Just keep racking, racking , racking...

I thought I would do a quick update on our current house renovation: installing wood floors. 

 

When we purchased our home in October of 2012, we knew there were improvements we wanted to make, but we made the choice to wait one year to do anything (except paint).  The main driving force was financial (we don't borrow money), but secondly we wanted to live in the space and see how we would use it.  Some things that I initially didn't like, I wouldn't dream of changing now (like our brick fireplace), and some things I thought would be a big priority (like adding a full bathroom to the master bedroom) don't seem to be a big deal now. 

Anyway, we stayed true to our commitment of waiting a year. Improvements we've made in the last year include adding recessed lighting on the main level and widening a doorway between the kitchen and dining room.  The recessed lighting has made a huge difference and I love it. Before all we had was one ugly ceiling fan for overhead lighting.  The widened doorway is technically not finished yet (waiting for trim), but I'm sure I'll have pictures of that when I get an "after" of the floors.

 

For now, we work on the floors, and work on the floors.  I said right away this would be a quick post.  We are currently in the throws of installing the flooring, and I've got to get to work.  We got the kids a movie tonight and hoped to get the living room finished.  But, alas there's probably about two hours left of work to do and the kids HAD to  go to bed.

 

But, here's a progress shot from last night.  Matt started Saturday morning, and we worked Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings. The type of wood is quarter-sawn white oak.  It's gorgeous and the same type of wood as we currently have in our foyer, only it's parquet.  It is unfinished, but this is  because we are going to sand and restain the foyer and make everything a uniform color.

 

 

Here's a close-up of the grain. 

 

 



 I love that it's not as "oaky" as regular oak, if oaky is a word. I don't want to over-spiritualize things, but I also see this flooring as another blessing from God. We were very patient when choosing what type of wood, where to buy it from, what width boards, what color, on and on. Then Dakota Floors in Brandon, SD had this in their warehouse and wanted to move it out. It is exactly the board widths we wanted, (both two and three inch), AND exactly the type of wood that would work best in our home.  AND but because they were moving it out we got it at contractor's price. It was far less, albeit it is unfinished, that anything else we looked at.  Our final estimate for everything (wood, supplies, and finishing), was $50 less than the modest budget we had originally set.  In the scheme of all that's going on in the world, it seems like floors schmoors.  But, I continue to find these small gifts from Him and I want to have a heart of gratitude...so, Praise God!

 

Here it is this morning. 

 

You can see that we had to move all the boards to the other side of the room and that we racked out a few more rows to be nailed. We are literally laying this floor board by board. Every board has to be just the right size. We learned a lot about seams-mainly you don't want them close or in a pattern-but I still may grab five or so boards before I find one that works. Matt is obviously better at this than me and so it may take him less time. Those rows you see that are racked (I think there are six) took us one hour.

So, progress is s.l.o.w.  However it's coming along.  It's not moving faster with me at the computer, so I better go rack it out, and if all goes well the living room will be fully installed tomorrow morning!  Woot!