More floors!

2/19/2006 – Oh the joys of rehab! I spent a lot of time ripping up the underlayment in the upstairs landing. Kevin bought a new tool to try since the roofing shovel didn’t work like we hoped. It’s a short, thin pry bar with the flat end for pounding. I wedge the thin end between the wood floor and the underlayment, hammer it in, then lift up the underlayment. It’s very slow going.

This picture really shows a lot. Notice the roll of carpet, then under that was a carpet pad. Next, the gray and pink linoleum squares, followed by a paper underlayment! Finally we have the plywood, which was just a bear to remove. I'll give them credit for securely attaching it to the floor!

2/27/2006 – There’s been a whole lot of ripping and tearing during the past week, and a whole lot more to be done. Getting up the floor has been a nightmare. We have the landing and NW bedroom completed done, and the NE bedroom started. The special roofer’s shovel, along with the regular crowbar and the thin pry bar have been the tools of choice for Kevin and his dad, who came out to help earlier in the week. After they pry off the underlayment, someone has to go in and pull nails. The two bedrooms on the north side, plus the SW bedroom have what appear to be the original wood floors. The landing and SE bedroom have tongue and groove underlayment for flooring.

We have officially knocked down our first wall! We took out the dividing wall between the hallway closet and the NW bedroom. It was a double wall of tongue and groove boards. It has been up for a long time, because it had the old square-headed nails, but we’re not sure it was always there. We found a very small piece of wallpaper, with a narrow border, up near the ceiling under the wall. It’s probably the very first paper on the house so we’ll try and pull it off and save it. It’s very dark brown with an orange line running through it. The plaster is a real mess.

I reserved the dumpster for another week because we clearly have a lot more “deconstructing” to do.