leangreen.org recycled renovation on a low-budget ration

After chopping the house in half and cutting out the floor for the stairs, we added a 6-foot by 10-foot overhang into the new addition. Someday this floor will support Brian’s desk/computer setup (we think). It’s been a good storage spot for the time being, but it lacked a floor. We wondered if we should get some other flooring material: cork, tile, linoleum, brown paper bags. We’ve recently settled on just leaving the whole second floor covered in the existing 3/4-inch douglas fir boards. It doesn’t have a sub-floor, which is a concern for sound transfer, but it’s solid and tight-grained with lots of character hidden beneath a few coats of paint. We plan to sand and finish them at some point.

To finish the overhang, we’ve been trolling craigslist and calling local salvage yards for floor patch material. No luck until this week. We found a big pile of 3 1/4-inch wide boards at Heritage Salvage in Petaluma, about 40 miles north of us in Sonoma County. Gary and Brian installed it yesterday, feathering it into existing joints, and it looks gooood. What’s even better: Heritage Salvage is a candyland of salvaged material. We have our eyes on some 7-inch wide doug fir boards from a hops warehouse. The former floor could become our new ceiling.