New Floor

 These are photos of the kitchen from last year

before we started doing anything.

 You can see the duct tape patch on the floor

where Miss Bertha sat in her kitchen chair.

 The kitchen "table" at the time

was actually a cabinet and countertop

that we removed.

 We painted the walls and removed the linoleum

to find mostly hardwood floors.

But in the back portion of the kitchen, there was plywood subflooring.

This is the area that was added onto the house after it was built.

The line where the hardwood meets plywood is the original

footprint of the house.

I spent a lot of time worrying over that hardwood.

I went through a ton of possibilities of what I could do to save it.

But in the end, 

the reality that there was concrete under the plywood

and the very worn condition of the hardwood

plus the amount of water the dogs slop everywhere,

I decided to go with my original plan of putting down vinyl tiles.

Big E laid the first one in place.

And here we have a teaching moment.

While talking about the best way to attack the floor, 

I mentioned the instructions on the back of the box.

Big E mentioned he had done this before and wanted to start in a corner along the wall.

I agreed to go with his thoughts as I had never done any of this before.

So we started along the wall.

 It goes pretty easily once you get your first tile in place.

 But you really need to follow instructions on the box.  

Especially when your house doesn't have a straight line in it

to save its life

and you're laying tiles with a checkerboard pattern.

You can see the tiles by the doorway are crooked

compared to the tiles Big E is working on in the photo below.

We ended up needing to order 2 more boxes of tile

to replace what we started using.

Once we got things lined up and on the right track, 

it was simple to gets things put down.

And now we have a shiny new kitchen floor.

I miss the hardwood, 

but I surely don't miss the plywood!

Big E also removed the light fixture above the table.

So all that's left in the kitchen for now

is to get the cabinet painted white.

The Bedroom

This is the Master Bedroom.

It isn't that pretty.

Basically it looks brown.

Big E has a very large wardrobe/Armoire that was built by his great-grandfather

that we'll be bringing to the house in the near future.

And it's very large.

Like, 

"I'm-going-to-go-walk-into-the-wardrobe-and-visit-Aslan-in-Narnia"

large.

I think the dimensions are 72" high, 64ish" wide and 22" deep. Give or take.

So, large.

Needless to say, it took some planning to figure out where it was going to go

and where everything else was going to go

so that it all looked good and not squished into place.

This means, I had to make sure everything would look good and normal.

(because Big E likes to measure and say, "Yep, it fits"

and ignore that it just doesn't flow right, and I have to measure several different areas, 

get a visual of how far out things will sit and picture it all in my head so things do flow right)

We settled on moving the bed between the front windows,

and leaving the long wall for the wardrobe.

We'll be getting rid of a dresser and the tall chest of drawers

(that can be used in the future guest/grandson room),

which will make the room less hodge podge plus add a little space.

Eventually, we'll be building a window seat in the bay window alcove

that will provide storage.

So, while I was unsupervised alone this weekend, 

I decided to move things around and get ready for the wardrobe for when we can get it.

Did I mention it's large?

It has to be taken apart to transport and to fit it up the steps and into the room.

Anyway, I took the wrought iron foot and headboard off the bed.

The plan is to build a platform bed

out of reclaimed wood that offers storage along the base with crates.

But that's down the road a bit.

So I moved the room around, 

and the photos show the new configuration.

Job done.

Except...

I was left unsupervised alone. 

So I ripped up a section of the carpet.

After ripping up the section, 

I texted Big E to see if he minded if I rip up the carpet.

I find it's easier to do it, see if the other person thinks it's okay

and either carry on with what you were doing, 

or ask forgiveness and carry on with what you were doing.

Luckily, he didn't care.

But at that point, I knew there was adhesive on the floor.

Once again, someone thought gluing a carpet to a hardwood floor 

was a good thing to do.

It's not people.

Don't do it.

So I started scrapping with a little putty knife.

The process seemed a little easier than the dining room floor.

I think it's because the carpet that was glued to it had been gone a while

(the one in the dining room was still the one that was glued down),

and a bedroom doesn't have the same foot traffic as a dining room.

I decided it would be best to cut strips of the carpet,

and only work on small sections at a time.

This keeps the ugly, messy, dirty adhesive covered floor covered

while I work in small sections.

Plus it's easier to get rid of small sections of carpet and padding than to

coordinate the disposal of an entire giant room sized piece of carpet.

I also went to the local hardware store and purchased a couple of alternate tools.

One is a paint scraper (which I need for other stuff) and one was a 5 in 1 paint tool

that has a chiseled edge on it. 

It's also stiffer than a putty knife.

So far, I've used these 2 tools (mostly the 5 in 1 tool),

and I haven't needed to use any Goo Gone at all.

And they seem to be better at not gouging the wood.

  I started working along the wall that the wardrobe will eventually live.

When the wardrobe is large and heavy, 

I think it's best if it can stay where it is until it absolutely must be moved.

So the floor will be scraped, and the wardrobe can stay put until we're ready to renovate the walls

and refinish the floors.

Big E thought working in sections was brilliant,

which I am it is.

And I really like the look of the new floors.

The color is better than the color downstairs, 

and I think it's going to look awesome in a room with sage green walls

and woodsy/rustic/outdoorsy elements.

And in case you want to see what we went through in the dining room, 

you can check it out here and here.

Guess What's Happening!

It's time to say buh-bye! to the kitchen floor.

Part of me is still a little sad about not being able to salvage the hardwood,

but the larger part of me is happy to see the plywood

disappear. 

Where the Hardwood Ends

My biggest dilemma so far has been how to save the kitchen hardwood floor.

In the photo, you can see where the original house ended 

and the new house began.

So far, the consensus was that the floor joists in the newer section

were higher than the original joists to make the subfloor even

with the hardwood.

This meant that no new hardwood could be added

because any new floor would not be even with the existing floor.

We had plans to cover the floor with tile, 

but I just couldn't bear to do it.

However, I'm now 99% sure that the consensus is wrong.

We noticed that the bathroom floor is lower than the kitchen floor.

Both are part of the newer section

and if the joists had been made to be higher, the bathroom floor should be the same height

as the kitchen floor.

So I did some poking in the basement, 

and I'm pretty sure

(with my limited know-how) 

that the joists are even and the plywood was added so linoleum could be laid over the hardwood.

This means that we can keep the hardwood we have

 and add hardwood to the newer section to make one big hardwood floor.

I won't know for sure until we pull up the plywood to have a look,

but I'm hopeful!

Dining Room Floor

Here is the dining room floor

after scraping all the adhesive off

and cleaning up all the mouse poop, mouse carcasses 

and the old ceiling tiles.

There is a large stain over by the windows that will hopefully 

be sanded out.

My husband thinks something was spilled there at one time, but

I'm pretty sure there might have been a dead body there back in the day.

It isn't the most attractive floor, 

but it's usable until we're ready to rent the sander and refinish the floors in the downstairs.

We peeked under the carpet in the hallway upstairs and discovered

it too has adhesive.

Luckily, we know what to do and use.

I'm not being compensated for telling you how great Goo Gone is, 

so believe me when I say, this is the way to go.

We tried another, harsher, adhesive remover

that was recommended by a salesperson at a large hardware type store.

We took it home, 

had to open all the windows and turn on fans just to prevent us from dying from the fumes

and then read that is can't be used on more than 1 square foot of area

and can't be used on floors.

Plus, in the area we used this other product in,

the finish was taken off the wood.

Goo Gone has a nice citrusy smell

did the job

and didn't remove any finish.

Also, it takes off Christmas Tree sap.  

So if you're faced with the daunting task of removing adhesive from carpet, 

go with Goo Gone and a scraper and some elbow grease.

The Evils of Flooring

Our flooring removal extended beyond the living room.

The next carpet on the chopping black was the dining room carpet.

When we removed the living room carpet, 

we revealed gorgeous 100 year old hardwood floors

with minimal amount of wear.

What would the dining room reveal?

It revealed that someone actually glued, 

yes, GLUED,

carpet to the 100 year old floor.

The end result was a sea of black padding

stuck to glue

stuck to the hardwood floor.

Personally, 

I think whomever decided back in the day 

that gluing anything to hardwood was
the best way to go

should be strung up and whipped.

Our only option was to scrape off the adhesive.

I'll share more on that process later.

We also needed to remove the linoleum in the kitchen.

I had peeked under the linoleum in places and knew

the hardwood was under that too.

Unfortunately, 

the hardwood did not extend the entire length of the kitchen.

As it turns out, the original foot print of the house

ended where the plywood subfloor starts.

So the area where my husband is standing is all part of an addition.

There is a header beam in the ceiling that confirms this.

So, even though the hardwood in the kitchen is in really good shape

(better than the living room)

We can't use it.

The new addition's flooring was made to be level with the existing floor

so to try to add hardwood to match would be impossible as it would be higher than the existing floor.

So, we're back to the original idea of the black and white tiles.

I can't even tell you how upsetting it is for me to cover this floor

(especially after complaining about other people doing it). 

But the addition left us no other alternative.

(Unless I convince my dad or my husband that we should pull up the old flooring, lay subfloor and put tiles on that and save the hardwood for another project- like using it to make a kitchen counter top.  But My chances of that are slim to none)

The Living Room

This is the living room in all its glorious 1972 red carpet splendor.

Back in 1972, I'm sure this was all the rage-

not so in 2015.

My husband and I were pretty sure that there was 100 year old hardwood under all that red.

Question was, what kind of shape was it in?

So we began pulling it up.

This is the padding underneath-

a good sign as it appeared that the carpet was installed using tack strips and not glue.

Voila`! 

Gorgeous 100 year old hardwood floor.

There were a few worn areas, 

but we plan to sand and refinish all the hardwood in the future.

For now, it's usable- once the tack strips and staples are removed.

I jumped on removing all those tack strips right away.

I'm notorious for stepping on nails

(I even once spent time in he hospital because of stepping on one)

and I had already stepped on a tack.

So I broke out the trusty hammer and putty knife and got to work.

I also had my trusty helpers.

The Brat Child helped me for about 10 minutes then asked for a 15 minute break-

he never came back.

Chunk the kitten was more interested,

but a lot less help so he eventually was banished.

It only took a day to get everything removed.

We're moving onto the dining room

and eventually the kitchen 

and then we'll give everything a good scrub down with some Murphy's Oil Soap.