More floor

It's unbelievable, but we came thiiis close to not having all the flooring in. Our contractor's flooring source underestimated the amount of material needed, and though it's nothing unusual or exotic (domestic red oak), this prefinished material has to be ordered weeks in advance. Ironic if we'd get hung up on one of the few decisions we'd made before demolition even started, but, back then in the good old days, freight companies weren't going out of business left and right.

But, our most wonderful foreman leaned hard and somehow got it here today, in the nick of time. Construction cleaning starts tomorrow (3/12), and after that, the house is no longer a jobsite.

Speaking of floors, one floor we hadn't planned to replace was the original porch floor. But it was already damaged and then had to be cut into for some electrical reason, so the only choice was to replace it. Which gave us the choice not to paint it, as the old porch had been. Instead, we just clearcoated the fir. Other than losing some interesting old screen door scratch marks, I'm beside myself about this change. It is beautiful, and really makes the new doors stand out too.

Our old porch, right before we moved out (and after a piece of exploratory trim was removed):


The new porch:


Oh yeah, and remember those living room floors that were redone? They were dry on a Saturday afternoon, so it was only natural I'd expect them to be in the same state Sunday morning. Who coats floors on a Sunday? Worse yet, what idiot homeowner steps on them, still wet, in socks, on a Sunday? That would be me!

Yupper, I left a nice perfect size 6-1/2 smoodge on our brand-new living room floor finish. As soon as I felt the stick, my heart sank and I backed out immediately. Fortunately, it can easily be buffed out. I don't have an answer to the question: why did I take off my shoes if I thought the floor was dry?

The stairwell carpet is in too -- all flooring done!

We've been living in a carpeted rental house for 9-1/2 months, and this has permanently cured Dave of his previous ambivalence about carpet v. wood floors. I grew up in a rowhouse in Brooklyn with no carpet, and have never liked it. Now, with all the spots, the stuff sticking to them and in them, the difficultly moving things around....good riddance. Rugs OK, carpet on stairs OK (ugly but quiet), wood floors, the way to go.

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!

Subfloor demolition

Restore the original fir floor? Hah, the glue used on the 1980s parquet destroyed the fir floor and much of the newer plywood subfloor. Unexpected demolition of subfloor now too. Great.

Original fir floor

Most flooring removed, exposing the original fir floor and some interesting historical notes about the house. One room we called the "sun room" from the previous owners really was a porch once, as the floor was painted.

Another room we've always used as the office used to have a bay window. Its fir floor is a beautiful rich red, and I wonder if it can be restored.

Our 20-month-old toddler is not a good mixture with this construction zone.