Flooring woes

The floor. One of the most difficult decisions at H2 has been what to do with the flooring on the main level. The existing hardwood is narrow planks and has not worn well. It looks more like it is 30 years old instead of 8. We spent an hour drooling over samples at Lumber Liquidators and another hour or two at various websites. I really wanted a darker handscraped floor, something with wide planks. Like this:

Virginia Mill Works Old World Oak Handscraped

Without the guarantee of a quick sale on our house, I came to the realization that we were being seduced by all the pretties. We could squander our savings to create something lovely or we could be practical and admit that if H1 didn't sell we would have to list H2 and see which one sold first. If we weren't going to keep it for ourselves, then I'd let someone else go through the expense of replacing the hardwood. Of course, this would mean more work, sanding and staining the current hardwood... and it would also mean keeping the tile in the kitchen. We'd hoped to unify the space with one flooring material but the reality of the budget set in.

We reserved a floor sander from the local rental company for the Saturday before Labor Day. I spent all day Friday pulling up baseboard and moving everything out of the dining room. We knew we needed to start there because if we were unable to clean up the black stain in front of the doors then we'd have to replace the floor instead of refinish.

Know that if I had a preference, it would be replace. But the difference of $300 vs. $3000 was pretty compelling.

I mentioned that black stain before. It was located in front of the french doors leading to the deck. We thought that it was caused from a wet rug. My mother-in-law kept the dogs' water bowl on one end of the rug and we assumed that the stain was the result of the pets spilling and dribbling water. Over the course of years, the constant moisture from the rug had caused a large black stain.

We were wrong.

My husband went to remove a piece of oak molding by the french doors and when he pulled it up, the entire threshold of the doors came up with it. It was completely rotted. He started poking the area with a screwdriver and the point went through the sub-floor like a hot knife through butter. This was not good.

I wish I'd had the forethought to get pictures of the next two hours as they unfolded. He started pulling up the hardwood and realized that the floor was rotted quite a ways back. He grabbed a hammer and tapped the floor... whoosh... a big hole straight to the basement. Clearly we wouldn't be spending the weekend sanding and staining the floor.

You would think I would have been happy about this, seeing as how it looked like I would be justified in getting that new floor after all. But emotionally, I'd been all over the map about this floor. I'd finally resolved to be conservative and practical and damn if the house didn't decide that wasn't good enough.
Since the hardwood was laid on an angle parallel to the staircase, my husband had to rip up half the dining room floor to replace the sub-floor. To replace, sand, and refinish all of it would now be closer to $1000. Still a difference, but all that work sounded a lot better when it was only going to cost me $300. I still don't know what we are going to do when it is all said and done.

You can see Mr. Handyman there standing on a ladder in the basement, working on replacing the rotted wood next to the joists. THANKFULLY, the joists themselves were just fine.

What caused this? We can't be entirely sure, but the logical guess is that the framing crew that installed the doors did a lousy job. Every time it rained, water seeped in under the threshold and over the years it created this huge soft spot.

Ripping up the floor, buying materials, cleaning out all the traces of rotted wood and fixing the hole with a new sub-floor took the entire holiday weekend. Nothing like putting the "labor" into Labor Day! But in the end, the Handyman reigned supreme.

SHA-ZAM
*note- he has warned me not to use this photo of him clowning around but I couldn't resist. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission, or so he tells me...