Getting the floors started
Tomorrow we have grand plans to start the process of refinishing the downstairs hardwood floors. In preparation for this, Kelly has taken off all the quarter round in the living and dining room, and this evening the whole family went over to clear out the rooms. This evening, we
- tossed out the beat up quarter round (we will replace them with some more substantial trim)
- removed the heater grates and any other little metal bits from the floors, took off the interior shutter-like louvered doors from between the living and dining rooms (we will freecycle them)
Trim and grates removed from the dining room
- removed the pile of light blue wooden venetian blinds from the dining room (freecycle)
- removed the very not-to-our-taste modern black pressboard wooden shelves from the living room wall and fireplace wall (those will get craigslisted)
- and cleared out the pile of books the previous owners left on the built ins in the living room (we will donate them to the Bookcrossing zone in the library where I work)
Two discoveries from this evening, one good and one bad.
First the good: in taking off louvered doors, we discovered that the trim around the doorway between the living and the dining room only has a couple of coats of paint. I’m planning on stripping it tomorrow as a test for the rest of the (painted) woodwork downstairs, which we’d like to eventually strip all of.
Kelly removing the doors
Now the bad: we pulled up the carpet in the downstairs stair landing and discovered that what we thought was carpet over linoleum over wooden floors is actually carpet over linoleum around the edges and big chunks of plywood and broken boards. We are still pretty sure that the stairs and the rest of the floors upstairs have floors in good shape, and the landing is only 4′x8′ so it won’t be too cost prohibitive to install hardwood there, but still, it was a bit of a blow. We had to stick the carpet back down and leave off for now.
Random hole in the middle of the dining room floor, that had a strange circular grate on it. What was it for?
December 5th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Re: Random hole
Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing a lot of Fallout 3 lately, but my first thought as to the purpose of the Random Hole and strange circular grate is for the “blood drain” when the room was being used as a “sausage” factory. Nice image huh.
December 5th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
All I could think of is the hole in the center of outdoor tables–a place for the sun umbrella to be held in place. Not true of course, but there you go….
December 6th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I don’t know, either. But my grandparent’s house had 1 of those in the upstairs landing. We thought it was so much fun – and a bit naughty – to look into the dining room and see what was going on. Thanks for the flashbacks.
December 7th, 2009 at 9:58 am
It is possible that the hole once contained a floor buzzer which was used by the hostess to call the serving staff in the kitchen/butler’s pantry to serve the meal in the dining room. I think that was pretty common in those days.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:21 am
As John Irving says, maybe it’s a door in the floor. But I like Denyse’s explanation better.
Beautiful home, guys.
December 11th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Ellen, do you remember the priest holes at the estate where the Round Church had its family retreat? Those hiding places were fun for you kids.