We rented a random orbit sander from Home Depot on Sunday to sand the floors in the master bedroom. For the most part we just needed to take down the layer of sealer, but there were a few paint, animal, and water stains that needed a little extra attention.

To protect the rest of the house, we stretched a piece of plastic over the doorway and put a fan in the window to create a vacuum and hopefully encourage any dust to blow out the window. To protect ourselves, we wore hearing protection as well as dust masks.

Because we have never finished a floor before, we watched a few instructional videos online, including on from the manufacturer of the sander.

The next step is to try to lighten the water stains that we couldn't sand out and fill in a few cracks with some homemade putty. After we clean up a bit we can seal the wood and start putting down the 2-3 coats of polyurethane.