Floor restoration

Before we can buy restoration materials for the floor, we need to determine what species of tree the floors were made from.  I planed down a few scraps of floorboards that were left over from the living room hearth project, and it looks like it is mostly White Oak, Pin Oak, Red Oak, and possibly some Chestnut.

The floor is 5/4" thick Tounge and Groove, random width boards.  It is face-nailed with old wrought iron "cut" nails, which makes lifting any of the boards excruciatingly painful!
The floor boards, and most of the original lumber in the house, was most likely cut at Bishop's Mill.  The Mill was one of many, just 1.5 miles down the road in what is now Ridley Creek State Park. 

Here's a few shots of the floor-


 I called a bunch of local saw mills and lumber wholesalers to get quotes for about 100' of oak - 8' - 12' wide, quarter sawn and straight sawn to match the grain pattern of the original floor materials.  Oak is Expen$ive!  the local lumber yard is selling 5/4"  straight sawn oak for $8 / ft!!! no way Jose.

A friend recommended checking Wood Finder, where a number of local DIY-esque sawmills advertise their locally grown and harvested wood.  I found the contact info for East Coast Log, on the site, and called.  I spoke with the owner/operator, Art Weeks, about our floor project.  Art was very helpful; he suggested that we visit his mill, check the stock, and pick out the right boards for our floor.  East Coast Log had a bunch of White, Red, and Pin Oak in stock, for about $3 / ft, what a difference!

We're planning a trip to pick out the materials in the next few weeks, 'll post some photos from the trip.