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Beautiful white oak floors...
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Dec. 1st, 2008 | 09:20 pm
So, I've been stripping away the carpet on the entire upstairs of my home.
I am very excited by what I have found underneath. When I finish cleaning and brushing the floor, I'll show you a picture.
I am nearly finished with the hallway upstairs, and without the carpet, the area looks more spacious and inviting. Now I want to paint the halls and make them more interesting from a decorating standpoint.
I have found that the floors are white oak, a material I worked with in one of my design classes.
I had to refresh what I learned seven years ago about hardwoods.
I noticed that the floor is very pretty and even prettier in areas where the finish is wearing away. It looks like flooring from an old church.
I learned that white oak was popular with the Arts and Crafts and Mission styles. Whoever remodeled the house in the 1940s had very good taste. The house itself does have quite a few Prairie and Arts and Crafts touches even though it is a Tudor Revival. I have lived in this house since I was seven years old, but it has been a long time since I realized that it is actually a quite nice house that just needs a lot of work.
Meanwhile, my father is removing the drywall ceiling in the kitchen, along with its awful fluorescent lighting (an early seventies addition, as far as I can tell).
The more we strip away from this house, the prettier it becomes, even though it is a mess of boxes and unfinished walls and floors.
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By the way, one other unusual detail of our Prohibition-era house (which was built on an old golf course) is that the exterior is comprised of recycled brick, some of which (lore has it) is from streets and buildings in Chicago. What is extremely cool is that much of the brick is actually burnt, and not on purpose! I have looked around the neighborhood and have discovered that this recycled and burnt brick is not very common at all!
All of this means that if we ever get our house back to normal, it will be a very unique house and therefore quite desirable.
I am very excited by what I have found underneath. When I finish cleaning and brushing the floor, I'll show you a picture.
I am nearly finished with the hallway upstairs, and without the carpet, the area looks more spacious and inviting. Now I want to paint the halls and make them more interesting from a decorating standpoint.
I have found that the floors are white oak, a material I worked with in one of my design classes.
I had to refresh what I learned seven years ago about hardwoods.
I noticed that the floor is very pretty and even prettier in areas where the finish is wearing away. It looks like flooring from an old church.
I learned that white oak was popular with the Arts and Crafts and Mission styles. Whoever remodeled the house in the 1940s had very good taste. The house itself does have quite a few Prairie and Arts and Crafts touches even though it is a Tudor Revival. I have lived in this house since I was seven years old, but it has been a long time since I realized that it is actually a quite nice house that just needs a lot of work.
Meanwhile, my father is removing the drywall ceiling in the kitchen, along with its awful fluorescent lighting (an early seventies addition, as far as I can tell).
The more we strip away from this house, the prettier it becomes, even though it is a mess of boxes and unfinished walls and floors.
======
By the way, one other unusual detail of our Prohibition-era house (which was built on an old golf course) is that the exterior is comprised of recycled brick, some of which (lore has it) is from streets and buildings in Chicago. What is extremely cool is that much of the brick is actually burnt, and not on purpose! I have looked around the neighborhood and have discovered that this recycled and burnt brick is not very common at all!
All of this means that if we ever get our house back to normal, it will be a very unique house and therefore quite desirable.
