I posted here a couple of days ago about how angry I was that I had a hole in my vintage hardwood floor. It was a bummer, but since then I've learned a few things and been reminded of some I already knew.
Primarily, don't complain about the little things. It never ends well.
For example, when you waste a lot of time and energy complaining about a hole in your master bedroom the size of a 2-liter bottle, you inevitably rip up the carpet in the next bedroom only only to discover this:
Why yes, that is an enormous section of hardwoods that have been ripped out and replaced with plywood. Thanks for noticing.
At least I don't have to worry about whether I can refinish the floors myself. I hear plywood doesn't refinish well.
I stand by my conclusions from the last post about the mindset of the previous owner. It's just that now I realize it was the 5-foot by 7-foot hole in the floor that made him decide to wreck the hardwoods, and not the round hole that was 6 inches in diameter.
I have to be honest, I'm pretty tempted to pull up the plywood just to see what's underneath. At this point, all I have to lose is my sanity and the money I was planning to spend on a new TV and some food and the power bill. I'm fairly certain all I would find is framing in varying stages of decomposition, but I want to be 100 percent certain that there isn't a briefcase full of cash, or a dead body or a stash of illegal drugs and/or weapons in my floor.
I'm having a few different flooring guys come out and give me estimates in the next week. I think the best case scenario now is that I can drop something over the top of the existing floor, whether that's hardwood or carpet. I've actually been looking at bamboo hardwoods. They're environmentally sound because bamboo is so easy to grow. They're supposedly as hard as oak (I'm still investigating this claim), and they can be cheaper than similar oak products.
We'll see what happens. I'll keep you informed.
And now, before I go, more pictures!
