Sanding is by far your most economic option. We've refinished many floors from the 1800s and even some from the 1700's. Most likely you can sand and refinish existing floors, especially if they are from the 60's. I agree with most of the opinions here already, especially from the professionals. You may be able to find appropriate woodwork at a demolition sale for a fraction of the cost of comparable size/quality new material Either develop a love for painted woodwork or plan on replacing it. Some wood was planned to be painted from the first installation In general, if there is more than about 2, or maybe 3, coats of paint on the woodwork, don't even bother trying to strip it. Apply just enough heat to remove the paint and then remove the original shellac with denatured alcohol Don't even bother trying to strip the paint unless the surface was natural when original. If the paint turns brown, smokes, or chars the wood underneath, you have way too much heat. It is a slow process and turning up the heat is tempting, but don't go there. The objective is to soften the paint and separate it from the wood surface underneath. Use a digital heat gun and keep the temperature under 750 degrees. But, Ironwood is absolutely correct - burning lead paint is almost as bad as pulverizing it with sanding. I find that heat guns are a good option for stripping paint. The outside is being redone too but it's a 1 story ranch, and we'll be adding shutters. Maybe put our current furniture in the family/kids play room.

We will definitely get more furniture for the living room and are not sure if we will be using what we have now. I'm thinking something light b/c I don't want the house to feel dark. For Carolina Photo, we are in southeast FL across from the beach. Most of the pics I've looked at with an off center fireplace like this have modern furnishings and decor.

We have not attachment to the white 'brick' covering it so wonder if we should cover that up with something? I'm not sure if we can make this fireplace more traditional. But we are in FL so want to work with that. We like traditional, live by the beach, and also like Southern style (Like. We would get rid of the bench seat that surrounds it. The 1st pic will face the dining room, and the 2nd pic faces the living room. We cannot have a lot of accessories right now, esp. We will have 4 young children when we move in so safety is important. Just finished the plans and changed our mind about it. We originally were going to get rid of the fireplace and closet behind it but now want to keep it - need closet space, thinking about putting a china cabinet off to the left in 1st pic, house won't be as open (good for us). We are redoing the whole house - adding a master, new roof, etc. Here is that same area in the new kitchen: It was a HUGE improvement! And when I gutted the kitchen 18 months ago, I reused all the lighting, and the countertops - floors also stayed as well as kitchen sink and faucet. My late husband did the lower cabinets - I took the dogs to a dog show for a weekend, and the cats were locked in the basement with two cat boxes, and he did them all at once - think it might have been a three-day weekend. Start with the uppers - you can do one or two each weekend. A decent painter will cost you a fortune. The key was doing the painting ourselves. This entire L-shaped run was just two units of RTA cabinets - not individual boxes that could have been replaced. I could have lived with the kitchen the rest of my life, but it had an awkward corner and I could not move the refrigerator without tearing out all the cabinets. Our cabinets were painted twice in 32 years - changed the color about 15 years ago and changed the wallpaper. We painted them with an oil-base high gloss enamel (it loses a lot of its sheen pretty quickly, but is more durable and easier to clean). We then used a good primer (have no idea brand - this was 33 years ago!). We sanded the cabinets, but as my late husband was not particularly meticulous, it was probably cursory. We also added undercounter lighting (again, done by a pro). Later, we replaced the old vinyl tile floor with hardwood (had that done by pros). We added Rev-a-Shelf wire basket pullouts here and there, and replaced the countertops with white Corian. We did NOT paint the inside of the doors or the cabinets - left them as they were. We did NOT remover hinges or the doors! We did replace the pulls.

Hammer and stain 3d clock