Winter House Project

January 2026 we were ready to start our winter house project, The Great Room Remodel. By March it would feel like we'd made it through the worst of winter, but that was after nine weeks of non-stop hard work seven days a week! Winter passed while we picked away at our project.

Our great room is an 20 x 24 open space that is a combination of living room and dining area. The update includes repair of wainscoting with fresh wall, ceiling, steps and trim paint. We also replaced the stair tread runner with a Victorian pattern in shades of grey. Our walls were switched from wheat to sage, complimented with ultra white wainscoting and trim. Our stairs were painted white, with white trim, white banister, and spindles. The black stair treads make a stark contrast. We added black slate tile at the bottom of the stairs in front of our entryway to account for muddy shoes. The color combinations look fabulous and compliment our brown leather couches and wood furniture, as well as our 100+ year old original pine floors.

White stairs and rails with black treads

Black slate entryway 

Victorian grey runner

Runner next to tile

The pine floors were the catalyst to taking on this project. Some 25 years ago, we'd uncovered 5 flooring layers to expose the original pine. Once removed, we discovered there was no sub floor between them and the framing. In addition, the pine boards were no longer snug tight. Instead they had substantial cracks between them which required vacuuming often. The current goal was to remove the flooring, clean it up then plane it before re-laying it. The clean up included removing the old tongue and groove along with any bad spots. Dave routed new tongue and groove before reinstalling. It was very labor intensive and time consuming work but the end result is beautiful. Most boards still have square nail holes and blemishes from years of existing in a high traffic area of our home. They look their age which is exactly what we want!

Two sections completed, 3.5 to go

Ramps allowed crossing the new floors

Raised ramp to the basement steps

Due to the cleanup process of the wood flooring, we didn't have enough boards to complete the restoration. We stopped by Traditional Woodworking in Somerset, Wisconsin and found just what we needed, beautiful 100 year old reclaimed pine tongue and groove that matched our original flooring nicely. Traditional Woodworking is a great place to look for vintage products for historic homes and the owner, Russ, is wonderful to work with.

We'd hoped to finish this project before heading south in March, however the amount of work that the floors required made that goal unrealistic. Progress was slow due to moving furniture in order to pull up small sections at a time. We realized, quickly, that there was no need to rush. Eventually we'll complete the project and, I'm certain, be happy with our efforts!