Re-did the floors.

[Nyboy]

 

[Nyboy]

bad photo of great wood floors I put in

 

[ducks4you]

love your floors.. someday would love to have true hard wood floors....

If your home was built even as late as the 1960's, there is a very good chance that you HAVE hardwood floors. Our previous house was built as a 3 bedroom with a galley kitchen in 1956, and then an addition that doubled the square foot by adding a kitchen table area, 2nd bath (walk though, with a shower), master bedroom, and complete basement (under the addition only) had the same hardwood. We pulled the carpet and kitchen vinyl to expose it, and painted all of the walls white to get it sold, (2003).
I KNOW that it's the current fad to have hardwood floors, or expose them and clean them up, but nobody tells you about how they have to refinish them in heavy traffic areas, like entryways. If I have my druthers, I'm pulling the carpet only on the three 2nd floor bedrooms--my house is ~ 100 yo--and I'll refinish the (probably) oak floors with stain matching the dark stain on the windows, and then buy area rugs, the ones that expose 3-4 inches of the floor on the perimeters. THAT way you can enjoy the wood without wearing it out. Just a thought.

 

[Smart Red]

This 4 apartment building, built in 1956, had good hardwood floors. Despite the scratches and worn areas, they now look great again. For some reason they never did get covered with carpeting. Perhaps because the owner who had them built was the same person who sold the property to us.

 

[Smart Red]

Nice lamp, Nyboy. Another CL find covering your lovely flooring?

 

[Nyboy]

Yes out of a 1902 mansion in Rye, now hangs over my grandmothers kitchen table.

 

[ccheek]

My kids were raised on concrete in their earliest years, and you can't get more durable than that, but then we finally put saltillo tiles in. That was our old fixer upper.
This house has ceramic tiles we put in 3 or 4 years ago. I never broke a tile in either house and I believe I can be harder on things than any kid. I have dropped glasses and plates and pots in the kitchen and dropped the log poker and fire wood in the living room.
Tada! Look mom! No broken tiles! I have received a few exasperated looks from my husband though.

Tile is much tougher than you think. My dh has been a tile and stone man for more decades than he wants to think about, and I don't think he's ever had more than half a dozen calls to replace a broken tile.

But wood is still prettier.

We did think about stained concrete, simply because our house is built on concrete and it would be an "easy" (I say that loosely) transition. I haven't looked at any health related issues with the chemicals used though. We have an almost 2 year old, so at the time we were discussing he was just learning to walk. We didn't think the concrete would mix well with all the pulling up and falling and learning to climb things.... we may revisit that option as well.

 

[thistlebloom]

I don't know about other kids, but mine seemed to have pretty hard heads...

 

[Nyboy]

 

[ninnymary]

I don't know about other kids, but mine seemed to have pretty hard heads...

That's cause they took after their mama!

Mary