A Year of Gratitude – April 3, 2024

I was grateful for busy hands today. Do you ever feel that way? My mom will sometimes say that she wants a “project with a beginning, a middle, and an end” on a day when she wants to keep her hands busy. I certainly felt that way today.

I am to the final stage of my flooring project. It has taken me longer than I had expected. That’s what happens when you fit a major project around life, family, and work. You stitch it together in tiny little pieces instead of being able to devote yourself solely to it. That makes it take longer. And so, it did.

It’s hard to remember what these old wood planks looked like when I started. They were buried under five or more layers of paint. This space is the landing at the top of the main staircase in the farmhouse. It’s all angles. There are so many edges and corners that had to be painstakingly scraped to remove each layer of that paint.

Then there were all of the tiny holes that held that last layer of paint. White paint on pine boards in little pinholes that I removed bit by bit using a pick. There were nights that I spent hours on this floor working to remove paint only to finish with a tired back, sore fingers, and the disappointing realization that I had only cleared the paint from a small portion of the floor.

I kept going because that’s what you do. You just keep making progress a little bit at a time and comfort yourself with the knowledge that each little bit gets you a step closer to the finish. When the project drags on, you have to remind yourself a lot that it will really be finished someday.

Tonight, I was testing out my finish. I want these boards to be protected. I also want to let their natural beauty shine. They’re not perfect. They’re not new and shiny. They have dings and dents, marks, and signs of wear. The older I get, the more I appreciate things like this, the more I feel connected to this old house of ours. Some people might look at it and just see the old bits, the imperfections. I see beauty in every corner.

I’m experimenting with a Danish soap finish. I’m trying to get my finish just right. It’s going to take some time, but I’m willing to wait until it is just right and until I understand how to put it to use. I want these floors to last another lifetime or two, so waiting a bit longer is something I am willing to do.

I’ll just keep working on these old pine boards and reminding myself that every hour I spent will be worth it when I can enjoy them for a lifetime.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.