New flooring for everyone!

A serendipitous barter helped us match our century-old flooring, avoid landfill bulge, and save cost for both projects involved.

A big thank you to our brave helpers, to WBI, and to our new friends across town.

Way back in April, when everything was still swirling around in our minds and not even fixed on paper yet, Jonathan put two and two together and connected us to a project that needed to demo their Southern Yellow Pine flooring. When our houses were built (our two-family and this other project) this flooring was abundant and popular. Now the trees aren't as tall or as hardy, and in fact part of the strength of this material comes from curing for so long. Finding a match to patch our many holes was essential. Not only did Jonathan take this task off our bewildering research list; by connecting us at the right time, he was able to shave down the budgets of both projects. We agreed to provide the demo labor in exchange for the salvaged material.

All very exciting and perfectly aligned, but then came the real sweat of the sweat equity. On Friday afternoon we met the foreman John Averill on site and got an orientation (and an extra few tools, thanks again!) and we pulled up the first room of flooring just the two of us. We definitely would have gotten worn out and discouraged were it not for our two helpers who doubled our power on Saturday. Everyone threw themselves cheerfully into the task with no hesitation, and before we knew it (ok, we were very ready for it) the flooring was all up and de-nailed, and somehow piled in Dad/Bill's pickup. It's now stacked across the living and dining rooms at Revell, waiting to be useful again.

While we were pulling up the flooring, we found some scary situations that will now be able to be fixed over at their house, including subflooring that has been struggling well beyond its lifespan (biggest holes not pictured here), and a huge clump of nails that barely missed wiring! We hear the new flooring will be reclaimed as well - a wide plank pine. Gorgeous, but we'll leave that scale of salvaging to the pros!