Floored by flooring

This entire project revolved around maintaining some key few original elements of the house. Mostly, this was a remodel, but there were some "restoration" aspects to it as well, in the living room and dining room. From the outset, we were absolutely not going to refinish the 95-year-old floors or disturb them in any way. This is why the gigantic fireplace footprint remained; to eliminate impact on one of the few remaining original elements in the house worth keeping.

Yet somehow, Friday, days before final inspection, an open-house party, and move-in, something happened that triggered a refinish of the old floors. Mostly, we're down to knobs and screws and light switches, so this came as quite a surprise.

I'm not entirely certain of the reason....the floors were "screened," but a huge puddle was left in the middle of the living room floor, so the screening had to be re-done, but apparently they couldn't do that well because of years of previous buildup on the floors. Somehow, our contractor worked it out that this refinish wouldn't cost us anything, and though it's tight, won't delay our schedule. That's nothing short of miraculous.

There were two holes in the floor that went through to the basement, that had been covered by brass plates before. This was as good a time as any to repair those.


Meantime, the flooring we weren't going to have any problems or delays with, we're having a problem with a delay. It's a prefinished oak floor, and I absolutely love the material. Somehow, the amount needed was underestimated, and now they're having problems shipping the material. The whole side of the kitchen and family room isn't floored yet. Our hardworking foreman is doing everything he can to try to get it here, but we might be showing off our house next week with a carpet patch.


As long as we're looking downward, this corner is sort of tragic. I can't remember how it came about to have this little step, but it was necessary, and I don't mind goofy quirks like this. But whoever cut the baseboard for this didn't get the message that the angles aren't 45 degrees.


All in all, the living room looks really nice. The floor has a first coat of polyurethane on it, and everything looks so much better with the mostly-matching trim, and with actual color on the wall (even if I'm not very bold about colors).

For once, a photo with the flash looks better.

I'm so used to thinking this house doesn't have electricity. I could have turned on the lights!

That is some gap under the front door. Punchlist!