Simple Floors

I thought I would share with you how we decided to do the living room floor in this house. It started out as a temporary thing but that was years ago now. We pulled up the carpet to discover no less than 5 lbs of dirt (yes, I actually weighed it) under the padding. Now I vacuum a lot so it wasn't there from lack of tidiness. The carpet itself looked great, but it was what was under that pad that was amazing. I know that carpets contain lots of chemicals and so to me it seemed healthier to go no carpet. We didn't have the money for hardwood flooring and laminate stuff is again, full of chemicals. The house had hardwood floors under the carpet but they were a mess and not really fixable. We laid new decking and I thought, why not just stain the plywood decking and then coat it with polyurethane, (yes, I know its a chemical) I loved how it came out and people comment all the time on the floor, how shiny it is and how nice it looks. We just have kept it. Its so easy to care for. Sweep, no need for a vacuum, then mop it and wax it from time to time. Its been a delight to care for. I still would like to do a wooden plank floor like we did in the dining room, maybe in time we will replace the living room floor, maybe...

It cost us very little, actually just the stain and the coating, we had to put the decking down anyway. The floor was perfect for all the years the children did Irish step dancing. When they did hard shoe, it sounded great on the wood.

Steven ended up doing the same with his house, he did the bedrooms too and it looks great. Well actually Mom did the polyurethane for him !

Our living room, two pictures taken a year apart

Stevens house getting its first coat of polyurethane