House Dicks

While removing linoleum tonight, we have uncovered some interesting evidence that has us supposing up a storm. We have turned into House Detectives trying to decipher the clues the floor has revealed. It raises all kinds of questions about the layout and subsequent changes that were made when the house was turned into two apartments...probably sometime in the 1940's.

We had this one little bit of linoleum to remove. If things went as well as last night, it would take no more than an hour and a half to get it up and cleaned up. We were on a roll.

As usual, the first layer of sub-floor came up quite easily. After removing the nails and staples, I went to work on the next layer. The first chunk of flooring I pulled up revealed a different floor. It was darker wood and similar to the floor that is runs through the upstairs. When I finally got everything up, it was clear that this darker floor continued into the TV Room, or what we believe was at one time a Receiving Parlor.
As we looked at the way it was laid out, it made no sense to us for the floor to suddenly become a different style in the middle of the hall. The picture to the left is one that I lamely stitched together from two photos to show the span from the floor to the ceiling.

Beyond the arch, there is a built in Linen Closet with drawers down below. We have surmised that this closet was an add on. The room originally filled all the space to the arch.

Behind the Linen Closet is another large closet that you access from that room. You can see it in the other lamely stitched together photo below that shows the other side of that wall.

It certainly explains the floor changing in the middle of the hall and it adds credence to our theory that there was once an entrance into the TV Room/Receiving Parlor from the front entryway.

Whatever the case may be, we are now very eager to do something that we have not made a priority of. That being finding the original plans for this house. The possibility exists that they are buried in some unknown long forgotten warehouse that the County has somewhere along with the Lost Ark of the Covenant.

I'm not sure where we go from here. I think we will begin working on the stairway. That involves sanding and sanding and then some more sanding only to be followed by more sanding with some sanding on top of that. Then, we will sand. If there is anything left of the stairs after that, we will sand.