Odious Stench

I didn’t get started on the floor until late, so I didn't make as much progress as I wanted. I figure I made it about a 1/6th of the way through in about an hour. So, with some basic math, that leaves me with at least 5 more hours to go. However, it'll probably take longer since I'll have to move furniture and patch some holes once I make it to the other side of the dining room.

Here is my procedure:

1) Loosen the dirt, filth, and gunk packed between the floor boards with a putty knife.
2) Vacuum up the aforementioned filth.
3) Putty like hell making sure to push the putty as far down into the cracks as possible. Ideally, you don't want any voids as this may lead to cracking later. Scrape off as much of the excess as (reasonably) possible. It'll save you time on the sanding segment of this project.
4) Repeat until completed. Once completed, start sanding.

Some other tips:

1) Wear a respirator. Depending on what wood putty you are using (don't use Elmer's, it's complete ass), you may not need one. However, the putty we use (sands and stains better than all the other shit we've tried) reeks. It's truly awful. There is no loopy high you get with the stain or poly, this shit is nasty. Despite the fact that is was in the mid 40's last night, I turn off the heat, opened the windows and set up several fans to ventilate. Yes, it was that bad.
2) Wear gloves. It won't kill you (well, hopefully not) if you get it on your hands, but it is unpleasant.
3) This is a task best done when no one is home. Send the family out or give then respirators.
4) If semi-dry putty begins to accumulate on your putty knife, resist the urge to scrape the blade clean on the lip of the putty tin. It'll crust up and fall into the fresh putty contaminating it. Use a rag or virtually anything else for cleaning the blade.

The dining room seems to be going much faster than the laundry room floor. Since I'm not planning to hand scrape the dining room floor (God help me, not again), I'm not spending as much time scraping off every bit of excess. That's what drum sanders are for.

My goal is to have the whole floor puttied by Thursday night. If it weren't for Halloween and a birthday party, I'd say it was a done deal. In any case wish me luck.