Old House My House

Sam and David stand guard against dirty shoes

Well, we're down to that point. The point of putting the new finish on the floors.  Its a natural oil finish, followed by a wax for shine. Dirt is enemy number one. Simple depression of the human foot on the wood surface (noticable, believe it or not, in the wax) is the other. The floor guys are pretty anal about all of this.

The biggest challenge is that the house must usually be empty to do this. This is because the floors need to be clear of EVERYTHING. This includes relatively small particles of dirt, detritus, and all things normally associated with construction sites. Normally the floor is done with NO ONE else around except the floor guys. They usually "have the house to themselves." That just isn't reality on this job, unfortunately. 

The need for floors also does not coincide with mud produced by 2 weeks of rainy weather. The dirt here is referred to as "black gumbo", mainly because it sticks. And then, it comes off, usually inside the house. Again, this is not compatible with the wishes and desires of the floor guys. 

So, we had to institute a policy: No shoes inside. If you have to wear shoes inside, or if you have the old converse high-top tennis shoes that take forever to lace up everytime you put them on, then you have to wear the clean-room booties when in the house. How to communicate this policy…well, in the most direct way possible, of course. A sign at the doors, carefully scrawled, with the requisite friendliness and veiled threats to be expected. This results in the unusual Japanese-like line of shoes on the front porch, and a bunch of construction guys shuffling around in their socks inside.

Gee, hope I didn't put on the holey ones this morning!

—Michael