What are we going to do with these floors?

What are we going to do with these floors?

One of our favorite things about our house is all of the original features. The first floor is amazing. Between the pocket doors to the living room, the amazing bannister, the stained glass windows, and all the woodwork around the doorways, this place is packed with character. I’ve said it multiple time: I find it pretty amazing that over 120 years, no one was dumb enough to paint over the original woodwork. Greatness!

However, there is a problem in our “office.” Upstairs, the floors are a different story. They are still original (123 years old!) but they are not in as great of shape as the downstairs. When we were getting the house inspection done, the inspector informed us that, in a house of this era, they would have put nice floors on the ground floor, but on a second story (where no guests would ever be), they would have just used whatever wood they had available. The boards don’t match, and the wood has been painted over multiple times (only once by us … but in pink).

So we’re in a dilemma. The floors don’t look good at this point. We want to do something new. So what do we do? Painting a floor seems difficult. A lot of work and is it really worth it? Sure you can get some pretty stunning results but this is going to be a high traffic room with lots of heavy furniture. I feel like we’re going to damage these things pretty quickly.

We looked into Flor, and I like some of the options, but I think it might end up being too expensive. Flor tiles are great for multiple reasons: easy to self install, you don’t damage the floor underneath, and if you spill something on one tile, you can take it out and replace it. But I think you’re paying for those benefits. The price for our office in Flor tiles is more than we want to pay.

Carpet? Getting the room carpeted is an option. Carpet always has that thing where if you leave heavy furniture in one spot (like our computer desk) it puts that permanent dent in the carpet. It also damages the floor. Sure the 123 year old original floors are covered in paint, but I don’t want to damage them… they might be saved at some point.

Another layer of cheaper hardwood? That’s an option I’ve been thinking about: getting some of those snap together floor boards from Home Depot or something. We could drop those on top of what we already have. In a sense though, that seems ridiculous. “Hey we have these original, 123-year-old floors, let’s put another layer of cheaper wood on top.” I also just imagine those new floors staying there until we move, and then some new owner comes in and says, “What’s under these floors,” and they pull them up, and they go, “Oh, the original floors. Painted pink.” That would actually be pretty hilarious. I’d like to be around for that.

So, this has been a wordy post. I know Kerry likes to post more pictures, so sorry this one isn’t very visually appealing. We need your help, though. We’re in a predicament here and we’re looking for some advice. What should we do with these floors?