Bye, Bye, Floors!!!

This morning I made another off-the-side-of-the-road pick-up!  I had noticed them two days ago but just didn’t have the time to give them.  I saw mums!  The retirement community behind my current house had thrown out several mums, and I quickly called Mom to see if they were perennials or annuals.  Of course, she said they could be both!  Ha!  But the price was right!

A pile of mums on the side of the road!

So I picked up six mums!  If they die, they die.  If they live, what a deal!

Going to their new home!

Today was a big day as I had a couple of flooring installers come by to give me quotes.  My first one earlier this week bid me at $2/square foot (a great price), but I am not sure on his work ethic or quality.  I need to visit a place that he has done (he just got done with a massive tile project at Hooter’s).  J  The second guy came over from the flooring store this morning, and much to my surprise, he stayed for over an hour!  I was expecting 20 minutes!  But he was meticulous in his measuring!  He said he wouldn’t (couldn’t) give me a quote until I made a flooring choice.  I found that odd.

The third guy came over and basically said that he was too busy to do mine currently but was more than happy to help me do it myself.  He said he would help get me started and even volunteered to help for a bit to show me how easy it can be to do it.  While I want to take him up on that, I quite literally just don’t have a week that I can give to the project!  But he saved me in a big way.  He’s the only one that caught it out of the three so far, but he showed me that my kitchen floor laminate is over linoleum (we ALL knew that) which is over ¼-inch plywood (no one knew that!).  He confirmed it by removing the air register and showing me the layers.  The previous two installers said they might just install over the linoleum, but now I realize that the floor is going to come up completely!  I can rip up the entire linoleum floor, too!  Perfect!  Thanks, man!

This afternoon I installed the light fixture over the formal dining room, and I couldn’t be happier.  It was EXACTLY what I was looking for.  It matches the light as you walk in the home, and I think it gives the formal dining room exactly what it needs:  formality!  I don’t regret the no ceiling fan decision one bit.  I wish I could say that it went smoothly, but that's just not the case!  I spent over an hour on this project...as I got it all put together only to realize I forgot to weave the wires through one of the nuts to hold the ceiling mount on.  Agh!!!  Oh, well, such is life!

Bye, bye, ceiling fan!  And just for fun, ANOTHER picture showing why I painted my ceilings!

The new light fixture.

The old dated ceiling fan.

Changed to a formal light fixture!

I think my favorite part is the "flow" of the rooms now.  When you walk in the front door, your eye sees the new ceiling fan in the living room, the new hanging light fixture in the entryway, and the new matching hanging light fixture in the dining room!  It just flows!  I LOVE it.

The new entryway fixture just didn't mesh with the old gold dining room ceiling fan.

But now they flow together!  Two different fixtures but of the same family!

Before I lost daylight, I decided to head outside and plant my new mums!  I'm not sure they are going to live (I didn't water them), but here's to hoping!!!  Free is free!

My mailbox before...

And after!

In the backyard before...

And After!

Then I decided to tackle the kitchen floor.  I have quickly learned from the bids that the more work I can do myself, the more money I save.  And we are talking hundreds of dollars, sometimes for very little time.  For example, removing laminate floor may cost $1.10/square foot by the installer.  Well, my 200-square foot kitchen could be pulled up by myself in an hour.  I will work for $200/hour all day long!  So it’s equally frustrating (if they charge me $200/hour for this, what ELSE are they over-charging me for?) and encouraging (as I said, I’ll work for $200/hour!) at the same time.

So that’s just what I did.  I started removing the laminate floor.  I tried to be as cautious as I could with the pieces in order to resell them, but with difficult pieces under trim, I honestly had no problem with just breaking them up.  It’s no loss to me.

The laminate "hardwood" floor in the kitchen.

Getting ready to be ripped up!

The water leak under the fridge.  I was hoping the damage was limited to the luan board under the linoleum.

Starting to pull up the laminate.

Another reason for smells in the house.  So happy I started to pull up the floor.

Mold, mold, everywhere!

And sure enough, I had the floor up in about an hour.  Several things I learned here:  this house is filthy.  The pet odor is mostly gone from the home, though occasionally I get whiffs from certain locations.  It’s never consistent.  But the kitchen was one area.  Well, as I ripped up the laminate floor, guess what I found!  Oodles and oodles of dog hair.  Seriously, pet-owners, I know you love your pets, but your house is gross.  No matter how clean you think it is, it’s gross.  The amount of hair underneath one of the trim pieces was just absolutely disgusting.  NO WONDER this house still smells of dog.  I could create a dog with the hair!

Look at all that dog hair underneath a trim piece!!!  GROSS!!!

Second, removing laminate is not hard.  Third, I kind of like the brighter look of the white linoleum.  Now, the linoleum itself is gross and dated, but the kitchen brightened up after removing the hardwood.  That has got me thinking about tile now instead of hardwood…hmm…

Look at that 1991 linoleum!

Oddly enough, though, the kitchen started to brighten as I removed the wood!

A bright white (actually an incredibly dull, white, and faded) floor!

Fourth, this house is filthy.  I know I said it first, but it’s so filthy, it needs to be said again.  Look at the stove after I pulled it out!  I can count at least five different meals PLUS dog hair in there!  Disgusting.

Where the carpet met the kitchen floor.  Do you want YOUR kids crawling around on this floor?!

Mmm, lovely.  After pulling out the stove.

I can count five meals in there!  Plus dog hair!

Dirt, hair, food, dog play toys, beer bottle cap.  This house is GROSS.

Filthy!

Fifth, this house has major water damage.  It’s all over.  In the kitchen, I knew about the place in the ceiling, but after ripping up the laminate, you can see mold and mildew (again, more smells hopefully being removed) underneath some of the planks, especially underneath the refrigerator.  The good news is that hopefully it’s all kept to the ¼-inch flooring and NOT the main floor, but we will see.

Some major water leak under the fridge.

Not sure if water damage or sun fading, but this is in the bay window area.

But all in all, it was a pretty easy job of removing the floor.  I will list the floor for sale for $75 online.  It's about 250-square feet.  Someone can get a nice wood look for cheap!  I tried to salvage the pieces as best I could.

Get yourself a new floor for cheap!

This evening was not so easy.  I decided to continue my theme of floor removal, and tonight I decided to tackle the entryway parquet floor.  I have NEVER been a fan of parquet floor (my current house had it in the entryway, bathroom, and kitchen), so it was time to go.  For time's sake, Dad graciously brought over a tool for ripping up the floor, and I desperately needed it.  Even with the tool, this is old-fashioned hard work.  The parquet floor is on top of luan which has hundreds of staples about an inch apart holding it down.  I could feel my lower back strain in the effort!

The entryway parquet floor.

Faded, worn, and just ugly!

Not pretty at all!

I tried to pry it up with a screwdriver, and it was stuck on stuck.

This was going to be work.

The wood parquet was glued down to luan which was stapled down to the subfloor.

But it was coming up!  As I worked, I figured out the best way to get the pieces up in big chunks.  One of the flooring guys recommended sawing the parquet into sections, but, meh, I wasn't having that.  Just pry, rip, and pull up!  Ugh, it was work!

The first big section removed.  I will forever remember the sounds of luan being pryed up!

Can't wait to modernize this area!

The floor is coming up!

The last piece of floor.  I took this as I felt like this made the house split up into three rooms.  Dining room, entryway, and living room.  I want more of a flow from room to room.

But all was not well in the floor removal process.  For I found another area of termite damage.  I knew they were in the garage, but now I see the first signs of damage in the actual home portion.  When I ripped up the parquet in front of the main door, I saw termite tunnels.  The termites and dead now, but their damage is not.  It's so bad I could take a screwdriver and push directly through to the crawlspace.  The floorboard is shot at the entryway door.  Agh, MORE unexpected expense!

Termite tunnels from the front entryway door.

Termite damage at the front door.

The wood is so soft I can stick a screwdriver through to the crawlspace!

Welcome to a foreclosure!!!

And to keep with the theme even more, I decided to tackle more flooring!  The previous owners had installed laminate flooring in front of the French doors in the living room, so I decided to rip those up, too.  It was very easy work.  Just minutes.  But what was exposed was even more water damage.  It appears that the door installation in this house was just simply done incorrectly.  The hunch from a contractor that came out is that flashing was never installed.  So all the water that gets by the siding from the outside comes straight into the house.  It's so frustrating!!!

The laminate in front of the French doors.

Removed to expose water damage about a foot in from side to side.

The water damage.  Complete with a prior floorboard replacement from guess what...water damage.  It's been an on-going issue obviously.

What shoddy construction!

I headed home but then headed back for one very important gamble.  My neighbor across the street has a dumpster in his driveway, and I wanted to see if he would be willing to take my flooring!  Sure enough, the gamble paid off.  I threw him $10 for the kind gesture.  So I was able to get rid of all of the front entryway floors!  Woo hoo!  But it's better than that.  He let me see his flooring project (all new floors), gave me his name and number (he used to be a head Habitat for Humanity contractor), and gave me the number of a flooring guy.  What is more, I invited him over to see the progress on the house, something he jumped at!  He was very encouraging on my progress!  It's so nice having fans.  :)  It turns out he has been in this house numerous times before (he was good friends with the previous owners), but he is very excited to see my work!  I also met his wife, and they are great!  Thanks, guys!

So I was able to get the entryway all cleared up!  I LOVE the flow of the room now!  It's so much more inviting...and that's just with floorboard!  ha!

The front entryway!  SO much better!

What a productive day!  I am tuckered!  The kitchen floor laminate is up, the parquet entryway floor is up, the French door laminate is up!  It's not quite coming together...it's more like coming apart!  But that is part of the process!

But wow, this is exposing some major issues...we will see what fixing that entails.

In some more exciting news, my painter has the dark green room no longer green!  yay!

The dark green is no more!

Next is ripping up the remaining kitchen floor!