New here and getting started on a recently purchased 1961 house.

I've pulled up all of the old carpet and pad throughout the house, about 1900 sq ft, to reveal the original hardwood floors. The floors in the bedrooms were finished at some point in the past but appear to have been covered with carpet for a long time, as they appear to be relatively free of any defects [except of course the holes from the staples removed]. In the formal living room and dining room, however, the oak floors were never finished. I don't notice any un-level boards but they do retain their coarse texture.

At this time, I'm not wanting to pour a huge amount of money into the floors, as there are some other updates/repairs that I would like to make. For the living room and dining room, my question is, could I stain them or put a finish on them and have them look reasonably good without going through the sanding process? If so, are there particular things to be aware of? My main reason for wanting to avoid doing this at the time, in addition to the cost and time, is that my wife is pregnant and we don't want to deal with the mess of all the particles in the air. If I can get away without sanding and truly finishing at this point, is there any coating that would keep the boards from being a "problem" (i.e. dangerous) to our new daughter when she starts crawling around in several months.

As an aside, for the bedrooms, which have the finished floors, is there a good cleaner I should use on them just as general upkeep in transitioning them for use. Since I'm not refinishing them, I'm not filling the staple holes, but we will use area rugs.

Thanks for any guidance in advance.

I would get a quote first from a professional floor refinishing company. You are looking at only three days to sand and finish all your floors. It may be cheaper than you think and certainly would be less disruptive compared to doing a DIY refinish over a longer time-frame.

Yeah, and once you stain and seal those floors the job becomes much bigger.
You could maybe just have them do the sanding and you do the rest, although, I agree with Jaybee to have them do it all.