Floors are usually very straightforward. Wood, carpet or linoleum are the basic choices. When people buy a new home, their decisions about flooring usually center around what color carpet to choose, or whether to put new tiles in the bathroom.
For us, floors have meant unending work and choices, and more work and then more choices. Buying a house that was built in 1880 by poor mill workers, we expected to find that past owners had cut corners and gotten by with the cheapest solutions. The floors show that like nothing else!
Take the upstairs. We had a linoleum "rug" in the guest room:
For us, floors have meant unending work and choices, and more work and then more choices. Buying a house that was built in 1880 by poor mill workers, we expected to find that past owners had cut corners and gotten by with the cheapest solutions. The floors show that like nothing else!
Take the upstairs. We had a linoleum "rug" in the guest room:
When the floors needed new paint, someone along the way decided to simply cover them. (There was another "rug" like this in Asher's room.) When we rolled up this sheet of linoleum and threw it in the dumpster, we had this old flooring:
Something tells me it had been there a long time! Looks like Hazel (the last owner) had painted around the rug when she wanted to spruce up the floors. They had nailed old newspapers under the linoleum, dated from the 1960's. Over the years, the paper melted onto the floorboards. We couldn't get it off.
We had thin strips of it all over, which I found so homey and unique. No one else I know has a floor like this! The upstairs rooms, however, had another feature that I didn't find charming. Sewing needles are stuck between all the floorboards! Perhaps these are from times when most clothing was handmade and mended. |
My kids (ages 3, 1 and baby when we moved here) loved using their tiny fingers to pull needles out of the floors. Obviously, this was not a good pastime for them! We used a strong magnet to pull out the needles that were loose, but new needles kept surfacing when the pressure of our steps forced them out from under the boards. I had bad dreams about our little ones swallowing needles, and knew that we had to do something about this old house quirk!
Now, let's go further into the upstairs. How about these floors? Aren't you jealous?!
Now, let's go further into the upstairs. How about these floors? Aren't you jealous?!
These are truly unique. Why is there a strip of old green, spattered floor between the chipping gray floors? Well, we made a hallway when we moved in. Here's a fun fact that we learned as we renovated: our house used to be two houses! In 1880, there was a small two-story house that's now the apartment, master bedroom and bathroom. Someone built another little house soon afterwards, right next to it. That's now our living room and kid bedrooms. A porch was made between them, and later someone decided to turn it into part of the house. That's now our kitchen and guest room! Confusing, but interesting.
Although the three sections of the house had been joined into one building long before we moved in, there were some quirks. When we walked past the kid bedrooms, there was another bedroom (now book room) that opened into the bathroom. The bathroom had another door that led into the upstairs of the apartment (now master bedroom).
We had no desire to deal with the hassle and upkeep of an apartment, and we wanted as much room for ourselves as we could get. When we first renovated before moving in, our contractor changed the doorways for us. Now we have that nice little hallway that takes us past the bathroom rather than through it! (We also got rid of the ugly brown paneling.)
We painted the floor of our master bedroom black, after seeing pictures of black wood floors in magazines. We didn't account for the long drying time black paint requires, though, and after 3 weeks had to move our furniture in. We walked on tacky floors, and saw dirt stuck all over the floor within a week. Not the effect we had envisioned!
Before we fixed that problem, we needed to have a lead abatement. Our lead-covered floors had to be hidden, so we now have laminate floors all through the house. The gray paint is hibernating, as well as the splotches and newspaper and black, dirt-specked floor! Maybe someone will someday peel away the laminate and see it all again.
Before we fixed that problem, we needed to have a lead abatement. Our lead-covered floors had to be hidden, so we now have laminate floors all through the house. The gray paint is hibernating, as well as the splotches and newspaper and black, dirt-specked floor! Maybe someone will someday peel away the laminate and see it all again.