Vindicated

I know everyone's probably bored to tears hearing me wax on and on about paint color choices. Especially about how very disappointed I was with "Fresh Cotton", aka Warm White. Most people would have been able to shake it off, laugh, and go get a new paint color. But this got under my skin and really bugged me. I could see it in my head, and it worked, so why wasn't it working in real life?
In real life I'm a graphic designer. Color theory is a Thing. Being able to pick colors accurately is Kind of A Big Deal. To not be able to pick a color accurately, for my own walls, even if it was just for a closet, became something of a professional failing for me.
I hemmed. I hawed.
I bought new Ultra White paint.
But it didn't feel right.

The revelation came after coat #3 in what I'll call the "new" closets. These are the closets in the bedrooms over the kitchen and dining room. They have the tight Victorian floors, and someone took the time to put those floors clear into the closets. After coat of paint #3, "Fresh Cotton" finally presented as it's actual color. And I kind of liked it. Against the wood floor, it wasn't bad. It was warm white, the way I thought it would be.
In the other closets, it was still presenting like crap. There was a number of variables - one, the material. New closets are made out of some flavor of wallboard (paneling? Drywall?) and old closets are mostly horsehair plaster. Then there was the lighting. New closets are tall and shallow, and let in a decent amount of light. Old closets are half-height and deep, with little natural light. The last variable, and the one I could do the most about, was the floors. New closets are hardwood, old closets were a selection of white, brown, and green paint.
I had some grey floor paint ("Thunderstorm") left over from the basement project. I was going to make do with that and repaint the insides of the old closets. But Thunderstorm is earmarked for painting the basement stairs once I can prop open the bulkhead for an extended time. Plus, while I'm starting loosen up, painting the insides and walls of the half-height closets had gotten downright painful. Floors, with the help of gravity are far easier.
I took a leap, returned a bunch of Ultra White paint to Home Depot and drove over to Koopman's, the local Benjamin Moore dealer.

When you've been using run of the mill paint, and you treat yourself to the Good Paint, it makes it hard to go back. It's just so much nicer to work with. I could drone on about quality paint, but I'll skip that part.

One quart of "Clydesdale Brown" later, I proved my intuition right. "Fresh Cotton" was fine, it was the floors messing with my head.

Old floor.

New floor. (New closet rod too, the trials of which will be in a separate post.)

Old floor (the back is dark green.)

New floor.

Old.

New.

It is with great pleasure that I pronounce the closets are painted and done, all but the hardware, which will be it's own post. I have to let those painted floors cure for about a week before I go stacking tupper-tubs on them, but it's so nice to walk up and just look at them. All nice and clean and done.

Salvage Places

I'm making a list of local architectural salvage places to check out. I've got a handle on local antiques places, but stuff like flooring and fixtures are a different beast.

Out in New York:

• I've been to Zaborski's a number of times. I've picked up a few things there. If you're looking for replacement glass light globes, or door hardware (among LOTS of other things) this is a great place. It's just a little far for me to pop around to.

• I'd love to get out to Historic Albany's Warehouse 45. I follow them on Facebook. They look like a good resource, just a bit far for me to get to.

Here in MA:

• There's Castle, out in Northampton. I could hit this on my way out to visit the folks at some point. They are open 10-6 on Saturdays. They look a little more "stuff" than "materials", but I won't know until I go.

• I hadn't heard of Old Wood Workshop until I googled it. Considering my recent discovery with the floor, I think I'm going to have to see what they are all about shortly. (Update - looked through the site. While they probably would have what I need, I don't think I could afford them.)

• Old House and Landscape might be worth a side trip. Limited info on their site. I've seen them solicit for stuff/selling stuff on Craig's List. (Or someone is stealing their pictures.)

• Down near Boston is Restoration Resources.

Working my way up the coast:

• Old House Salvage in New Hampshire looks promising, based on their website.

• Nor'East in South Hampton, NH.

• Old House Parts Co, in Kennebunk, ME. but one of my favorite areas to visit, so that's a win.

 • Portland Salvage gives me an excuse to keep going up the coast and eventually visit friends in Bangor! Likely pricey, (their website is a bit... slick...)

I'll post updates as I'm able to nose around these places.

Well, bugger.

This past weekend I went home to the farm for a few days - I had some errands to run, and it was my sister's birthday. Who am I to miss out on cake?
I'm also suffering from project paralysis. Not knowing where to start, and not wanting to spend the money doing it until work settles down.
While I was home talking to my mom, she asked about the state of the floors. Seemed like a good thing to mull over.
At this point, the first floor is comprised of tile (bathroom), linoleum (kitchen), carpet over sub-floor (porch and mudroom), wall-to-wall carpet over narrow board hardwood (living room), and area rugs over narrow board hardwood (dining room, office and hallway.)
The narrow board hardwood dates to the Victorian Renovation period. It's also found upstairs in 3 out of the 4 bedrooms and in the hallway. The only room with the original pine floor exposed is the front bedroom, where it's been refinished sometime in the near past. The pine board is evident in the eve closets off the front of the house, where they've been painted green. The other front "bedroom" (really about the size of a generous walk-in closet) has narrow board over the pine, I believe. There's a slight height difference between the hall and the room that makes me think this.
At this point, I've seen 95% of the floors that can be easily uncovered (I'm not ripping up the living room yet, so that can remain a mystery.) All the floors I've seen (95%!) are in good, used condition, and I told my mom as such. Eventually I'd like to get them refinished, but that's a ways down the line.

I had yesterday off. I had all sorts of plans, but couldn't get a good start anywhere. Finally I settled on washing the dining room, since it's the last room on the first floor that hasn't seen a bucket of TSP substitute. While I was at it, I decided to pull the heat register out of the floor and give it a good scrub.

Rather than wall to wall in the dining room, they made
a patchwork of area rugs, and cut out a hole for the heat.

I've done this to many of the other registers, sticking my vacuum down into the sharp holes while deflecting the very curious cat at the same time. It's a... production.
First things first! Pull up the rug!

What is this nefariousness?

More tape. I'm not at all surprised. Ms Mary taped down anything that moved. I appreciate her dedication to modern adhesives.
But there was white... goo, too. Caulk?
Nope! Some flavor of plaster with a decorative wax coating!

WHO DOES THIS?

At some point in the far past, there was moisture infiltration, which led to insect damage. (There is no active insect damage. I have the receipt that this property was very thoroughly treated for all manner of pests before I bought it, and what the treatment was.) I'm not sure how you don't notice insects causing this, but maybe there was a buffet over this area or something.
One thing's for sure, I can't go refinishing a floor with gobs of plaster sticking out of it. So, let's remove that plaster and see what we've got.

Whelp.

It looks like I can replace the first three planks from the wall and fix it all. This is also the area that needs some sill work, so in hindsight I can't be too surprised.

So Mom - I didn't have any areas that needed fixing until yesterday.
But I got the dining room all washed except the ceiling!