The house is lucky to have some incredible looking 100+ year-old wide-plank pine floorboards on the first and second floors. The flooring guy mentioned the species details, but I didn’t write them down so I’ll have to get them in the next week or so. The first and second floor flooring is in the process of being sanded and repaired and won’t have a sealer for a week or two. The third floor had decent floorboards, but when the entire floor (joists and all) had to come down to be replaced we were able to salvage it for patch-in on the first and second floors and went with a prefinished maple option on the third floor master suite.

The living room and dining room floors being sanded and gaps being filled. I love how they’re not perfectly new but will be perfectly sanded down and filled to be smooth as new, yet have decades of history still visible—a perfect balance to the brand new walls and tile flooring in the kitchen. They’ll get a clear coat of satin finish polyurethane that will pull the grain and color out of the wood (see last pic in series above)—no staining required.

The new staircase location and new second floor landing area required some floorboard work. We were able to use the reclaimed floorboards from the third floor to create the edging along the staircase opening, repair the second floor hallway and fill in the landing, sunken area and few steps.

 

Original wood flooring in the guest bedroom, study and media room.

Recreating the entire third floor was not in the original plans. Yes, it was wobbly when we walked up with our contractor and tested it by jumping up and down together. Yes, it moved more than any floor should. No, again, it was not in the plans. But down it all came in the essence of safety and down also went a chunk of the contingency budget. A full house remodel/renovation would not be truly what it is without a contingency for the unexpected—in time and money. But good things come out of challenging things… the third floor is brand-new and does not budge when you jump on it. The floor joists used back in the day are something to admire, so we did just that. We had an old floor joist cleaned up and installed as the living room mantel—embracing the imperfections, screw holes and knob & tube wiring connections that were embedded into the joist.

The reclaimed floor joist mantel is temporarily mounted over the fireplace—the 2 side pieces of wood won’t be part of the finished mantel. One more joist for the study’s fireplace is in the works.

Solid maple hardwood flooring in “antique” finish for the third floor master suite. Here’s a sneak peek at the 5-panel solid core doors throughout the house.