So Clean You Can Eat Off It

Floor's done!

It took exactly three days, just like they said, and our new floor is entirely finished. Done and dusted, you might say.

We're thrilled. The third floor has gone from stained wall-to-wall carpet, to grubby subfloor, to new oak hardwood. It took us about four years in total, but the important part was over in three days. Why didn't we do this sooner?

The tricky parts were around the balusters holding up the stair rail. Normally (i.e., in a modern house) you can twist those to remove them and then lay the floor underneath and reinstall the railing. No such luck. Our balusters are permanently fixed. That didn't stop one of the installers from testing them every few hours, though, as if something might have changed since the last time he tried it.

We told them it was okay to floor right up to the base of the railing, since that's what was done on the second floor. It looks fine and avoids the nasty work of having to cut off the railing and somehow reinstall it.

Kathy and I spent most of the evening putting our furniture back. Next, we'll rescue our belongings from where we've piled them downstairs. I figure we'll remember where to find about half of it. The rest may be lost forever. Something for the next owners to wonder about.