Day 6: 1924 Flooring

 I found out that the house was built in 1924.

Next year, she will be 90 years old.

Stripping down the floor in the bedroom was an amazing process.

I didn't even consider what I might find under the chip board.

I knew that there wasn't hardwood but I had no expectations.

Having said that, I didn't expect to see this!

I have a vision of the end product for this house.

When I say vision, I mean that I literally have an image in my mind.

That's how it works for me. 

Here is the image: it's dark; the interior of the living room is predominantly dark, varnished wood; there are candles flickering and white lights on the lilac trees outside -- twinkling; there are handcrafted pieces of furniture and fixtures in places (natural wood, metal, ceramic, glass, textiles and stone) made by artists and craftspeople -- local artisans, friends from away and myself; there are some distressed, antique Newfoundland pieces of furniture; my favourite works of art from my collection are on the walls; everything is stripped down -- both retaining and revealing its story; there is a black and white cowhide on the floor; on top, a dark, leather modernist couch that looks out to the Bay of Islands; the house has warmth; there is music and lots of friends; Cash is curled up; I'm having a party.

That's what I see and I just keep working towards that.

Everything in between is a very cool surprise.

Isn't this lovely? The patterns, colours, textures.

Each successive layer is older and more closely resembles a textile.

The older the lino, the more pixilated and grid-based the pattern.

Underneath the five or six layers of linoleum, was an actual piece of textile: a threadbare rug (as you can see above).

This third to last layer actually looked like a carpet on the floor.
It had a border that was on either side of the room.
The room must be a standard width and this lino was produced in a standard width which could then be cut by the length and fitted into rooms to create a border along two sides.

Several layers of lino also had newspapers between them.
Each layer was clearly older than the one on top.

I'd estimate the dates to be:
carpet and chipboard -- 2003
mint green tartan lino with ochre flowers -- 1955 (newspapers)
another layer of that same lino but less blue / more green -- 1953 (?)
curvilinear floral pattern layer (not shown here) -- 1946 (?)
petit point pattern layer brownish colour vases-of-flowers -- 1938 (?)
highly pixilated, vase-of-flowers pattern with carpet border -- 1932 (?)
wood grain lino -- 1928 (?)
thread bare carpet -- 1924 (?)

The last layer of linoleum before the wood floor itself, was this linoleum (below) printed with a wood grain pattern.

The pattern appears to have been screenprinted on the lino (the ink is raised).

How ironic.

Finally, wood floors. It's interesting that the boards are all different widths.

The room looks really nice and the floors creak.

Lastly, check out the ad in the newspaper I found in the floor.

"Who says Brides can't bake bread!" The Western Star Newspaper, 1955.

To be continued...