Repairing and refinishing the floors

While I was in Maine for a week visiting my family, my beloved was sanding the hardwood floors. It is amazing how fresh and new the wood looks right now--and imagine--it survived 90 years of being walked on, moving furniture around, pets pawing and skidding, carpet installation, termites, and a fire. In the second and third
photos, we have close-ups
of the termite damage. The
sub floor will have to be fixed,
which means we go under the
house once again (grab
the kleenex)! We spoke to the
local hardwood guru and he
is in such high demand that
he cannot fix the floor in time
for our deadline, so we are
bracing ourselves for the
intimidating task of patching
the hardwood ourselves.
However, he did identify the
kind of wood we are dealing
with (white oak with a few
random strips of red oak)
and was so kind to bring us
enough of it to patch it (I
can't begin to think of where
we could have found it--it is
the most narrow hardwood
I have ever seen--I think
just 1.5" wide). Also, look at
the darker spots around
the nails in the hardwood
(third and fifth photos).
Anywhere there were staples
or nails in the wood there
is a black stain. We think
the fire heated the nails so
much that the wood burned
around it--it goes straight
down into the wood and
cannot be sanded out. Or
in the heat the nail released
something that stained the
wood. In the fourth photo
you can see the deeper
burned areas in dining room
floor. This was sanded
extensively, but it is charred pretty deep, so we stopped there and are going to go with a dark stain to help camouflage it. However, the fire is a part of the story of the house, and being kind-of a purist, I am not inclined to go to great lengths to hide that. I believe this is what people who live in old houses refer to as "character." The last photo is an area of the floor where we made a doorway wider to accommodate slightly larger French doors, so we will add some plywood, and patch the hardwood over it. So, in the coming weeks we will buff the twice sanded wood, wipe it down with mineral spirits, stain it, and top coat it with Polyurethane. Other things on the to-do list include stripping paint from all the door casing, continuing to strip the piles of trim in the garage, and painting and hanging two more exterior doors. I'm making this sound too easy. Rest assured, there will be cursing.

There's a Possom in the Attic

Yes, there is a possum in the attic. I had been hearing pretty loud noises and assumed it was just the squirrels lobbing acorns onto the roof. However, our unfortunate framer came in to do some work on the hallway and pulled the staircase down only to be greeted by two beady eyes and some enthusiastic hissing--he said it scared the crap out of him. Sorry Miguel! I didn't know we had a squatter. This is what I imagine he looked like. So we have set a friendly trap with a drumstick in it and are hoping to catch and release as soon as possible. We can't finish the insulating in the attic until our little friend is gone.

In other news, we have Sheetrock up and the guys are in the process of applying the mud. Stay tuned!