Hand Scraped Heaven

One of the things I looked forward to most was the hand scraping of the wood floors. It was one of the last projects to be done and I just could not wait to see what it would look like. I also could not imagine how one hand scrapes a floor.  Let me just tell you...it is not easy.  It is, in fact, a tedious process that is a work of art.  I think the workers thought it a bit odd that I wanted to stick around and watch.  But it was just fascinating.

These men would work side by side scraping the wood with these metal tools.  It made a horrific noise...think nails on chalkboard but worse.  They would switch positions with one another so that it did not look striped with one person's technique spanning the width of the room.  Pretty clever if you ask me.

And the shavings that they scrape off are significant.  It leaves behind quite a mess.  But then that shaving being removed is what gives the floor such personality and beauty.

I was lucky enough that the guy whose company did the floors is a friend. He knew I was excited and was kind enough to show me how gorgeous they would look when stain was applied.

And once they were done they were simply breathtaking.