Yes, like eating an elephant - small bites

Good advice!

Smart man......

That’s exactly how they did it at Farmhouse Vernacular and said they were so glad they did (then set up a “kitchen” with a real sink with a crockpot,toaster oven and hot plate. I think they did the laundry room next and put a single stainless kitchen sink and counter which they still make use of for laundry and pets.)

i 100% agree, having the whole place clean before fixing things makes it much less visually overwhelming for a person i think

Exactly. That’s what I do when I have a big job, I stop part way through and take a look at how much I’ve already finished. It’s a big mood boost. Though, to be fair, I’ve never done a job as big as this one.

I believe he's been getting some help from locals with some materials and original era fixtures, but labor and building materials are all on him.

Yeah, can attest to that. I have a black mold allergy and breathed it for a few years and now I have COPD and asthma for the rest of my life. Not fun.

@@Sarah-xw2ff Sarah thank you for sharing your experience. So many DIYers just think it won't happen to them. I'm sorry about your ongoing health challenges. Healing thoughts are sent your way 🙏🏼

Also a high probability of asbestos in a house of that age.

but he is? did you not watch the video?

@@Sarah-xw2ff Sorry to read that Sarah. I grew up in a council house in the 1970s which had no loft insulation, no wall cavity insulation and no central heating. My bedroom had one wall that was almost always damp ( black mould). My Dad kept trying paints and various solutions to try to clean it off but it always came back. I lived with that wall from around age 4-15. I did suffer from very bad catarrh every winter. I'm fortunate I didn't get asthma or CPOD. The council did nothing to improve it.That was how it was then.

L O L

Funny but I heard that the '70's crackhouse look wasn't all that it was cracked up to be...

😆 crack house chic

@@deetw6470 you made me laugh here thanks 😁😆🤪👍

was wall-to-wall carpet available in Victorian times?

@@david2284180 yes they were.

Good book!

Thank you for the tips!

I had oiled wood floors in our old NC house.... they were awesome!

@NICHOLAS HURLEY Oxalic acid is an organic whitener used for vintage wood and may be a good choice of you need it.

Which kind of oil do you reccomend for floors? I actually restore old furniture so I'm not new to the oil game, but I have never heard of using them on such a large project such as protecting floors. We are about to have to sand and restore our 100+ year old floors in our home. After 15 years, 5 kids and 4 dogs they are ready. Not to mention the years they had on them before we moved in. We want to be as gentle as possible because we obviously don't know how many times they have been sanded before this and I know they have a max amount. Luckily we had to replace a piece due to splintering and it still looked pretty solid. Any help in this area including any "don't do this when sanding or applying oil" would be greatly appreciated. We don't plan on using any stain on this project if that matter and the floors are oak.

👌

What was usual was a coat of boiled linseed oil, then paste wax. It gives a gorgeous, easily repaired and touched up finish that protects the floor. By the 1930s, most people had a home floor polisher to keep the wax looking lovely.

How dare you assume the gender of the house!

UGH!... codes. 😖

The floors in my mid century (1950s) house in Austin had hardwood oak floors throughout that were finished with amber shellac when I bought it. I loved those floors and they were easy to maintain over the 30 years I owned the house.

I'm just going to horn in here, as I grew up with both the Colonial/Federal era wide pine planks and the narrow victorian hardwood. The wide plank was original, but only left in the second floor, as the first floor was relaid, most likely post-Civil War, 1870s(?), in maple, with alternating widths of two inch and two and a half inch, as you do. The house was drastically remodeled in the mid-19th century, with original center chimney removed, two over twos, and a two over one(!), along with a general expansion to include a darkroom and indoor three holer, since removed for apartments because reasons

I agree, he can put period appropriate carpet after if he wants to.

The only thing about those floors is sometimes they are splintery. I have similar floors on the second floor of my 1910 house, and trying to refinish them was a disaster, no matter what we did we couldn't get them smooth. They looked nice from a distance, but up close they were bad. Especially the parts in the center, which were often not sealed at all (notice the dark border around the edge of his library room) I found out that was to keep the wood rough so that area rugs didn't slide around. For my house, those unfinished parts shrunk and had big gaps and lots of splintering, while the finished floor outside of the area rug didn't shrink and maintained a relatively smooth, refinishable surface.

These floors were not made to be walked on directly, they're subfloor.

@@robertschmalbach86 Yes, I have lived in some older homes myself, and the wood in the downstairs floors is higher quality than the floors upstairs. As a guess, I think the floor in the 'library'\'playroom' may be pine.

I live in an 1870's farmhouse and refinished all the pine subflooring, but have one room left. If you have issues with splintering you need to seal the floor with flow in epoxy. I use panther brand from stoneboss and it dries amber and will match a linseed oil finish. I even filled knot holes and termite damage without issue. Be sure not to get epoxy in between the floorboards though. It will stop the expansion and contraction of the floor and damage the boards. I used linseed oil as finish and love that any scrape can just be oiled and become part of the character of the floor. If you sand pine subflooring and choose to rent a floor sander and lack experience with using a drumb sander, use an edger for the whole bloody floor. Your back won't be the happiest but you won't turn your floor into a trampoline. I used an edger for the better part of 1300 sqft. Honestly though, it's best to do the flooring in a room LAST!!!! The reason being, when plaster, paint or any other similar product ends up on your floor you still gotta put those hours into sanding and prepping the floor and you won't be in rework purgatory. When sanding, damp mop in between grits to raise the grain and mark any splintering areas with pencil to fill before proceeding to the next grit. Finish with red scotch brite and do 2 passes, damp mopping in between. Hydrogen peroxide will lighten dark spots in wood like watermarks. It will also clean stains out of carrara marble without etching it. If you put the work into a pine floor it will last and look beautiful. Poly will just lay on the surface and requires additional sanding to repair an area, a penetrating oil will be significantly easier to repair just by applying more oil to the affected area. I started a working farm in my house. I've had chickens raise chicks on my floors while it was too cold to keep young birds outside and started hundreds of plants in cups and repotted them, all over pine floors. Oil gets a bad reputation but I encourage you to try it out in one of your rooms, you may be surprized.

I love the idea of a visual reference of the home's progress.

Ooh this would be huge for the fans and tourists that come to pay homage to the era and just nostalgia nerds in general.

Great idea, B Bzzz. I can imagine their visitors sitting in the living room, naturally asking questions about the house. Perfect time to share such a special keepsake.

Sure! They had Oriental rugs that were long wearing and beautiful. All the rage!

No, they did carpet as well, just not what you are thinking of when you think of carpet.

That is intriguing, I have never heard of that practice. Is this from personal experience, or from research? In the vid, it looks to me like there was a large rug on the floor for several decades, and the wood around it darkened from sun much more than the area under the rug. The 1868 mansion I look after, had the original parlor rug in place, well into the 1990s! One can still plainly see the outline of it.

Did they really do that? I can't imagine them skimping on the floors for that reason. That's like sweeping dirt under a rug. I thought the color difference was from the wood darkening differently due to being covered by a rug. The same happened to my dad's custom log home where my folks hung pictures on the wood walls. The walls darkened normally from sunlight, but were lighter where the pics had hung...

I was just coming to say this! Great minds!

The joy of restoring an old house, if there is any joy, is that you did it yourself. It is certainly what attracted my willingness to go along for the ride. He's amazing in both enthusiasm and passion in his work ethic.

They were often used to deter rodents who had chewed their way into a home.

@@seattlebeard I was thinking that if you pried up a lid you'd see the mouse hole.

i have some metal plating on my 1860 attic floor too. They will stay there : ) And the metal laundry lines are still on the attic. And the small window in the roof with a bullit hole from the Battlle of the Bulge in it. I live in that area, near St Vith.

that is certainly the way to do it lol

No polyurethane!

Or they will stand out. Wink.

his name is Caleb. i was thinking about who he reminded me of...Jack Black, yeah!

No.

with a very slight Jason Bateman vibe

ha you know they will join you for a beer but never to fill a dumpster.

In early Australian homes, flattened kerosene cans were used for roofing on occasion

I was just going to say the same thing. Often they would revarnish around the tact down strip carpet.

I wondered if that was the case, or if there was a painted border around a rug?