We closed on North Baker Friday, March 11, 2016 in the late afternoon. North Baker was built in the 1920's, though I actually believe earlier than that, but she had been covered over with so many bad decisions it is hard to tell where the original cottage is and we have no idea what lies beneath! This was not going to be my first renovation. Oddly enough, years ago my family purchased a commercial property in Mount Dora that was literally falling down and we saved it from demolition. It is on the corner of 1st Avenue and Highland Street in the Uptown district of Mount Dora.
The building remains to this day and has been improved upon and makes a great statement as drivers enter Mount Dora from State Road 46. I am proud that we saved the old girl that is still referred to as "The Pig" by the current owners.
Here is my reason for this lengthy explanation. When I was working on that building with my brother, who I lost in 2006 and miss every minute of every day, I was given a small crow bar that was painted lime green....it was MY crow bar and everyone knew it. What's funny about this is that I am a girly girl , crow bar and Dawn shouldn't even be in the same sentence.
About an hour before our closing on Baker, I wanted my crow bar. I had not used it in years...I hunted around found it and took it with me! Britt, myself and the crow bar went to work that night. We couldn't wait to see what was under the plastic laminate floors that covered every inch of flooring in Baker. Please let the floors be intact...please let us refinish them to their original glory...is there beautiful Quarter Sawn Oak or maybe Warm Southern Pine?
Well, not so much. Though she did not completely disappoint, about 1/2 of the original hardwood floors are salvageable old southern pine. We are happy that at least the living room floor is free of patches and holes. One of the bedrooms and the hall will have to be carpeted which is a nightmare for us with three dogs...but hey, we asked for this remember?
Under the kitchen laminate we discovered that the kitchen was originally a porch, it has wide boards, not the same pine flooring as the rest of the house. We thought it might be because the ceiling in the kitchen is original bead board but once we tore up the floor it was confirmed to have been the original porch. For now we are going to paint those boards as tiling and redoing the kitchen just how we want it it frankly is not in the budget. More on that as we progress in the kitchen.
I know it looks like Britt is doing all of the work but someone has to be the Photojournalist right? Not quite, I was in here ripping and tearing those floors out too. I placed an ad on Craigslist in the FREE category offering the flooring and someone came the next morning and took all of the laminate flooring that we removed. Turns out it was a family that really needed it so we gave them the refrigerator and the stove too. Blessings all around. It felt good.
