One Down...

A few weeks ago I mentioned a three-part rehab that was in store for the entrance hallway. One of those items can now be officially checked off the list. The original floors were sanded and re-finished and came out even better than we could have expected.

You might remember what the floors looked like after the tile and linoleum were pulled up.

After scraping up as much of the glue as we could, without damaging the hardwood, we left the rest to the sander. Not only was the glue picked up, but the wood was restored quite nicely.


We applied a few coats of a matte finish, and the floors look good as new. ...maybe even a little better than that.

New Kitchen Floors

While we felt fairly confident that we could restore the hallway floors, once we pulled up the tiles, we couldn't say the same for the floors in the kitchen. After pulling up the layers of tile and linoleum beneath the top layer of ceramic tiles, we discovered that, while red oak had been used in the floors throughout most of the first floor, the kitchen actually had white oak. In addition, it appeared that these floors had never actually seen the light of day.

After spending the better part of a century covered in linoleum and tile, as well as cabinets and appliances, these floors were not in nearly as good shape as the hallway floors. As a result, we pulled them up and replaced them with an unfinished red oak, that looked to be a pretty good match to the hallway and dining room.



The new kitchen floors were re-finished at the same time as the hallway, living room, and dining room. Beyond the fact that they looked several decades younger than their hallway counterparts, the red oak turned out to be a pretty good match. Not only that, but they looked like a pretty good kitchen floor going forward. Our kitchen finally has a floor.

Under the Tiles

Last week I mentioned how we had a bit of a to-do list in the entrance hallway. The first step was to pull up the tiles and see what we were dealing with underneath. We're hoping that the original floors will be in good enough shape that they can be restored.

So we got to work, and up came the tiles...only to find linoleum underneath. So...up came the linoleum. Underneath that was a thick coating of glue that had turned black.


We then got to the task of scraping up the dried up glue and pulling up the staples and nails that had been used for the sub-floor under the tiles. It was a delicate task because we needed to scrape with enough force to get the glue up, but at the same time, be sure not to scratch up the hardwood floor to deeply.


Will we be able to achieve our goal of refinishing the original hallway floor? Only time will tell.

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!

Getting In On the Ground Floor

Hi, I'm Mike, the other half of the designing duo. I'd like to tell you, that when it comes to redesigning this house, I'm more the muscle than the mind...but really, I'm little of either...hahaha. I spend a lot of my time as a sounding board for Sandra's ideas. My job basically consists of reminding Sandra of the work that still lies ahead when she wants to...say...re-paint a room that we had, at one time, considered finished. I also find it my job to interject a "Do you know how much that's going to cost?" into every design conversation. How did two financial analysts get involved in such a costly undertaking?

Kidding aside, there's plenty in this house that I want to dig into. So why not start at the bottom?

If you continue to follow this blog, you'll notice that one thing Sandra and I both agree on is that we like the natural wood look in an old house like this. Some parts of the house have been painted over so many times, that it may not be possible to get down to the original wood...in other parts, sadly, the wood has been replaced at some point in this house's lifetime. Fortunately, our floors fall into neither of these two categories.

When we moved in to this house, the entrance hallway, first floor bathroom, and kitchen had been covered in ceramic tile. The living and dining rooms had the original hardwood exposed (good) but stained a dark walnut color (bad).



We were able to sand the dark stain out of the floors and restore the natural wood color. The floors were refinished with a clear satin finish to maintain that look. The old floors held up surprisingly well. The light wood and freshly painted walls (which are here to stay!) helped brighten the rooms up.



Now...what to do about those tiles...