House in Progress Diary

I realize you want to protect your child from a nasty floor, but realize that when you remodel, that re-finished floor will take a beating, no matter what you do...maybe just buy a linoleum remnant for now?

"...maybe just buy a linoleum remnant for now?" True linoleum(not vinyl) is so eco-friendly too.

I definitely hear you. However, the kitchen may not be done for 4? 5? years. Any linoleum or covering (like cork) would require some type of adhesive and I don't want to wreck this floor any more than it has been wrecked. Carpet tiles? Nope, not in a kitchen. Floating floors? Looked into that too. Nope. Also too difficult to keep clean on a daily basis. I'll pad the floors if I have to when the time comes.

Instead of a stove, the vent could have been for a gas water heater - that would make more sense than a cook stove. and the hole in the floor may have been for the gas line, not sure where an ice box would have drained to, most folks in the depression would reuse the water after paying good money for the ice.

You mentioned that even refinishing won't make those floors perfect? I just saw a rehab show a couple of weeks ago (can't recall which one) where the floors were in really terrible shape so they pulled out the boards and flipped them over. Voila, the underside just needed a sanding and finished up like new! Maybe this is something people do all the time, but it was the first time I'd ever heard of it, and I think it's genius in its simplicity.

I've been reading you obsessively since we bought a 1920s Craftsman bungalow in the south suburbs last year. Thanks for all of your great ideas and upbeat sense of humor!

I couldn't see the ice box and stove being so close together, it wouldn't be practical. maybe the pipe for the stove took a turn and the stove was beside the room? Our neighbour's house has 2 little doors beside the back porch door from an old ice box, I guess to pull in cool air and let out hot air. We haven't pulled our kitchen apart enough to see what ours had.

Jennifer, flipping them is an awesome idea :) I wish I knew how long this large head nails are. Instead of nailing them the usual way for wood floors, they nailed them straight down into the subfloor. Argh.

Hmmm. Interesting idea, Ben. The stovepipe cap is the only one in the whole kitchen (the attic above the kitchen is a walk-in space). So, I don't know where else a stove would have gone. However, they did have gas in the house at some point instead of electricity because we found the lines in the walls. The metal cover in the floor is on the opposite side of the little room from the stovepipe cover...so I don't think those two items were for the same appliance.

I'd bet money you will get close to "pristine" on the floors. My maple attic floors were worse off than that....and they are now pristine ;-) It still amazes me when I look at them. Maple is pretty good that way.

Ever consider that the ironicing board may have been an ice box delivery door? My kitchen is set up like that.

Here is a quick and easy fix for your floor. I showed my neighbor this and he did the whole downstairs! Scrub your floor with denatured alcohol and coarse steel wool and wipe up the goop. Brush a couple of coats of shellac on the floor and then wax it. The floor will look original, have character and will be uniform in color. In another 50 years when it looks like it does now you can put something down to cover it.

Try a small area that isn't noticable if you don't believe me, like the space under the fridge.

Don't worry about refinishing your floors before your kitchen remodel. We had ours done last year w/ the rest of the house and are now in the midst of a total kitchen remodel. I flattened the cardboard boxes from the new cabinets and put them over the floor to protect it.

I think you will be surprised how they brighten. Ours were really really dark and looked pretty bad- check out after we sanded and refinished:

http://chicago2-flat.blogspot.com/2005/05/refinishing-maple-floors.html

We will be doing the same thing upstairs soon and they look worse up there- I'll post a before and after soon!

the nails were put down to stop the floor from squeaking, they are not holding anything down. I use to clean house for a lady who had the most beautiful wood floors and she told me to never use soap and water on them,she had me use a dust mop every day to remove dust and crap. Even more so as the finish, varnish,shellac or what ever was there previously, is half gone.

i love john mahoney. if you want your floor to resemble any character, you can't do better than john. ;)

our kitchen floor was in similar shape. but getting them refinished made a world of a difference. the damaged areas that couldn't quite be fixed just added character. i think you will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome once you get them refinished. good luck.

Those floors are going to look wonderful! You might remember when we restored ours in Des Plaines a couple of years ago: http://www.pbase.com/lauren674/kitchen_update&page=1 I should have joined then when you started up houseblogs ~ I didn't think we were in the same league and worked fast enough...but in hindsight we have done a lot here and all of it unrecorded (not even on pbase) and admired by the general public. Anyway, the orginal kitchen floors hadn't seen the light for 50 years (at least) and restoring them was totally worth it! (the only thing we've hired out and so fun to watch others do the work!) Lauren

Pull the nails that are popping up out. I ripped open the bottom of my foot on one I had successfully stepped over for 10 years...

If it could do that to my calloussed foot imagine what they could do to baby feet and knees....

PS I saw John Mahoney in "The House of Blue Leaves" with Swoosie Kurtz in 1986. He was a wonderful actor then... funny thing is Ben Stiller was in it too...

Our floors are being done next week and they look awful now. I'll post a before picture soon- it sounds like lots of people have been happy with the results when they've had their floors redone. Let us know what you decide!

The ironing board cupboard is a tricky one. Sawing it in half is never a great fix, but what do you do if you no longer need to have an ironing board sticking out in the middle of a kitchen (and in our case, blocking the way through the house)? It's just deep enough for a spice rack, cookbooks stacked sideways, arpons on hooks, or maybe hanging storage for tools. I'll be interested to see what you guys come up with for that space.

Figuring out what was there before is probably my favorite thing about remodeling. Then when I figure it out, I so hate to cover it back up! It's just so fun finding a little clue to what life was like in these old houses when they were first built.

It sounds like a nice idea, but whoever successfully flipped the floorboards must have been in a relatively new house (not to mention- wouldn't you have to sand ~1/4" of wood to remove the grooves on the other side?). I just finished patching and refinishing the floor in my 1915 bungalow, and let me tell you, pulling 3" cut nails out of wood that old and hard is no mean feat (went through 4 drill bits and 2 sets of chisels on that project)! I was going to reuse some boards I had to cut for patching, but ended up having to massacre them even to get them out.

Good luck with your floors, I can just imagine how great they will look. A beautifully refinished floor will do so much for the room and your peace of mind!

re: the built in ironing board cupboard door being cut in two.

I have a 1923 California Bungalow with a built in ironing board cabinet too. My bottom door starts at about 6-8" off the floor and ends at about the height of a door knob. The lower door is hinged at the BOTTOM. The upper door is hinged on the SIDE and it goes up about as high as the top of the kitchen/service porch door.

Okay....here's where it gets tricky to explain. When you want to iron, you open the top door and as you fold the ironing board down, the bottom of the board is sliding up in a track and the lower door (which is attached to the back side of the ironing board at the top on the inside of the door)is folding down.

I noticed your cabinet is up higher on the wall, but the separation between the upper and lower door is about the same height as mine.

So in a long-winded way, I'm trying to say that the split doors may have been original.