Bedroom part 1: floorwork
I'd made the decision to move my bedroom from the small but quaint room upstairs in the dormer over the front door (facing the street - lots of road noise and the heat & AC weren't quite as good as in downstairs rooms) to room on the southeast corner of the house, which used to be Captain C's 'library/office'. It was difficult to move his things out (both physically and emotionally) - that took about a month. Once all the boxes of books, electronics, collectibles, etc. were moved out, a couple of decisions were made:
1) I wanted the carpet out and hardwood floors in place for dust abatement.
2) The walls of the house are uninsulated: I wanted to do blown-in insulation and this could be a good starter room.
3) The 1960s ceiling light needed to go and I wanted a ceiling fan in the bedroom for those days where just a little breeze in the room would feel good.
Soo.... even before looking at insulation, I needed to look under the carpet prior to removal, and this is what I found:
Yes, that is a pipe - they ran a gas line up from the basement, right in the corner of the room. There's a gas range that's attached to it, so removing it was not really an option.
Ah, scuffed-up hardwood, linoleum, carpet pad, and grey carpet. Actually, it turned out to be 2 different bits of carpet pad under 2 sets of staples, and evidence of the previous carpet, which was a red and black shag (you can also see the powder blue the walls had, and drops of a weird dusty rose that turned out to be under the white paint of the window trim). The good news was that *nothing* was glued down on the floor, and that refinishing was a definite possibility. The floor had some dents & scuffs in it, but I kind of liked the idea of a little wear on the floor if something similar to the original finish could be applied.
I wanted to avoid sanding, so after a little research and experimentation, found out that the finish on the floor was shellac, and that it could be removed/repaired with denatured alcohol. We pulled up the carpet, carpet pads and moldings, but left the linoleum in place to protect the floor, and went ahead and insulated the exterior walls (more on that later), repaired cracks in the walls & ceilings, painted the ceiling and walls, and installed crown moldings and the ceiling fan (and even more on this later).
Finally, the last of the dust from the wall repairs was swept up, the linoelum and staples were removed, and refinishing the floor started. We ended up using 2 cans of denatured alcohol to scrub all the old shellac up (thank goodness this room has windows on the south and east walls so we could get a cross-breeze, and the ceiling fan helped get air moving as well). Once up, we put down 3 coats Bulls-Eye amber shellac, cut with alcohol at the recommended dilutions on the can. We then replaced the floor moldings (with new quarter round), and then put 2 coats of paste wax on the floor.
I can't begin to describe how wonderful shellac and paste wax looks over older wood - the warmth & depth of color is gorgeous and none of the pictures I took really capture it well, but here's a picture of the same bits of floor in the earlier pictures:
My only complaint: it's VERY slippery!
1) I wanted the carpet out and hardwood floors in place for dust abatement.
2) The walls of the house are uninsulated: I wanted to do blown-in insulation and this could be a good starter room.
3) The 1960s ceiling light needed to go and I wanted a ceiling fan in the bedroom for those days where just a little breeze in the room would feel good.
Soo.... even before looking at insulation, I needed to look under the carpet prior to removal, and this is what I found:
Yes, that is a pipe - they ran a gas line up from the basement, right in the corner of the room. There's a gas range that's attached to it, so removing it was not really an option.
Ah, scuffed-up hardwood, linoleum, carpet pad, and grey carpet. Actually, it turned out to be 2 different bits of carpet pad under 2 sets of staples, and evidence of the previous carpet, which was a red and black shag (you can also see the powder blue the walls had, and drops of a weird dusty rose that turned out to be under the white paint of the window trim). The good news was that *nothing* was glued down on the floor, and that refinishing was a definite possibility. The floor had some dents & scuffs in it, but I kind of liked the idea of a little wear on the floor if something similar to the original finish could be applied.
I wanted to avoid sanding, so after a little research and experimentation, found out that the finish on the floor was shellac, and that it could be removed/repaired with denatured alcohol. We pulled up the carpet, carpet pads and moldings, but left the linoleum in place to protect the floor, and went ahead and insulated the exterior walls (more on that later), repaired cracks in the walls & ceilings, painted the ceiling and walls, and installed crown moldings and the ceiling fan (and even more on this later).
Finally, the last of the dust from the wall repairs was swept up, the linoelum and staples were removed, and refinishing the floor started. We ended up using 2 cans of denatured alcohol to scrub all the old shellac up (thank goodness this room has windows on the south and east walls so we could get a cross-breeze, and the ceiling fan helped get air moving as well). Once up, we put down 3 coats Bulls-Eye amber shellac, cut with alcohol at the recommended dilutions on the can. We then replaced the floor moldings (with new quarter round), and then put 2 coats of paste wax on the floor.
I can't begin to describe how wonderful shellac and paste wax looks over older wood - the warmth & depth of color is gorgeous and none of the pictures I took really capture it well, but here's a picture of the same bits of floor in the earlier pictures:
My only complaint: it's VERY slippery!