PLEASE, PLEASE don't burden another finisher with a long tale of woe. While I might derive a little schadenfreude from hearing of the shortcomings of one of my rivals, I don't want to get the impression that a potential customer will be difficult to work for. Someone who tells me that a 7 day job took 48 days doesn't come across as reasonable when I know that it's not a 7 day job. Keep it short and simple.