Our rare NZ Rimu wooden floors were covered by ugly office carpet when we first moved in to the Hive. But now the carpet has been ripped up, the boards sanded and smoothed until they shine like new. We have wedged strips of dyed-brown rope between each board to stop drafts and keep the old floor flexible but stable. We found an old scrap of newspaper from the 1950s that someone back then had wedged into a particularly big gap.