Old Wood Floor Repair and Ocean Breeze

Sunday started with wood floor repair and ended with a drive out to the beach in near by Little Compton.

Wood Floor Repairs

A break from cutting wood in the basement on Sunday. We'll be piecing and blending the floor together where the wall was removed. The now joined rooms that make up the kitchen unfortunately do not have the same wood floor. Hopefully it'll work out.

Blue Painted Old Wood Door

With the last coat of paint I put on the old wood door in the front entry of the house the project has come to an end this weekend.


Blue Painted Old Wood Door Detail Shot:
Stripping off the old paint revealed all the beautifully carved details. We both love how the original bronze (polished) hardware contrasts with the blue.

Polishing Door Hardware

My last week's contribution was humble. I primed that stripped front door (scroll down a bit) and polished its hardware and knobs.

A Weekend of Labor -The Old Wood Entry Door and Kitchen Ceiling

But it's labor of love...and there was some sightseeing going on too as well as eating the best fried clams ever! This was the end run of stripping off the green paint. And our awesome entry door is now ready to be painted the same blue as the back door (by me).


Even though Peter had cut out the holes with the template that came with the light cans the holes weren't big enough. One more time I hung plastic to avoid dust to coat our entire kitchen area. So this is P. cutting the holes wider.

About Floors and Mice

While I re-finished a stretch of kitchen floor, the neighbors cat worked on reducing the population of mice in our septic hill. Said neighbor informed us yesterday that she had received seven dead mice. That cat is on a roll and I'm forever thankful.


more cat pictures

The Old Wooden Door

The old wood door toward Main Road is made over(see the old version here). We left it without the moldings and added an orbit sanded Polycarbonate Sheet for a frosted window look that provides privacy. Paint does do wonders.

The Other Old Wood Door

The other old wood door is in the kitchen and leads out to Main Rd. For the previous owners this was the main entry, but for us it's the back entry. We use the door that leads out to the porch and that Peter is destined to strip of its green as the front entry. It has the extra fancy moldings, which makes me believe that it was always meant the be the main entry. But back to the back entry door, the door in the picture. We agreed on doing it my way and my way always involves throwing something away. So we took out the paint cluttered moldings and junked them and the surface was clear to be sanded, easy. Now we just buy new moldings, nail them on, clear coat with water based Poly, reattach the shiny restored door hardware (scroll down to see) and we'll have a beautiful new old wood back door.

Stripping Paint off our Old Wood Entry Door, or my Love for Old Wood has reached an end

Peter wants to bring the entry door that leads out to the porch back to its previous life preserving all the details. So I gave it a try today and began stripping off the green paint. The orange gel stripper that helps save the planet did not work at all, the other one that's environmentally unfriendly did get some of the green paint off, but the fumes made me sick to my stomach, and the result left me unimpressed. My love for old wood has officially come to an end with this door and I gladly sacrifice the details and suggest that we forget about it (meaning that Peter forgets about of course because I already have) and turn to good old sanding.

Kitchen Marathon: Old Wood Floor Repair, Edge Sanding, New Window Moldings and Misc

We put in a full work day on Saturday. A start right after breakfast and keep going without a significant break till sunset kind of day, which I haven't done for a long time. I can still feel it in my legs, all the kneeling from edge sanding the old wood floor. Peter on the other hand enjoyed a healthy workout going up and down the stairs leading into the basement workshop a zillion times, cutting wood pieces to repair the kitchen floor as well as fitting new moldings for the two windows above the sink. We did get to soak in the last evening sun rays over a Bass Ale and mixed nuts though, initiating the porch for the season. Here are the pictures:
The black vent covers had to go since additional baseboard heaters are planned to run along the wall.




This is where the wall was, and the repair here is temporary. We still have to figure out how we are going to bring the two different wood floors together.



And brand new moldings for these windows.

Refinishing Old Wood Floor Upstairs Hallway Before and After Picture

The Old Wood Floors upstairs are all finished, sort of. Since there is still the walk in closet to do -put in walls, sand and paint the window in there, which means walking up and down from the shop in the basement with dirty shoes..., the hallway floor will get it's second coat and finishing touch later.

Second Application of Polyurethane

Living and Dining Room are coming together now..., this is the second round of applying the polyurethane finish and I will leave it at that. The centers stay unfinished and will eventually be covered with area carpets.

Sanding Wood Floor -Equipment

All weekend I was sanding wood floors. The rented wood floor sanding equipment -well machine- worked great and was easy to handle. It's a belt sander that can be rented at Home Depot for less than $60/day. With all the sandpaper included sanding all the wood floors downstairs cost us $199. I started with the roughest sandpaper available which was 24 grit and finished off with 80. The edge sanding afterwards is really the hard part...

Staining Old Wood Stairway

It's all about refinishing old wood floors from now on...The old wood stairway is stained. The steps are pretty worn out and we will eventually install a runner. Next will be the upstairs hallway wood floor -all the rooms are done upstairs. Then it's the downstairs.

Turning Single Pane Old Glass Windows into Double Pane Windows

All our Old Glass Windows are Single Pane Windows and to keep the cold weather out I am adding second panes in form of 3/16" thick Polycarbonate Sheets, turning each Single Pane Glass Window into a Double Pane Window. Sheets are screwed onto the wood frame, edges are then painted to hide the screws. Since the lower Windows are now a bit heavier with the Sheet attached I mounted handles on the bottom. Some lower Windows are loose enough that they still move over the top one -now with the sheet attached-, others have to have some wood shaved off. This is an ongoing project that I have started several weeks ago. It took a bit of experimenting too. The Poly Sheets are highly static and it is crucial that their protective covers stay on for all the pre-drilling. At first I mounted the ones for the top windows (which don't move) on the outside, drilled two little holes so the moisture can escape, but some moisture still did built up and due to the static left traces. Besides insulation The Poly Sheets have the benefit of being unbreakable. Despite all the work this takes I feel good about keeping the old glass windows...

Ongoing Window Restoring Project

I am back restoring windows which seems to be a never ending project. 22 Windows which means 44 window panels...

Refinishing Old Wood Floor -Brushing on Polyurethane

I have been working upstairs finishing up another room. This one will be a workout room. It's a small room and I decided to use a brush for the semi gloss polyurethane finish. I wanted to get it into the gaps too and this wide brush is perfect for that.

A Note on Wood Filler for Gaps in Old Wood Floors

Wood's nature is to expand, contract, flex. Wood fillers nature is to harden. Wood filler will crack unless of course you can keep the wood from doing what it naturally does. You can control the temperature/humidity...but it just sounds so wrong...

Refinish Old Wood Floor with Gaps

I love the old wood floors, including the gaps. Some like to fill them with rope, wood filler, etc. I don't. Even though my taste is more contemporary and clean looking since owning this old house I strive for a contemporary rustic look. I am now about to get another room ready after having refinished some more windows. So I'll be spending the day(s) cleaning out the dirt in between the gaps. I had someone advice me to just leave the dirt, but that is not an option for me..., rustic and clean it has to be.


A considerable amount of dirt has accumulated in these gaps. Found some hair pins and ear rings too. Could this be the next American Invention Old Wood Floor Dirt in between Gaps Remover? I am wondering how many people are busy today doing just that. 10, 1000..., or 10,000 others?

Old Window Painting and Mind wandering

Today is a practice what I preach day. As I am painting the old windows upstairs I am thinking that this is taking so long, so much longer than I thought, and I will not be done today, this is moving too slow, blablabla. I remind myself that I create my experience with what I think and believe, not with what I do (that's what I preach). While coating windows with paint I repeat thoughts that generate a much better feeling and experience...and on that note I have to recommend this DVD The Secret: a bunch of people explaining and talking about the law of attraction, and how we create our feelings and experiences and so forth.