One year for Halloween, I took my daughters to one of those “haunted houses” you walk through while stuff meant to scare the kids pops up in front of you. I got a kick out of seeing how scared my girls got as each new fright suddenly appeared.
I think the most afraid they got was when we came upon three little girls who looked just like those two girls who haunted the hotel in The Shining and helped drive Jack Nicholson’s character crazy.
These “ghosts” came up to me and ordered me to come with them. It was all part of the time-honored tradition of giving kids a little scare on Halloween, so I went along with it and started to act like I was walking away with The Shining girls.
You should have seen the look on my daughters’ faces! They thought I was really leaving them! For just a moment, they got really upset—until I reassured them that I wasn’t going anywhere. On the way home, I explained to them that houses can’t really be haunted.
That said, I know I’ve been in a few that have seemed haunted. That’s because they were falling apart. Mildew covered the outside, the paint was peeling off the walls, cobwebs covered cracked windows, the old hardwood floors sagged and creaked—just like a haunted house.
But the only thing haunting those houses was a lack of attention. They were potentially beautiful homes, but they had been allowed to slide into disrepair.
One of the many satisfactions I get from running Ralph’s Hardwoods is that we often get to help people who have taken it on themselves to rescue these old “haunted houses” and restore their grandeur.
Not surprisingly, considering the timeless character and charm of hardwood floors, most people who want to renovate an old home want to keep hardwood flooring in it. That’s where we come in, and it’s a pleasure to assist.
Sometimes we can sand down the floor that’s there and refinish it, perhaps having to fix some trouble spots but essentially keeping the original floor. Other times, we have to install new floors, but we can use our skill and experience to recreate the original look as closely as possible. There are also homeowners who aren’t concerned with the original look, and we help them choose a floor that suits their tastes. They usually select floors that fit the house very well.
However we help them, it’s always fun to be involved in reclaiming an old, neglected house from the land of the “ghouls and goblins” and turning it into a 21st century home. I guess you could call us the hardwood floor ghostbusters!
Photo courtesy of checkbrazil, Ashley Charlotte, Kwan Cheung
