Our House—Floors

When we started working on our house we were planning on putting down laminate flooring throughout.  The house had the sub-floor down, old floor boards taken from the old Moccasin School which was located about 1/4 mile away.  Over this the one building the “cabin” had nailed down 1/4” masonite type material.  When walking on it there was a soft, mushy feeling to it.  I definitely didn’t want that.  Something more was needed.  I removed the material that had been put down and installed 1/2” plywood as an underlayment.

I had purchased some laminate flooring, enough for at least one room.  A friend that Darryl had made had built a log home and had put down 3/4” oak hardwood flooring.  Due to a change in plans they had 700 square feet they wanted to sell and were asking only $500.00.  I didn’t believe I could turn that offer down.

In the kitchen and dining area the hardwood was put down on the diagonal, which took a bit longer but looks very nice.  In the computer room and the hallway it was laid straight.  All of this was finished with a polyurethane finish, which has a “plastic like” look to it.

Pictured to the left is the floor in the computer room with the finish on it.  When I put down the oak hardwood in the living room, which is in the addition, I had decided on another type of finish—genuine tung oil.  I was unable to find it locally, as a matter of fact I could only find it at one place, The Real Milk Paint Company.  When it was applied per the company’s direction it left the floor with a more natural look, not at all with the “plastic” look of the polyurethane.

I know that it is difficult to see the difference in a photograph but in the photo to the right is the living room floor.  The 700 square feet of oak was not enough to do all of the floors so we did use laminate in both of the bedrooms.  It is nice but lacks the warmth of the real wood.

Pictured here on the left is the floor in our bedroom, which is laminate.  The laminate is fast to put down and doesn’t require the sanding and finishing that has to be done on the real thing.  We put down vinyl tile in the bathroom and the pantry.  With the dust and dirt we have around us we didn’t want carpeting.  Still, we remove our shoes when we come in from outside.  Our grandchildren also follow these rules, so at times there is quite a pile of shoes or boots beside the door. 

Although our floors turned out differently from what we originally had planned we are quite happy with how they turned out.