How the hell do I refinish the floors in a small apartment?

Are you looking to remove stain or varnish? If it's the latter, according to my mother it's possible to rent a machine that can do that. (I also want to refinish my apartment's floors.) I've heard references to bleaching wood but wouldn't know how to do that. Also, what solvent did you use to remove the contact paper?

Rent a floor buffer (mine was $20 for the weekend) and have them give you 120 stainless steel and 180 stainless steel screen. (about $5 each, two per room).

If there is wax on the floor buy stripper and use a wet-vac to suck up the gunk. My floors were so bad they were waxless so I skipped this step.

Using a buffer is like sailing a dinghy--keep it level, don't fight it and remember that tilting one way or the other will make it go one way or the other. Practice in the parking lot with an old buffer pad so you don't put holes in your walls. It took me about 30 minutes to get the hang of it. Start in the back room, in the center of the room for the same reason.

Use the 120 (coarse screen first)--this is your rough sanding. Vacuum up the dust.
Switch to 180 (fine screen) for your second sanding.
Vacuum up the dust, and damp mop the floor to get any excess up.

Using a water-based product called Sanding Sealer, apply in thin coats with a sponge mop. Let it dry (an hour). It soaks into the wood and corrects a lot of color issues.

Do it again, This penetrates the wood. Apply stain after that if you need to. I skipped that step, the wood looked fine to me.

Then you are ready to apply polyeurethane water-based sealer to the floor, with a sponge mop. 2-4 thin coats. Why water based? The oil based ones turn yellow with age. The advertising calls it "Amber" but it really means that in 5 years or so people will wonder who peed on your floor.

Take the screen off the buffer and turn over the pad to the clean side and buff your newly revitalized floor--Voila! New floor in a weekend.

Now this is the quick and dirty method for those of us who just want our crappy wood floors to look better for cheap and fast. If you have very high quality floors you may want to invest in the longer processes of floor sander/edger, three grades of sandpaper, stain, and lots more coats of sealer. (I used two coats of sealer)

I did take before and after pics, and the difference is night and day.

He took bold measures that avoided a lot of the work listed above. And it was always in an empty house, apartment.

He mopped the floor to get it clean, then poured a enormous amount of varnish on the floor. With a squeegie, he moved it all around and made it even. One enormously thick coat of varnish. You then lock the house up for several days, and end up with super smooth, glossy floors.

This could be urban legend or a big fat lie, but it's what I was told.

I also have a blonde wood (kitchen) table that has some light marks from water damage. Has anyone ever tried treating there? Can I wax them?

I want to do this too, because my carpet is disintegrating, plus the cat has pissed all over various parts of it. BUT, I pulled up part of the carpet and the floorboards don't even look as though they were meant to be shown; gaps, they don't join the walls perfectly, just genuine shit. I'm flirting with laminate/pergo. Has anyone done this? Do you have to sand down/fill in all the gaps on your floor before you put a wood laminate down, or does it come with some kind of mat you can put down? I'm going to try to convince my landlord to pay for the installation if I pay for materials, but he is a cheap fucker and doubt it will happen.