OH NO!!!! That Was Unexpected

We were so happy to discover beautiful red oak, hardwood floors underneath the leopard... remember?  Well, when we lifted all of Mr. Leopard off of the beautiful hardwood floors, we discovered that the home restoration gods also have a great sense of humor, because there were holes cut into the hardwood floors to make way for electrical wires and or cables of some sort and not only that, but they were horizontal cuts into the vertically laid planks.  OH... and did I mention that there was an electrical box which had been an outlet at one point... smack dab in the middle of the room?  Yup, in the floor.

 Surprise!

So... I have learned during this process, that some of the people that work with wood really develop a passion for the stuff.  Carpenters are especially passionate about wood floors.  My Russian carpenter is VERY "in love" with wood floors.  I have also discovered that when you get people that restore homes rather than remodel them, they hold nothing back in their contempt for those (insert Russian insult here) who, in their minds, desecrate and cut into beautiful, red oak, planks to make way for the ALL important TV cable and or phone wiring.

So, began the debate about what to do to appease the illegal leopard gods or how to let the home restoration gods know that we very much appreciated the cachinnation (or in my case, exasperation) over this most disturbing discovery.

I must also say that my Russian floor guy is not exactly a "see the glass half full" kinda guy.  I got a lot of "Oh, I don't know" and "This is going to be VERY tricky" and "This is the hardest job I have ever had" and "Never in ALL of my years of dealing with floors have I EVER seen any (insert another Russian expletive here) do something like this"

We had two choices... we take it all out and put in new wood floors for double what the original entire job (which was just sanding and re staining existing floors) would  have cost or work with what we got and be creative and hope that the home restoration gods would once again be merciful.

Being that we are budget conscious and lets face it, I like a good challenge, we decided to let our Russian friend know that we needed him to step up to the plate and be creative with a solution.  He was REALLY thrilled about that.

He cut boards and feathered the new wood into the old wood.  Spent all weekend doing it (REALLY, REALLY thrilled about that) and now...

Next step will be sanding and blending and sanding and blending and sanding...

Home restoration gods... please be kind.