When looking to renovate, it’s best to work with what you already have. We were thrilled when we found the home we ended up buying, because it had original hardwood floors.

These floors went through most of the house, but were in pretty bad shape. They were more than 50 years old, and weren’t well-maintained — the varnish was worn off in spots and there were dark spots where water must have been allowed to sit.

I strongly believe in the reuse part of being green. We hated to waste money and resources redoing floors that could be beautiful with a little work.

So, we hired someone to refinish the floors. We had him leave off the stain, though he did use polyeurethane. I figured it was better to make use of what we already had instead of buying expensive bamboo or other eco-friendly hardwood options. Our choices for eco-friendly flooring in our area aren’t great, and having something shipped from the other side of the country would be an even bigger waste of resources.

That means no trees were harmed in the repair of our floor. 

The entire house wasn’t covered in hardwood, and we found a pretty cool green solution for a room that was an addition. Find out more about that on Wednesday.