We bought this house back in 2007, and it underwent a bit of a transformation then—from tired drapes and green paint to something we liked a lot better. The carpet, well, short-shag brown-white. Not horrid. But I’m not a fan of carpeted floors. Bad for allergies. They collect stuff.
Well, one year about 2010 a man dropped by from about 3 blocks up the street—we’d met him on our walks. And he said he’d worked with the builder of OUR house, and had the blueprints, and would we like to have them.
That we would. And they were very interesting, the design before the remodel that had extended the kitchen and Jane’s room by about 10 feet where the old garage had been, and built a separate garage across the garden.
They also said, re the floors, ‘red oak.’ Well, I so wanted to know, but had no good way to take a look until the disaster to the carpet at Shejicon, which had the kitties pent up in my room—they’d torn the carpet at the door. And a look beneath—showed polished wood.
As best we can figure, the red oak flooring was in the living room and the 3 bedrooms, one of which is now the office. BUT only half of Jane’s room will have the original flooring. We think the carpet and the kitchen, hall and bath floors may date from the remodel, and that half her room may be slab. We cannot cannot figure what USED to be in the hall, but it is now simple quarter inch plywood, that is a tad shallower than the surrounding red oak narrow plank.
The original flooring (built in 1954) suffered a bit. WE can sand and revarnish and gt a nice finish, but it’s possible we may want to go to laminate all over (stone pattern in the kitchen, wood in the rest of the house)—but just getting that carpet out of my room is a delight, I don’t care if the floors are scarred. And we might opt just to do laminate in the missing sections. But just the rental of a floor sander and a little refinishing is not that spendy, and while we need to do something about the kitchen, all we need to do with the floor is just to get the carpet out. One roomful and half the office is now sitting on the porch, to be stuffed into the garbage can each week until it is gone, gone, gone.
I so love the bare floor in my room. The chair surprises me—every time I get up from the recliner it travels a bit backward, but the clean air is so nice. We literally found volcanic ash under the carpet, from St. Helens. It’s not certain whether it arrived in the eruption, or whether it just arrived later—in Washington St Helens’ dust is the gift that keeps on giving, every plowing season.
In our new-to-us house, we had some carpeting and linoleum-like floor coverings replaced with cork flooring, and really like it. The cost is about what we’d pay for hardwood flooring, and somewhat more than laminate. It’s a floating floor and any damaged sections can be replaced (relatively) easily. The R value is 4, which doesn’t sound like much, but our kitties definitely approve. The “boards” (1 x 3 foot) come pre-finished with a water-based polyurethane, which means almost no “new floor” odor. Cork flooring is somewhat resilient, so comfortable for standing, and does a nice job of dampening sound. Not very slippery and does not generate static electricity (good for computers!). Easy to clean (dust mop and/or vacuum and damp mop). Made from a renewable resource (once the trees reach 25, the bark can be harvested every 9 years or so and the cork oak trees live for around 300 years).
But it does not look like wood, so won’t appeal to everyone.
How long have you had the cork flooring? Locally, it looks slightly more expensive than Pergo, but I’ve heard a few reports that it is nowhere near as durable. I want to make sure that if we get wood-like flooring, it doesn’t develop furniture divots or wear out within a couple of years.
We had cork flooring at our old place for about 10 years, and it held up pretty well. Our kitchen table at the time had very narrow wheels on its feet, so we had a small rug underneath it. Other chairs or furniture that didn’t have the stiletto heel effect did not leave dents in the wood. On the other hand, the color did fade a bit in places from sun exposure. If you have dogs that are sufficiently large or active, you might find that their claws will damage the cork. Our cats have claws and they have not damaged it. We live in Wisconsin, so would occasionally have wet/muddy/salty footprints tracked around. Mopping them up right away is advised, but didn’t always happen. The floor and its surface survived just fine.
Even so, I expect that the Pergo (or bamboo) would be a much more durable surface.
As far as colors are concerned, my mom (born in the 1920s) is *very* fond of the colors green and orange. She also liked wall-to-wall carpet and drapes (with sheers to protect furniture and carpet from UV) for the reasons many others posted here. Even so, when she moved in with us, she agreed to the cork flooring in her space and just loves it! She also decided that she no longer wanted the heavy drapes or sheers, and opted for Venetian blinds. Her living space is far less “busy” than any place she has lived previously, but it suits her wonderfully.
As an unrelated aside, it was remarkably easy to transition to have my mom live with us, which is not the case for everyone. We are very fortunate!
One more note about flooring. A friend wanted to replace some old linoleum and carpeting in her house (constructed in the 1930s). The contractor suggested that he look under all the surfaces (carpet, linoleum) to see what was there. Just as in your house, most of the flooring was usable wood. Oak in the living room and main stairs. Maple in the kitchen. Birch on the stairs to the basement. Straight fir in the sleeping porch. All the trim was quarter-sawn oak underneath at least 8 layers of paint. Some sections of flooring had been damaged and replaced with plywood, but the contractor was able to repair and match the wood quite well. It was gorgeous when finished!
Quarter-sawn oak?!? *drool*
Drool, indeed, chondrite! The trim was much larger than what is usually available today. For example, the baseboards were at least 6 inches high.
I think ours is probably not top of the line—we’re not sure how thick it is, ergo how much we dare sand, but we have to look at that before we try sanding. If we take a chip off the plywood in the hall I think we can figure that.
But the cost of a good laminate is less than hiring somebody to refinish the wood—which may not be the best wood, so we’re going to have to think about it all after I get this book finished.
Book? Huh? Oh, right, the next book!
Indeed, book first. One must have one’s priorities 😉 I have an entire list of small household repairs, but since the quilt has a hard deadline of Thanksgiving (the latest I want to ship it), it goes to the top of the list until it gets gone.
Very impressed that you are creating a quilt. I hope the recipient(s) treasure it!
A note on your comment concerning the ash under the carpet- When we pulled up the (30 year old) carpet in our house there was almost an inch of fine dust under there. The installers said this was definitely not the worst amount they’d seen here in Vegas, no mold, but LOTS of dust.
CJ, a respectful reminder–if you guys rent a floor sander, be careful of the sanding dust! Especially with your allergies. The materials used to finish the floor in the past are not good to inhale. Dust masks at bare minimum, please!
Would you like some more venison?
Mmm, venison. Oh, yes.
Yes, we plan to have windows open and to strip curtains and bric-a-brac, and we’re kind of gravitating toward a floor polisher equipped with a mildly abrasive disc, rather than an out and out sander. The two floors we’ve uncovered aren’t that bad, give or take some black marks on mine, and hand-sanding might be able to fix that, if we can solve the whole problem with a clear coat atop it. We need to talk to the flooring guys at Lowe’s and HD and see what that can and can’t handle.
Also in the market for any good venison recipes. One of my friends makes a killer venison chili.
Ooo yeah, love me some venison chili.
Mine: brown 2# meat, remove from heat. Saute until soft two yellow and one red onion, 2 bell peppers (prefer red), 7oz can diced green chilis, 4 chipotles (2 seeded/deveined), and 5 cloves minced garlic. Once soft, add 4T regular chili powder, 2T hot chili powder, 1T oregano, 2t cumin, and 2T smoked paprika. Stir well, add 1T balsamic vinegar and 1T molasses. Return meat to pot, add 12oz dark beer and two 15oz cans chopped tomato. Simmer 30 min, then add 1 15oz can each of drained/rinsed white beans (canneloni), black beans, and yellow hominy. Simmer at least 30 minutes.
When serving to people who don’t like it so hot, I cut back to 1T of hot chili powder and seed/devein all the chipotles. It sounds incendiary, but it really isn’t–the different chilis broaden the flavor but don’t really stack the heat.
But simple really is best, I love the flavor of the meat–just take a steak and pan-fry it in a smidge of olive oil, season with a bit of garlic power and black powder, or, my favorite, a seasoning called “Cajun’s Choice,” it’s sort of a spicy Lawry’s Seasoned Salt.
The one essential, however you cook venison–before cooking, trim off all visible fat. The flavors can be objectionable, IMO. When making ground meat, trim hard and add either beef fat or pork fat.
CJ, once I get it back from the meat cutter’s, I’ll be in touch to arrange a Delivery. 🙂
Tried to post this early this morning and it hasn’t shown up… sorry if it shows twice.
I love me some venison chili. My recipe, for 2# of meat: brown the meat and remove from heat. Saute together in a little olive oil until soft two yellow and one red onions diced, 5 cloves garlic minced, 2 bell peppers rough chopped (prefer red but green will do), 4 chipotle peppers minced, 2 of them seeded and deveined; and one 7oz can diced green chilis. When well softened add: 4T medium chili powder, 2T hot chili powder, 2T smoked paprika, 2t cumin, and 1T oregano. Stir well, then add the meat back, then add 12oz dark beer, 1T each balsamic vinegar and molasses, and two 15oz cans diced tomatoes. Simmer 30 min, then add one 15oz can each well-drained white beans, black beans, and yellow hominy. Simmer 30 min and serve. If you want to dial back the heat, only use 1T hot chili powder and seed/devein all the chipotles. This sounds incendiary but it really is not–the different chilis broaden the flavor but the heat does not stack very much at all.
Do you ever do the trick of using some cinnamon for unexpected sweet warmth?
Yes! But it only takes a tiny amount–1/2 a teaspoon is too much by half.
Maybe you all know this, but I just found out recently by ruining my pumpkin, red pointy bell peppers, coconut-milk, and ginger dish (nice over noodles, for a vegetarian dinner): if you want to add cinnamon do so at the last moment! If you give it time to cook with the rest of the ingredients it turns the whole dish awfully bitter!
I’ve used cinnamon with raisins and a bit of sugar in my apple pie forever without it turning bitter, but in this wetter vegetable stew it gave such a bitter aftertaste the whole thing became inedible.
As I’d never seen a warning in my cookbooks about this, nor did this recipe specify to add the cinnamon just before serving, I’m telling everybody whenever cooking with cinnamon comes up.
Not sure why ground cinnamon becomes bitter while stick cinnamon does not. At least it never has become bitter when I’ve cooked cinnamon sticks in rice, curry, honey (spiced honey for baklava), or as part of a chai spice mix.
Ground cinnamon has not become bitter when I’ve baked it in a meat loaf (a Greek meatloaf with lots of shredded veggies and lemon).
Perhaps higher temperatures or longer cooking times cause some of the flavor components to break down.
I tend to use just a little bit of ground cloves to meat dishes while frying. Just fingertip amounts, mind you. Cinnamon goes in close to the end of that kind of thing, though, as does cumin.
I can also add — don’t mix cinnamon directly into yeast dough. I find that gives it a strong, unpleasant taste, probably because of the long rise time of the dough. Ground cinnamon mixed in with sugar & butter as a filling is classic but don’t go beyond classic.
A bit of ground nutmeg in a yeast dough, however… subtle and delightful.
Ooh, nutmeg in yeast dough. Gotta try that.
This conversation re: cinnamon has been very illuminating. Thanks for the heads-up!
Hmm, we need someone here who understands cooking chemistry. Just Googling hasn’t turned up an explanation, though some sites do warn against using too much because then ithe taste can turn bitter and overwhelm other flavours.
Maybe it’s the combination of cinnamon+oil and/or starches (but not sugars)+cooking temperature/time that causes something to breakdown or combine into the strong, unpleasant bitter taste?
If it doesn’t go bad in the meatloaf, nor in the sugar&fruit combinations, but does go bad in yeasty bread and in the simmering pumpkin/coconutmilk combination… that might contain starches, I’m not sure, and yeasty bread often has some oil in it.
Or maybe I just used too much, though since the experienced cooking demonstrator told me never to add it too early, I haven’t had any problems with the bitter aftertaste.
In chili and in spaghetti, I use a little ground clove, cinnamon, allspice. Kind of a Middle Eastern flair.
To corned beef and cabbage, I add a little nutmeg.