Floor Day

We decided early on that this house needed a little help in the flooring department. We had squeaks and creeks all over, which, okay fine, it's an old house, but worse, there was a really soft spot in the doorway between the living and dining rooms. Like REALLY REALLY soft. This was caused by a misalignment in the framing of the house or how the house settled or whatever. We knew it was structurally sound, but the kind of thing that would drive us crazy in the long run.

Another problem - in places the tongue and groove had worn down to almost nothing, leaving gaps between the boards.  So we decided that even though it was over double the cost, we would be better off laying down a new floor and being done with it, than going through the trouble of sanding and re-staining something that was not worth saving. It's hard to see in this photo, but in person everything about the floor looked worn and old, and not in a good way:

Luckily we found an awesome floor guy. He came in yesterday and laid down new red oak floors in one day, the floor feels much more solid, and a lot of the squeaks went away:

This morning we drove over to pick out the floor color - this is the fun part!!! They laid down about 4 colors from some of the cans we picked up at the local True Value, and we got to pick and choose:

Top to bottom the colors are:

- Special Walnut - not sure if this is the official name, but it came from the floor guys and that's what they were calling it

- Ebony - in real life this looks black!!!  We're going for drama, but this was going a little too far...

- Jacobean - dark brown without the red tones. Also in real life this looks much darker.

- Dark Walnut - a little too red.

And the winner was...

Jacobean! We snuck into the house tonight (through the basement door) to peek in through the kitchen doorway. This is the floor without the top poly coat.  

It's being finished tomorrow, and on Saturday we'll be able to walk on it. Can't wait to see the final result!

One other note: luckily the squeeks, creaks, and soft spots were limited to the first floor. The second floor wood seems to be in good condition, but definitely needs a real good sanding and refinishing. Another thing to add to the list...