Page 32 of Flippin' Cowboy
The cameras still running, Winnie, Nick, and four of her demo crew began pulling up and rolling back the carpet.
She and Nick kept up a running commentary as more and more of the floor came to light under fragments of filthy, disintegrating carpet pad.
“We may be in luck here, folks… it’s looking good,” she huffed as they passed the halfway mark of the large room.
That floor isn’t the only thing looking good, she thought privately.
Bent over as he was, Nick’s worn jeans looked spray-painted to his hard butt and sculpted leg muscles. His wool flannel shirt stretched taut over his wide shoulders.
He actually looked happy for a change. A cheerful grin tugged at the corners of his mouth as more and more of the gorgeous antique fir boards came to light.
“I’m thrilled by this discovery,” Nick agreed. “We may not even need to heavy-duty sand down this floor to refinish it. We can clean it up, then scuff-sand it with a buffer before adding a coat of water-based polyurethane.”
“I agree,” Winnie said. “That’ll preserve the character of the wood. In a house this old, we don’t want the floors to look like they just came from a big box store.”
They finished rolling up the carpet and straightened up to survey their discovery. “Gorgeous,” Nick breathed. “I can’t believe we found a treasure like this. Who knows what else we’ll find as we continue demo?”
Then, to Winnie’s surprise, he turned to her and high-fived her.
“Cut!” Karla grinned at them. “Great job, guys! Do you think we’re gonna find any other goodies here?”
∞∞∞
Brock’s carpenter friend, Jason Lund, showed up right after their lunch break. He wore a brand new long-sleeved black t-shirt emblazoned with his logo and “JL Carpentry—New Build and Vintage Restorations” followed by his business phone number and website URL.
He was a tall, soft-spoken man somewhere in his twenties. Winnie remembered him from high school, but he’d been a senior while she was still a freshman, so they’d never been on close terms.
In her briefing before today’s filming, Karla had mentioned that Jason had offered the show a deep discount for his services if they let him wear his company shirt on camera.
Cameras rolling, Jason examined the old staircase in the entry hall.
“Yup,” he reported, emerging from a closet built beneath the stairs. “Whoever put in this broom closet removed some of the staircase’s support structure to create more room. Once I replace those supports, we should be good to go.”
Then it was Winnie’s turn in the spotlight as she performed an on-screen test for lead paint. Using a utility knife, she carefully sliced into the thick coat of chipped paint on the newel post, cutting out a narrow V shape to expose the original wood.
While she did this, she explained it was necessary to cut down through all the paint layers, in case older layers contained lead.
Then she pulled out the testing kit, mixed the chemicals, and swabbed the cut area.
After a few seconds, the swab turned red. “We’ve got lead,” she reported.
“Only to be expected in a building this age,” Nick said.
Winnie nodded. “Yeah, lead paint wasn’t banned until 1978, so we’re always prepared for this possibility whenever we work in older homes.”
“I think dip-and-strip is definitely the way to go here,” Jason said, running a caressing hand over the banister. “Once we figure out what kind of wood is underneath all this paint, I’ll be able to make new spindles to replace the missing ones. Do you guys want to give me a hand in removing the banister and this newel post?”
He patted the globe-shaped decorative finial, frowned, then let his fingertips trace the blurred outlines of carved vines and birds beneath the paint. But he didn’t say anything, so Winnie let the moment pass.
“Absolutely,” Nick said with one of his charming grins.
She wondered how long he’d be able to keep up the nice-guy act before Mr. Grumpypants made a return appearance.
With Winnie’s and Nick’s help, Jason carefully loosened and lifted the sections of banister free from the spindles. Then, one by one, they pulled the spindles free of their moorings and put them in the large, wheeled bin Jason provided.
Finally, it was time to remove the newel post.
All three of them gathered around the thick, square pillar. They began to lift it.
