That’s Tom putting down the first coat of polyurethane on the maple hardwood flooring. We have since finished putting all the coats on and it looks great.

We like use a narrower width floor board (2 1/4″) than you see in a lot of new houses as I think it’s more of a classic look.  I also use a “tavern grade” board, meaning there are a lot of short pieces and defects. We cull out all the defect pieces and post “free firewood” on craigslist. What the leaves us with is a floor with a lot of contrast and variation that reveals more of itself the more you look at it.