Before and After: Wood Floors

After 10 years of blue carpet in the living room (it came with the house), we finally ripped it out last May.  We intended to re-carpet.  After all, there was a 30"x30" plywood patch in a conspicuous place which we figured would prohibit us from having the original wood floors refinished.  Too bad, too, because they were still in fairly good condition.  Sure they looked pretty rough, but we expected much worse for a house built in 1916.  Most of the living room is oak, but there is a large area of pine where the original owners would have laid a rug.  Pine was much cheaper and so they used oak wherever it would show and then put down pine where it wouldn't matter.  The adjoining and smaller dining room floor is mostly pine (again, where a rug would have gone) surrounded by oak. 

I mentioned our floors to Jay Allred at church and he agreed to come by and take a look.  He's been in the flooring business for years and knows his craft.  He assured us that the patch and some termite damage could be fixed.  He also said that the pine would be beautiful and look like an inlaid floor.  We took his word for it and hired his team for the job.  We are thrilled with the results.  They did a great job!

Before:

Left is pine.  Right is oak.

A pretty rough spot in the oak.

Pine, originally  meant to be covered up.

After (drumroll, please...):

Dining room looking into living room.  I'm loving the pine!

Living room.  The pine is on the right.  Most of the room is oak (left).

Dining room.  This gives a fairly good view of the oak surrounding the pine.

Aren't they pretty?  We love them!  Here are a few more before/after comparisons to specific spots.

Here you see the termite damage in one board.  The next photo shows the repair.  Then you see the final result:

 

Here is a before and after to show the corner detail (it may or may not be the same corner in both pictures, but you get the idea):