Level

We finally completed the laying of the oak flooring in the hallway today. My very sore fingers, partly due to the cold weather but mostly due to cuts from the oak floorboards, are testament to the job of putting the floor down. But, and even without being oiled or finished with skirting, the floor looks great so the minor discomfort is a small price to pay.

What probably took as long as laying the last lot of boards was deciding on what to do with the fireplace that is in the hall, and what used to be the dining room. Old deeds of the house refer to a Parkray stove being in that room, but unfortunately that was long gone when we bought the house. Instead we inherited a bare hole of a fireplace with a raised hearth of anonymous grey ceramic tiles. Combined with the very uneven bare concrete floor, this made the dining room a not particularly pleasant space!

So we've been researching a replacement to the Parkray that will do justice to the house, and that is in keeping with it's age and the style of the original Edwardian cast iron fire places in the bedrooms. A visit to Period Fireplaces in Montpelier, Bristol was helpful but they didn't have quite what we wanted in stock. However, they did give us enough info and inspiration to allow us to fix on a approximate fireplace size and, more importantly, hearth size. This has enabled us to finish the oak flooring knowing exactly where we'll put the hearth, and how big it needs to be. To avoid having a wood trim around the hearth we'll put in a sub-hearth of self-levelling screed and float the final hearth (possibly localish Welsh slate) ove the oak.

And whilst we've not really had chance to appreciate it, at long last the floor in the hall is now fully level, with the drab grey concrete gone from view and replaced by the warm tones of solid oak. Offcuts of which have been doing sterling service keeping us warm in the stove!