House Update: Rounding 3rd Base

I’m admittedly behind on house updates, here’s the latest.

The last post was about the walls going up which was a major milestone. Since then we’ve had the floors sanded/finished and started to paint. The house almost feels normal. Having a cleaner space (no sheetrock dust everywhere) has done wonders for our mental health!

We decided a while back to refurbish the 125 year old flooring. The wood is old growth pine, 1″ thick tongue and groove. Matt made dozens of repairs before we hired South Shore Hardwood Floors to start the job. Above you’re seeing the living room into the dining room. The white-ish area is what was sanded off – a quarter inch thick in some places!

When the floors were sanded odors were unlocked and Fivey felt the need to mark them.

Before and after of the one bedroom

We know the house once had a partial wrap-around porch which was closed up over the years. We discovered this because we found outdoor sheathing on interior walls. Another indication is the difference in the thickness and other variances in the flooring seen here.

The angled strip is a repair made of oak, on either side of that you can see the difference in direction and thickness of the wood. Our guess is the right side was the outdoor porch.

The master bedroom

The look is rustic without question, we actually prefer this to the polished style of new flooring. We used only a polyurethane for protection, no stain. The floor already had multi-colors of amber, brown and cherry formed by soil marks, from over a century of use. The imperfections will always remind me of the lives once lived in our home.

Once the floors were done, I had the green light to start prepping and painting. We’ve had a bunch of help.

Not all helpers pictured

The one bedroom apartment is painted… check! Now I’m working on the duplex and lastly I’ll paint our space on the first floor. We are turning the corner at 3rd, it’s the home stretch. I can’t believe I just typed that!