They’re in, and refinished! Which means we’re that much closer to moving into our new master suite! It also means that I will soon have a real office again…

We had quite a time with these floors. The original flooring upstairs was old-growth fir, and when we built the addition, we struggled with whether or not to try and match it, or go for something different. Once we started checking into prices, it didn’t look very feasible to purchase old-growth fir. What little exists is very expensive. But I didn’t want two different woods, so it was either pull them all up, or match it. Eventually, we found a miller who had several old-growth trees that he pulled out of the mud flows from the 1980 Mt. St. Helen’s eruption. He quoted us a good price, and we accepted. We knew they wouldn’t match exactly, especially since the old floors looked pretty rough, but the tones, and to a certain extent, the grain, would be close enough. Having come out of the mud flows, the new floors have some purple to them, and, according to the miller, they are much harder than most fir. So, let’s get started on a picture tour, shall we?

The office, after sanding off the old walnut-colored stain:



With all that dark color gone, it took away the bowling alley lane effect. The room felt much wider instead of long and narrow.

Finished. We used a natural oil-based sealer, but no stain. Look at the nice warm glow the oil-based sealer adds. Water-based, though less stinky, doesn’t do this. It washes it out. Bad news.



Now, onto the master bedroom…



Here they are laid. Talk about back-breaking work.

Here’s a close up of the purple tones:



This is Jake and Brian sanding them. Luckily, I got spared a lot of this dusty work, though not all. The sander we rented wasn’t so bad, because it had a vacuum attached to it, but using the orbital around the edges was just gross.



And the finished product… Ta-Da!





They look a lot better than the old ones, clearly, but considering the abuse the old floors had gotten, I can’t complain with how they turned out.

And as cool as the floors are, I have to say, the stairs and landing area is really something. Since the downstairs is all oak flooring (I know… doesn’t make any sense, but who wants to rip out and start all over? and spend even more money?) we used oak for the stair treads and bench seat at the top of them. We’re going to tie the entire area in with some fir wainscotting. It should look pretty cool when it’s all done. But for now, check this out:

The landing:



The bench seat at the top of the stairs:



And the stairs themselves…

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