More Floors

Upstairs in our house, the master bedroom had floor issues of its own. Unfortunately, in this case, it wasn't as simple as a refinish job.

Under the previous owners, this room had suffered from a small fire (allegedly from an accident involving a candle according to the oh-so-trustworthy real estate agent). The floors in this room had been stained the same shade as the floors on the first floor but, after the fire, an area in the center of the room had blackened. In addition, the water used to put out the fire had also caused some damage, causing the boards in the floor to contract and separate.

Initially we thought we'd start by sanding, to see if the floors could be salvaged, but after some deliberation, we decided to just pull the floors up and start from scratch. This had to be one of the first projects we undertook, because we were under the gun to move in and wanted to, at the very least, have our bedroom furniture in place.

When it comes to hardwood flooring, neither Sandra nor I are very big fans of oak. Since we already had to live with oak floors in the rest of the house, we decided to go in a different direction for the bedroom. We also wanted a natural look, with no stain, and wanted a light colored wood to try to brighten up the room a little bit.

Ultimately we decided on a hard maple from Appalachian Flooring. It came in three different options, but we chose the "prestige" option, which offered the least amount of color variation within and among the boards.

With no time to spare, we got down to getting those floors in.

Yes that's me in the photo, and yes I am wearing the same exact thing as the other post. Hey, these are my work clothes...I washed them in between!