As you can see, these are pictures of the wood floors. The floors shown here are in the parlor (or Grand Ballroom as referred to by some - this is a room that was recently joined back together after previously having been broken up into three smaller rooms) and the parlor, by the side entry door and the foyer, respectively. You'll note a distinct difference in the last (foyer) photo. Besides being laid on the diagonal and being comprised of alternating boards of maple and white oak, this section of wood floor was also covered by carpeting for numerous years - at least until yesterday, and I have the staple pulling blisters to prove it! Moving up to photos number one and two you can see how the floor that's been exposed looks. You'll also note that a portion of the floor was also at some point covered with glued on linoleum squares in front of the door. What isn't shown here is the numerous holes drilled in the floor for carrying wiring up from the basement or the 12 foot long, five inch wide crater where there are planks missing from the floor because a wall had been installed there.

We hadn't initially planned on having the floors refinished. But isn't that what this old house thing is all about - the unplanned work, the little surprises along the way? Well, it all just happened to come together. We were serendipitously able to quickly get on the schedule of the coveted local floor refinishing guy, we have very little furniture as it is, and currently nothing in this room that we really haven't figured out what to do with anyway and if we don't have the floors done in this room that we're having everything else done to, it will just be a shame and something I think we would regret. So in the end (which would be about a week from now according to Dan the Floor Man) all of the flooring should look much more similar to that in photo number three - oh with the exception that the rest of the flooring is not laid on the diagonal and it's all just white oak, no fancy alternating stuff. Stay tuned...