The Oak House Reno-{Old and New Floors & A Stain Dilemma}

What an amazing sight this was to see!  Although I didn't care for the original finish, these floors were in pretty great shape. And to see them with the old finish removed...wow!  I can hardly believe they are nearly 30 years old.  Our flooring contractor said they were probably select grade oak floors.  Whatever they are, they're beautiful.   I'm in love with just this step being done. 

Upstairs the flooring crew removed the old carpet and particle board underlayment and laid new oak floors to match the ones downstairs.  These were number one red oak, so they have a few more knots in the wood, but we think it adds a bit of character.  We went with a 3 1/4" wide plank upstairs, even though downstairs is a traditional 2 1/4" board.  In the one bedroom downstairs, we matched the wood width to the existing floors downstairs.

Oh those beautiful piles of wood!

It is so much work to have these put in.  Even if I knew how to do them, I don't know that I would have the time or energy to do this amount of flooring.  Plus the amount of sanding they do is impressive!  They have taken out bags and bags of sawdust.  The staining began on Friday, but I haven't been able to get to the house to see it.  We went with Minwax Provincial stain.  I didn't want to go as dark as our previous wood floors because they showed every bit of dust, but now I am second guessing the decision and hoping they aren't too light either.  I'm hoping we can walk thru in the morning after they have dried and see the stain color in the light of day.

{I started writing this post before the stain went down.  Even though we had about 8 different samples put down to choose from, I am still second guessing my stain choice.  The flooring is red oak which has red undertones.  So now with the stain on the ENTIRE floor, I am feeling like I see red undertones.  But I reeaaly don't like wood with red tones.  And although it may be slight, I don't want to have floors that I hate...grrr!  But I also saw how much work the gentleman in the photo put into sanding these floors down, like literally the whole house, and it seems a shame to say, "I don't like the color, please start over."  We were at our closing when the staining was done, and I didn't get a chance to see it go down.   What would you do knowing you've got to live with this decision for the next 20 plus years?  I ended up having car trouble to deal with and forgot to get a picture of the stain.  I will try to get one tomorrow.  Let me know what you think!}

Read More

The New Oak House-{Before Pictures}

It's been over a week, and thankfully we did close on the new house last week!  We've been moving for the past five days, and today was the first day I got more than 4 hours of sleep in a several days.  I think we totally underestimated our move, but we are officially out of our old home. We closed on our old house today and handed over the keys to the new homeowner, who couldn't have been any nicer.  I thought I would be more emotional about leaving, but I think we were so tired, we didn't have the energy to be emotional!

I use the term 'new' loosely.  The house is a 1980's brick colonial-style home.  The good news is it's in it's original state, so there are no upgrades that aren't my taste.  The bad news is its in its original state, so everything is from 1988-yikes!  But some of the things that drew us to it were the mature oak trees,  the large lot size, and original oak hardwood floors throughout the main floor.   But enough talk about it, let get to the pictures!   Most of them are by me, but some of them are from the listing.

The entry has mauve trim.  I remember helping my mom paint our living room mauve in the 90's!

Another thing I liked about this home was the original solid-wood raised panel cabinetry, and french doors off of both the kitchen and family room.  And while I have no plans to keep the wallpaper, I have always found 80's wallpaper kind of charming.

I love this hallway...I've never had a house with a hallway.

This house is a complete change from our previous home.  We bought our first home new, whereas this one is a bit of a fixer upper.  We have debated over the past few months about how to approach it.  Do we tackle the bathrooms first, since they are the most dated, or do we go with living space since we spend the most time there?  We decided to go with fixing up basic bones of the house, which for us means updating the flooring, paint, and lighting.  For most rooms in the house, we felt those three things would make the spaces feel updated.  After closing, we spent most of Friday and Saturday cleaning up inside and out.  It felt good to take down all of the old, dusty drapes.  

I don't think I am alone in feeling like I can't live with old, dirty carpet.  Even in hotels, I usually keep my socks on. So we both felt that the upstairs carpet had to go immediately.  On Monday the flooring crew began working on the floors, so we haven't really moved in yet.  I'll have to share the plans for each room and the flooring progress!

Read More

The Oak House Is Moving!

So a lot has been going on here at The Oak House.  We're moving!  

A couple of months ago, we decided to go to an open house we saw advertised.  When we got there, the house was closed but we found two other open houses in the same neighborhood.  We fell hard for the second one like love at fifteen.  We found this house, fell in love, but then broke up with it.  But we felt heartbroken, so we got back together, proposed, and now that were about to get married, it's like we can't get a marriage license!  Ha ha!  No, but things beyond our control have seriously delayed our closing.  

We had tossed around the idea of moving for the past several years.  GB was always for it.  But me, I have my literal blood, sweat, and tears in this house with every wall I've painted, every DIY project I've done, and oh man, my bookcases!  But a series of "let's just see what they say" events led to us putting in an offer and listing our house.  One thing I did know was that I love my home, and I didn't want to leave it unless I had somewhere to go that felt I could love just as much.  The only problem when you go that route is then you worry if your home will sell quickly.  But thankfully ours did sell quickly, and while that's great, the sheer number of boxes I have been packing is overwhelming.  And I don't feel like I am anywhere near being done.  I don't think you can really comprehend how much stuff you have until you try to box it all up.  I mean, why does a party of 3 need 100 plates?

In the interim, we've had family in town, been to swim lessons, and traveled to New York, all while faxing papers and simultaneously stalking the new house.  So in about two weeks we'll either be house-proud or homeless.  Y'all, I am really hoping for the former!

How was your last moving experience?  Did it go as planned or did it make you never want to move again?

Read More

A Mini Garden Tour

This spring, I feel like I got ahead of weather and got quite a bit of work done early in the season.  The yard took a beating from the winter temps and looked quite dismal back in February.  So when we had an unexpectedly warm end of winter, I took advantage of it and with a garden clean up.  I feel that all my hard work has paid off, and I actually am wanting to go outside and sit.  There is still a patch of grass that needs some love, but overall its gotten more love this year than usual.

One thing that had to go were some overgrown shrubs.  The patio and retaining walls were overdue for paint, and the shrubs and plants needed a good fertilizing, and the yard needed a good mulch clean out.   Doing just those things and potting up a few plants has made the yard look so much better.  I still have a few more pots I would like to plant up. I have a bad habit of putting plants in pots, but not actually potting the plants!  But I think I can complete them before it gets too warm.

  I put together two matching pots, and I am loving the silver-toned greens, against the whites and purples.  You probably can't quite see it, but there's a lavender plant tucked in the middle of each planter.  Really looking forward to seeing these fill out.

A few more pics of after sunset...

I'll share some ideas for a patio spruce-up next time!

Read More