I’ll be posting again soon. Right now, if pictures of wood floors don’t excite you,
When we moved into the house 12 years ago, the floors were not in the best shape. But we cleaned, waxed, and buffed them and lived with them. A few years ago, I got an estimate for getting them redone, but it wasn’t in the budget. So by this week, this is what scarring, peeling varnish, and years of wear looked like:
master bedroom
living room with water damage right in the center of the room
office or occasionally, guest bedroom (that’s a bit of Guinness in the photo, not some odd stain)
hall
doorway between master bedroom (pine floors) and living room (oak floors)
And now, after two days of floor guys, the in-the-process photos (floors newly stained, one coat of varnish applied, quarter round not yet back on baseboards):
master bedroom
master bedroom (that’s sunlight on the floor in the bottom right)
middle of living room, with blue skies outside reflected on the floor (Where’s the water damage?)
detail, corner of dining room (When the guy came to do the original quote a few years ago, he thought he might not be able to hold on to this detail, that we’d lose the different color after the wood was sanded. He reckoned without the kind of attention that went into building these homes 80 years ago. A different wood was used in the pattern, so the contrast wasn’t lost.)
detail, corner of living room
They are almost finished installing and staining the quarter round and a saddle they had to put between the new tile in the kitchen and the wood floor of the dining room. Then they’ll put one more coat of varnish. We can actually walk on it again tomorrow.
I am in love with my floors.
I started a long post about the house yesterday. Not just the work being done on it, but how we found each other in the beginning. Our home remains one of the great love affairs of my life.
ohhh, those are so pretty. the detailed pattern is just beautiful!
Thank you. The floors will be part of the eventual longass post I’ll do about our first look at the house in 1995.
Yeah, those details are beautiful. Seeing these makes me yearn to put on some socks and go skidding. : )
Me, too! Yesterday, after they were sanded, I was awed at the actual wood. I had to walk on them one last time before they stained and varnished them.
Then today, before they resumed, I had to walk through again. I can’t imagine the joy I’ll feel tomorrow when I can stand in the middle of every room and recite poetry by William Cullen Bryant if that’s what I feel like doing.
YeeHAW!!!
Floor detail remains!!!!!!!! They are loverly.
has it been worth the hassel?
Re: YeeHAW!!!
I’m telling you, it’s like childbirth. When it’s happening, everything is hateful and awful. Later, all you have is pride and happiness.
Fortunately, I don’t have to diaper the house or send it to college.
I cracked up at your New Year’s invitation. Definitely will be over with some casual clothes when we’re needed. You and Jess have been lifesavers.
So is this the last stage of the renovation?
I am so tempted to rip up my carpet and have my floors sanded down, I know there is hardwood under there. Your floors look decent as they are and refinished they will be awesome. Congrats.
Thanks. =)
Ohmygosh! This is beautiful! We have that cross-hatch squares thing going on in the downstairs of our home, and have only re-done one floor in the whole place – the library. Hubby wants to do the rest, but it keeps getting knocked out of the budget for other jobs. Hrm. Now I might change my mind, in one of my mercurial moments.
Tell me about budgets. We just couldn’t swing it a few years ago when we got the first quote. This time, since we were taking out a home equity loan for other improvements, we decided to get enough to do the floors. I’m so glad we did. I always say money on a home is well-spent. I hope if we ever sell this one, some idiot doesn’t scrape the lot and put up another multi-unit townhome.
WOW. They look phenomenal. I so want to see them when they’re done… before you put the furniture back… perhaps in white socks, a men’s, white, button-down, tightie-whiteys and giant 80s shades…
Then you’d better come by tomorrow evening while I put That Old Woman to work scrubbing baseboards. (Hey, she BEGGED! She’s even bringing her own cleaner, because she’s sure that what I have isn’t good enough, and she is, after all, the Queen of All Housecleaning Goddesses. Unless you’d like to compete? There’s a lot of woodwork to do, after all.)
“and she is, after all, the Queen of All Housecleaning Goddesses. Unless you’d like to compete?”
My heavens, do you know how to manipulate me…
What time shall me and my Mr. Clean erasers arrive?
Don’t tease me like that. I know you must have ten zillion family things going on during these holidays. (Perhaps you could start a new family tradition–all the RubinSmo relatives go to Becky’s to clean her house! In the broader sense of the word, would that be a mitzvah?)
I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t available to help… I’ll come over directly from work (ASAP, so to speak).
I’m so happy the details in the floors were retained! It’s so freakin’ rare to see that in bungalows here, that I’m happy the original details of the house didn’t have to go away. Yay!!
Me, too. I practically squealed after they sanded yesterday and I realized the wood was actually different and not just stained a different color.
If I can’t have world peace, at least I can have pretty floors.
A much better closing statement than,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
Well, that does remind me not to be selfish and to wish that the people of South Africa and Iraq could also have pretty floors.
AhHaHaHaHAaaaa!
mmmmm….. wood….
the floors look awesome. you know how i am about the details (in the floors and otherwise… typical virgo…)
i can’t wait to see them in person!
Jim
Re: mmmmm….. wood….
My floors are just a flight away.
Oooh…Ahhh…
Will all the dogs be required to wear socks now?
I can’t wait to try that.
Ooooo….ahhhhhhhh….How beautiful!
Thank you. I’m about to take MORE photos of them now that they are truly finished. Though it’ll provide photographic evidence that baseboards need to be repainted. (Removing the quarter round caused paint chipping, which the floor people warned us about and for which they aren’t responsible. More work for Tom! Woohoo!)
Whoo hoo – what a difference!!!
I think I’m in love with your floors, too!!
A home should definitely be a love affair.
That’s the truth. Otherwise we’d burn them down when they deliver the zillionth “needs to be fixed” moment.
Did you ever see the old Diane Keaton movie Baby Boom? Her meltdown about her home repairs is one of my favorites ever. It’s not that funny when it’s happening to me, though.
I confess, I’m in love with your floors as well. We only have wood in one room (the dining room), whereas in my last (older, much smaller) house I had wood in every room except the kitchen. I kind of (OK, I *really*) miss that. Of course, my floors never looked this good….