For many years I’ve been holding onto this story, and the most improbable set of circumstances have now lined up all in a row for me to tell it—and make it all make sense.
In 1999, I did a refinish for a family here in the Valley and it all ended well … well, sort of.
If you recall, I wrote a little post about the MacGyver attitude we all have, and referenced my example of somehow applying the finish after I forgot my T-bar at home, which was like 1.5 hours away.
The spirit of MacGyver was with me at this house in 1999, too. The home had a vertical grain Douglas fir, and back then we were still allowed to use oil-based poly. I used a lambskin applicator mop, and as was typical, the fibers of the mop grabbed the fibers of the Douglas fir like Velcro. Every time I got a Douglas fir job, I’d have to throw away the mop skin afterwards because it would be full of slivers.
Well, while mopping on the first coat, I got within 3 feet of being done, and my lambskin not only grabbed a 12-inch sliver, it ripped it right out of the floor! I had most of the floor wet with finish, and I had to do an emergency repair. I rejected leaving the sliver out and filling it with filler, so I went into full MacGyver mode with my adrenaline spiking.
That story ends well, because I managed to glue it back in and filled it the next day before the last coats. I am omitting a lot here, but I was worried I’d lose my “wet edge,” which, because of slow-drying oil, I did not.
Now that the scene is set … Recently this same customer texted me a picture of my business card from 1999 and asked if I was still doing wood floors.
This business card has my dad’s phone number on it because I was just starting out and wanted to honor him because he started “Dande Wood Floors,” and I was “Dande West.” (I would not be in wood floors if it were not for Dad. He gave me a shot, and I applied myself—the details of that are another story.)
I showed up to the estimate, and the lady liked me fine but drew my attention to the floor and asked if I can remove my boot print from 1999 (?!?!). Sure enough, I’d recognize a Sears Die Hard boot anywhere, and that was my brand before Sears vanished. See the print that had been there since 1999?
The boot print was right next to the big sliver I repaired!
That was probably why the boot print even existed—I was so full of adrenaline I may have lost my attention and walked in wet finish!
I asked the client why they didn’t call me back 27 years ago, and she replied something about it being discovered after some time went by, and a table and/or rug fixed it.
She asked if I could “fix” that boot print, and when I said yes, I got the job.
Back in 1999, all we had access to were film cameras, and I only took pictures on a small fraction of jobs compared with now. Now I always take “before” pics, and in looking at them, I spied very hard-to-notice belt marks from the big machine—they were marks from hitting the nails holding the floor down. I was a wee bit embarrassed, but the customer had never noticed them. (Of course, we see things the client never will, which was my saving grace because I was so new in the business at the time, having started in 1994).
Because I now have a planetary sander—along with 27 more years of practice—the sanding on this job was better than before, and I never even put the big machine on it. This time, the floor came out awesome!
My historical boot print is now gone. The sliver is still permanently affixed to the floor, and life is good.
