Fabulous Floors

I never thought choosing a stain color for floors would be so incredibly difficult! I mean this was harder than coming up with our daughter's name. Okay, maybe not, because we deliberated that for months. But it was still a tough decision and one that's not easy to reverse. We wanted a darker stain than what was previously on the floors. Every sample looked too light or too dark or too red or too green or too brown or too charcoal. Plus, we had the added problem of matching the first floor to the second floor. The first floor is red oak and the second floor is pine. The floors are all original except for the kitchen, office, foyer and downstairs hall. These were mismatched and we replaced them to match the living room and dining room.

Here's the kitchen with the new naked floors (and drywall!):

You may be able to see the test patches on the floor under the board. So after much debate and worry, here are the floors with the first coat of stain. We had the floor guy custom mix two parts Red Mahogany to one part Ebony.

I'm in love! Once they're completely finished, they'll be just the right combination of red and brown. The reflection is throwing off the color a little but trust me...they rock! Who knew this would be so exciting? It's the little things.

These get installed this week:

Woo hoo! Now we're cookin'!

Thanks to Susan for hosting Met Monday! And thanks to you for checking in! Next up...the master bath!

Uncovering the Past

I'm back...finally! I started this post over a week ago and typed most of it one-handed. Little Miss Priss doesn't like to be put down. :)

When we first started the renovations, we hoped to uncover a treasure. We've all heard the stories of people finding old coins, photographs or newspapers during renos. No such luck for us. Apparently past owners never had a hide-y hole or else things have been previously unearthed by others. We did, however, find a date.

We were (and still are) unsure of the exact date the house was built. But from this discovery we learned that these timbers were delivered on or around August 20, 1904.

The previous owners told us that they heard our house was one of the first in town to have electricity. One thing that prompted our total overhaul was the fact that the knob and tube wiring was still being used in some locations! To some of you this may be no biggie, but we were kinda scared of it! All that's left if it now are some of the knobs and tubes.

I'll be back soon with pics of drywall and new floors. Exciting stuff!