Requiem for a New Project

Let it be known to all who care and the many more who don't, that on this day, in this house, we started remodeling the Entry Way.

This project will continue for an unknown amount of time and then about two months beyond that. As with all our other projects that we have completed, we don't know what we getting into here or how it is going to take shape. And like the other projects we have completed, we only know that it will be better than it was.

As an overview, I can tell you that the scope of the project entails remodeling our entry way and staircase. We have already done some work on the staircase. Work to be done there involves sanding the pads and risers down to bare wood, re staining and varnishing the pads and risers, and painting the wanes coating along the stairway as well as the balusters.

The entry way involves removing two sub floors and linoleum and then depending on the condition of the hardwood upon which the sub floors where stupidly placed, re staining it or replacing it.

Let's start with some pictures.

What you see above is a collage of the entryway from various angles. I think it appropriately displays the linoleum floor that we despise. The picture in the middle on the left shows the hardwood floor in the Living Room and the lip the becomes the linoleum. It does not show it well but that lip is a sub floor with a layer of linoleum. And then, someone came along and decided that the first layer of linoleum was not enough so they put down ANOTHER sub floor and linoleum which is what we have now throughout the main floor, except for the Living and Dining Rooms.

We believe that the hardwood extends under the linoleum from the front door all the way down to the kitchen.

And so, the plan for today was to take my circular saw and cut panels out of the floor that were deep enough to penetrate to the second sub floor but not the hardwood.

A quick aside now on me and my tools. I spend as much time looking for tools as I do actually using them. I'm trying to get better but I have too many places to put things.

Today, I went out to collect the tools I expected we would need and I found them all in the first place I looked for them. That is a very big deal to me. And a huge time saver!

And so, I went to work on the task of cutting the panels. The blade on the saw was quite dull. I was not so much cutting as I was melting. This created a great deal of smoke which quickly set off the smoke detectors. It's good to know they work. It also created this wonderful cloudy effect throughout the house that was best exemplified in the Dining Room.We quickly determined that the best way to proceed was to completely pull up the first sub floor and then see what we had underneath. The floor came up pretty easily and we had the whole thing up in about an hour and a half. We also had a tremendous dusty mess. As I type, Susan is downstairs with her birthday present, vacuuming away.The really really great news that we learned upon working on the second layer is that they did not glue the sub floor to the hardwood. They used plenty of glue on that top layer and it was a bitch to get up in a few places. Fortunately, the hardwood floor was protected by the other layer of floor so we could be pretty rough with our pry bars. And it is clear from the above picture that neither layer of linoleum is especially pleasing. I know that times and tastes change but why one would cover hardwood floors is hard to understand. But again, I am thankful they had the fore site to not cover the hardwood with glue.The photo above shows just a little of the original hardwood floor. You can see that it is in pretty good shape. The other really really good news we learned is that the original sub floor they put down was press board which crumbles very nicely under a bit of pressure from our pry bar. Susan used a small flat pry bar and I used a stiff putty knife.

The bad news is that what they saved in glue they made up for in nails and staples. We have quite a job ahead of us. Chipping away at the sub floor a little bit at time and then pulling staples and nails is tedious and time consuming. By the time I am done pulling staples, I expect to end up with enough metal to forge a gun and shoot myself.

It will be interesting to see how much we complete in the week to come. Starting Thursday morning, we will be out painting windows for the Holidays. That will consume all our time for the next couple of weeks. We never plan these projects very well.With all that being said, we are very pleased with the results of our first day. We are thrilled to learn that the hardwood looks salvageable. The alternative if the floor looked pretty torn up was going to be expensive. The tricky part is going to be refinishing it and doing it in a way that creates a smooth transition from the hallway to the living room.

And so in closing, I would like to give a trash talking shout out to Mike and Steve at the Muzzy Mansion. What have you guys done lately?!