Know thyself. Know thyself. Know thySELF!

 The story of the living room floor!

Man, I am developing a deep relationship to this house... especially since I have adopted my dog, Bentley.  Not only am I systematically redecorating, thanks to Bentley....I have cleaned more of it more often than I have ever done before.

Today, he *(note, not me... HE) tracked in dog poo and got it on the couch and floor. Just enough that i kept getting wiffs of it, until I found the paw prints.  So i laundered the couch cushions, and thoroughly swept, vacuumed, and mopped the room.  Which task was oddly satisfying.  And, it allowed me to play my favorite game: "House detective!"

This is almost certainly the original floor from 1940. This area has been low income & blue collar for decades, only now are flippers and single white collar folks moving in with the money and interest to replace floors... and I haven’t.

At some point, the living room was carpeted, you can see they left a clear spot by the door (now a window) and the old gas heater. The carpet stopped at the edge of the old dining room which is now the entry. The parts that were not covered by carpet were refinished.

On the left, the living room was carpeted. On the right, the entry (then dining room) was refinished!

The window to the left was the original front door, left uncarpeted and refinished. I am standing in the path that most of the traffic into the house would have walked. (this is also where Bentley likes to have a bed so he can watch the porch through the window).

Here is where there used to be a gas heater. They left it clear of carpet (smart!) so this spot was refinished. You can clearly see where the tack strips were.

If you remember that the window was the main door for 80 years, you can appreciate the track of wear into the house.

The center of the room was probably always covered with a rug, but there is heavy wear in the space that was probably a couch (also where my old couch sat before I moved the door)

I think this marks the back and one arm of a couch?

In the center of the room are two or three cigarette burns and some places the tongue and groove flooring was “repaired” with top nailing or staples.

Burns in the center of the room... likely cigarettes

There are some tracks that may have been boots or cart wheels when the floor was being worked on. Hope it wasn't me... but it might have been.

I don't think I left these tracks...but maybe?

I hope to put a uniform finish down, but I love keeping these stories, so I don’t even want to replace the floor