Dirty Jobs with S. S. or Money Pit or What We've Been Up To
Here's an excerpt from my weekly family letter that gives the run-down on our floors:
Initially, we were going to have the living and dining room floors refinished, plus add wood to the kitchen and have that finished as well. So we pulled up the wood laminate flooring in the dining room and the carpet in the living room this week. We discovered there is a very stubborn layer of old linoleum (with impossible-to-remove tar-like adhesive) on top of the wood. This adhesive is also known to have asbestos in it, so we had to be extra cautious working with it, putting up plastic barriers, using window fans, wearing a respirator, and showering immediately after exposure. Travis spent all day yesterday pulling up just the tiles. We had already spent several hours scraping away areas of the adhesive, trying various methods of getting it off. It was very slow going. I was discouraged. Then the floor refinisher came yesterday from Bend to deliver the wood for the project (it has to acclimate for at least two weeks) and once he saw the exposed wood in the dining room he said it is fir, not hickory like in the living room. So, with fir being a softer wood, and wanting to match the hickory that will be in the kitchen and living room, we decided to just rip up the whole dining room floor and put in new hickory. After looking at all our options and our budget, we decided do the living and dining room and wait to do the kitchen. In a few months when we can afford to do it, we'll have him come out again and do the kitchen. Phew. I am so glad I don't have endless nights of scraping ahead of me!
Initially, we were going to have the living and dining room floors refinished, plus add wood to the kitchen and have that finished as well. So we pulled up the wood laminate flooring in the dining room and the carpet in the living room this week. We discovered there is a very stubborn layer of old linoleum (with impossible-to-remove tar-like adhesive) on top of the wood. This adhesive is also known to have asbestos in it, so we had to be extra cautious working with it, putting up plastic barriers, using window fans, wearing a respirator, and showering immediately after exposure. Travis spent all day yesterday pulling up just the tiles. We had already spent several hours scraping away areas of the adhesive, trying various methods of getting it off. It was very slow going. I was discouraged. Then the floor refinisher came yesterday from Bend to deliver the wood for the project (it has to acclimate for at least two weeks) and once he saw the exposed wood in the dining room he said it is fir, not hickory like in the living room. So, with fir being a softer wood, and wanting to match the hickory that will be in the kitchen and living room, we decided to just rip up the whole dining room floor and put in new hickory. After looking at all our options and our budget, we decided do the living and dining room and wait to do the kitchen. In a few months when we can afford to do it, we'll have him come out again and do the kitchen. Phew. I am so glad I don't have endless nights of scraping ahead of me!
Above was when I looked like one of the cast members of Mary Poppins. Here's a description (again from my weekly letter) to fill you in on why:
We spent the week before last taking shingles and nails off the garage, then I cleaned them all up, hauling 3 loads of heavy shingles to the dump. I looked like a chimney sweep the whole time, black and dirt all over my face and arms---those shingles are dirty! Travis has been working on putting on the new metal roof to match the one on our house and he's 95% finished. It looks really good. He's only got some thin pieces of trim to put up and more screws to fully secure the roof and it's done.
I've also painted the inside of this house betwixt blog posts, so I'll have some before/after pictures of that coming soon!
1 comment:
Sarah, I'm always so impressed with your projects! Wow. That's a ton of work. I look forward to seeing the before and after pics from your painting too!
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