Floored

The kitchen floor saga continues.
If Bob Vila was doing and episode of "This Old Farm" and someone had asked if this old kitchen floor could be saved, two days ago I would have said no...give up girl...go shopping for something to cover up that nightmare.
But today...the sun is shining...and the floor looks like something I just might be able to live with.
The journey to this point was long and arduous.
It consisted of peeling off all of the layers of old flooring - I won't go into that since I already posted about our escapades on the floor peel-a-rama.
Next up came...
sander rental, big...
but not big enough or mean enough...call it the sissy sander...
another sander rental and the meanest roughest sandpaper on the market...
two buckets of gap filler goop...
a palm sander for edges...
a random orbital sander to sand out the ruts and gouges from 100 years ago...
four batches of stain color trials...
first coat of stain...yuck
next coat of stain...uh ohhh...nooo likey!!!
fix it with the third coat of stain...
Hubby peeked in at it last night when I was close to finishing up the final coat of stain..he said "looks good hon"...it was like music to my ears. I think both of us thought this floor was probably more work than it would be worth...but neither of us wanted to spend a bunch of money on new flooring - since I was willing to tackle it he got out of the way, smart man that one ;)

This morning - - the floor looks decent. I think I'm ready to put on the first coat of sealer.
Unfortunately I don't think my knees will bend for me to get down there with a bucket and a brush.
I don't even want to think about how many hours I already have in this floor...and there are still several more to add to the tally.
Where the heck is that ibuprophen?

Tile Time

Okay...that was fun!
Here's a shot of the back entry - we couldn't decide what to put on the floor, I was a little obsessed with the possibility of the washer leaking - been there done that...too many times. I stumbled upon this flooring at the local home improvement store, it was really inexpensive and I was hoping it would match the other flooring - the colors were perfect! This weekend I decided to see if I could put it down...what a breeze, it was so easy I could hardly believe it - sometimes this home improvement adventure is just plain fun...and sometimes it's not... but we won't go there right now.
I don't know how long this flooring will last, but for right now I don't care...it's in....I love it...it was super easy - - - I'm happy ;)


And now for something pretty outside.
Goodness.
The magnolia is ready to pop...this is always my favorite stage of bloom,
this amazing promise of beauty

What's That Stuff?

The biggest challenge in the remod has been the kitchen floor...testing my patience I tell ya.
100+ years of flooring, one stacked on top of the other. I've had several people tell me it would be best if I just covered up the mess by adding another layer.
Uh uh.
The top layer was curling linoleum, and there were soft spots where the dishwasher and sink each had their little hissy fits over the years. There was no way I was going to stack my new cabinets over potential dry rot?
Dumb...approaching stupid.
So, we got busy. We're down to the original t&g fir flooring, lots of water damage but no rot. The base layer of linoleum was backed with tar paper that was stuck to the floor with some kind of adhesive - I was able to get that off with my favorite Jasco stripper. But the Jasco doesn't touch some kinda wierd gunk that was under the tar streaks..it looks like floor wax, or glue of some kind.
After a lot of internet research I thought a steaming process would take it off.
Nope.
Mineral Spirits?
Nope.
Paint thinner?
Nope.
Acetone?
Nope.
I talked to another know-it-all guy at another paint store and he asked me if I'd tried Denatured Alcohol...he was sure that would take it right off - so I bought it.
Nope.
Then I remembered that a friend had told me her husband had the same problem with the floor in their bungalow. He'd tried absolutely everything and then someone told him to use boiling water. I tried it...scrubbing with steel wool right after pouring on the water - - - it worked! The boiling water/steel wool scrub turns that gunk to muddy water. It's a really slow process and the water has to be boiling or it's a no-go.
I talked to that friend this week and asked her who told her hubby about the boiling water trick...he told her it was me.
Yikes.
I hate middle-age brain fog...I seem to have lost a few chunks of really good data.
If you find my data would you please be so kind as to send it to me?
Oh ya...and if you have a really old house with strange gunk on the original wood floors...try srubbing with boiling water first before you buy buckets of chemicals.

The Treasure Hunt

Oh. My. Goodnes.
I'm on a little remodeling break, this stuff isn't for sissies ...or for that matter fifty year old women with back issues. It's still fun, even through a haze of muscle relaxers and pain killers...better remodeling through chemistry.
I keep looking for treasures, for that wedding ring of Carolines that was lost more than forty years ago, anything! There was a newspaper from July 27,1961..it was stapled into the soffit in the kitchen - that was fun to look at...coffee was 69 cents a pound. It's obvious that every farm family that lived here over the last 110 years was on a shoestring budget, nothing was wasted, this old house was built sturdy but without any frills. The remodel from 1961 gutted the kitchen and changed the footprint from what I can tell. I was told that in the late sixties they blew in insulation...well...they did that on the north side of the house, but not a spec on the south wall...I guess insulation was considered a frill. Bare studs, not a spec of fuzzy stuff anywhere - unless you count spider webs...no wonder my heating bills cause choking and gasping every winter.
I've taken little snapshots of all of the different wallpaper samples...some are pretty...others...not so much.
But last night while we were peeling back layer after layer of linoleum, sub floor, plywood and tar paper...I found this flooring.
I like it!

I wish I knew the stories of the families that lived here before me...because I think I would like the lady that chose this flooring for the living area.
I can't help but wonder who she was and how she spent her days.
These are the things I think about while I'm crouched on the floor with my nail puller and pry bar.