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I'm not even sure how much sanding the floor will need.
Agreed. I'm not planning to go to town on it, mostly just to make it a bit smoother and more clean.
If I am doing a light touch I may be able to get away with just using an edge sander everywhere... maybe? (Avoids the heavy, difficult-to-use, easy-to-screw-up-floors belt sander)
I've texted my mate who's a joiner who's installed a lot of new pine flooring to ask what he does. I've got a suspicion that he didn't bother getting a floor sander in but I'll let you know what he says.
That would be incredibly useful, thank you.
1) Get all visible areas fixed
I should probably sketch out how I plan to do this and post it here for feedback. I was going to do this but didn't get around to it yet.
The really difficult bit will be at the door frames.
Cupcakes-
If I am doing a light touch I may be able to get away with just using an edge sander everywhere...
Sadly not, edge sanders are rotary (spinning disc) and to sand wood properly, you only want the sandpaper be be moving with the grain (moving up and down the boards). It's really easy to leave sanding marks with rotary sanders. And they'll show up when you apply oil even if you couldn't see them. It'd also take forever. If you're worried about using a big floor sander (although people seem to manage them fine), using a belt sander isn't the end of the world. Although you will be on your hands and knees the whole time, and it'll take longer.
As for the bits around the doorframes, I really think you'd get away with using some slim trim or scotia. You can always fill the gap with something as well. If you do a sample of the same wood and do a couple coats of Polyx, you'll be able to pick up a Bona filler that will colour match pretty well, which will go a long way to hiding it. I reckon it'll be pretty tricky to fill gaps with pieces of wood as they'll be hard to attach and keep in place.
Nef
TBH I'm not even sure how much sanding the floor will need. I've texted my mate who's a joiner who's installed a lot of new pine flooring to ask what he does. I've got a suspicion that he didn't bother getting a floor sander in but I'll let you know what he says. I did my floor with a belt sander and I hired an edge sander, but it was in a narrow hallway where using a big floor sander wasn't practical at all. I also did a little bit of very light sanding in between coats with a random orbit sander once the oil had settled after a few days - although I'm not sure it was necessary.
Personally I'd:
1) Get all visible areas fixed. Fixing bits after they've been oiled may give you more work to try and get the finish even. Also, you're most likely to create more damage when fixing stuff than when sanding or finishing, so I'd want all that kind of work out the way before sanding.
I'm only taking about repairs to the actual wood as well, adding trim and scotia can obviously wait until you've oiled the lot.
2) Sand the whole floor. Sanding around cabinets/beside any edge is a pain. Also you'll end up with an uneven finish, which you'll curse if the kitchen ever changes layout and reveals an unevenly sanded floor. This is also an argument for doing all the oiling evenly, although it's less of an issue.
3) Oil the whole floor once and leave it for a few days, then you can install cabinets etc and then do further coats of Polyx on the floor that remains. I'd definitely want all the boards sealed with finish before covering any.