We knew the carpet would come out of the living room and we eventually wanted to put new carpet back in, but won't be able to afford it right away. After we removed the carpet, the floors in the hallway and dinning room ended up being about a half inch (or more) higher than the living room. Apparently, somewhere along the line, plywood had been put down and then a fake wood veneer floor over it. After the carpet was removed, the fake wood floor looked even faker. I wanted to take the fake stuff and plywood off to see what was underneath, but was unsure if we should even try, because it would be a lot of work and the floor under the plywood might not be worth much.
However, a big deciding factor to go ahead and do it was a terrible happening for our niece, Emily. My sister and her family came over to see how we were doing and, in her excitement, Emily tripped on the lip of the hallway flooring that stuck up above the living room floor and hit her head on the steps, cutting a deep gash in her cheek. You can read the story on my sister's blog.
So, Monday the 24th (after Peter's 2-month well-child check-up) we tore up the dinning room floor.
Tuesday the 25th, we spent tearing up the hallway (we had several set-backs, including a broken tool that Jason used to pull up the zillions of nails holding the plywood to the hardwood flooring).
Wednesday the 26th, we continued to prep the hardwood floors for sanding by filling in holes, replacing some termite damaged boards in the dinning room, putting in a new landing to replace the pet-urine damaged original, and creating a better cover for an old cold air return hole in the hallway.
Thursday, the 27th, we were finally able to sand.
Today, Friday the 28th, we were unable to do any work on the house because Jason had to be at work today.
Tomorrow, Saturday the 29th, we hope to stain and urethane the floors. We won't be able to do anymore work on it after tomorrow until the following weekend, Labor Day weekend (Sept. 5-7).
(I also got a bit of miscellaneous work done by cleaning in the kitchen and getting a start to putting contact paper on the cupboard shelves.)
Here are pictures of the nearly week-long process:
It is looking better. We will have to come over soon so that Dan can see more of the house than the kitchen and living room! I don't think Emily holds any grudges about tripping. She described it as "I tripped on the little step and hit my face on the big step".
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Emily holds no grudges! :)
ReplyDeleteRachel