The Floor's Fatal Flaw

Well, this post *was* going to be called "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" but things didn't go as planned.....

It all seemed so perfect! We found Douglas Fir floors under our linoleum. Yes, it was quite thin. Yes, it had splintered in a few areas. And yes, there were a few areas of staining, or areas that needed to be patched due to previous walls. But our flooring guy and project manager thought it could be done and we were really excited to be able to salvage the flooring.

In a stroke of luck, I had come across a posting on the 'Nextdoor' site about a neighbor who was remodeling her kitchen as well - and was also deciding on whether or not to refinish her Douglas Fir floors. (Incidentally she also had birch cabinets to sell, just like us!) She ultimately decided to go with a new floor, which allowed us to use her douglas fir flooring to help patch. (Getting our contractors to coordinate was a bit more of a challenge, but it eventually all worked!) It all seemed to be falling into place perfectly. We were happy to be able to salvage the wood, be green and eco-friendly about it, and save some money in the process!

And then....the wood guy began to get the floors ready to patch. When pulling up the boards around the patching areas, the floor boards began to split and splinter, and our salvageable floor turned into a liability that the floor guy would no longer guarantee or recommend for longevity or sturdiness. I got a call in the middle of my work day to tell me salvaging was OUT - and asking what was IN?

We decided to go back to our original plan of natural red oak - this matches the rest of the first floor. Our timeline won't even be disrupted, as our flooring guy will be able to stagger the demo and installation between this week and next, which was our original timeline. So, though it was so sad to see it all torn out, at least we can feel comfortable that we'll have a lasting beautiful new floor! We'll have pictures of the new floor with the initial few coats of poly next week.

Here's Scott with our old floor all torn out (you can see the new flooring in the back of the truck).

Here is our floor as it currently stands, bare-naked and ready for new flooring. 

And here is our new flooring, ready to be installed after a period of acclimation in our house. 

Next week - windows finish up and the new flooring is installed. And - counter-top/cabinet news! :)