Happy Accidents

heart pine floor installation in our 1890's brownstone apartment

Once,  I asked a photographer friend what he missed about shooting film.  He said, ” I miss not knowing exactly what I’m getting.  I miss those happy accidents that only reveal themselves in the darkroom. You  just don’t get that with digital.”

Well, I’m here to say, you do get those happy accidents when you renovate an old house.  I’m not talking about the floating joists or the missing bricks that we found when our apartment was stripped to its naked bones.  We were braced for those not-so-happy discoveries.  I mean that the place has a life of its own and there will always be wavy lines and a lack of 90 degree angles to contend with when laying a new floor, for example.  There will, inevitably,  be surprises that  mock an architect’s best laid plans.

We have compounded that happiness by using old, imperfect woods that were not varnished in a factory.  Despite sampling some stains, we have very little idea what our old growth heart pine planks will look like when finished.  Or how they will age and mellow in our 1890’s brownstone.  And we wouldn’t have it any other way.