Flooring It

Renovating a 100-year old house is quite the task. While we have done most of it between 2010-2011, we neglected the upstairs – so far. From a friendly summer day… …and a friendly winter day Using one of the former bedrooms as a storage room (we have no useful attic) created a bit of  a problem as we never could start work in that room. That was until we decided to move everything out and into another room. Fixing up the outside wall was creating the worst mess with taking off plaster and replacing it with sheetrock. Painting the room was next on the agenda and these days we have been dealing with the floor. It’s hardwood and principally in good conditions, but it was very dirty with stains all over it. So it needed to be sanded down. Last week I rented a floor sander and went about it. The result wasn’t bad.  The floor looked like new. But it needed a new varnish. I have used an linseed-oil-based Polyurethan and gave it 2 coats with a fine sanding in between the coats. It brought our the richness of the wood-grain and lend a warm honey-golden shine to the old floor. Yes, the linseed-oil stinks pretty bad but with a good ventilation the worst was done within a few hours. Here are a few pictures of the progress.   Left: The original floor                Right: Sanded down ….and with 2 coats of varnish The work at this house will never stop which is fine with me as I love to putter around with small projects.