The Floor pt 1

Remodeling, adapt and plan. The original plan was to skim-coat the linoleum and lay tile right on top of that. but after a lot of research the floor was too loosely attached to the floor for that plan. When the 1930's linoleum went in they glued a heavy felt paper down and then floated the linoleum sheet on top of that. Plan B was to tear out the linoleum and lay the tile on the existing subfloor. It was a happy day when we got certified asbestos free, I didn't have to wear a hazmat suit or get the blacklung. The linoleum came up super easy because it wasn't glued down; it was getting the felt paper up that was the problem because it was. With enough scraping the adhesive came off, but it wasn't worth all the effort. Plan C do a new underlayment.

With the old linoleum out we noticed the original floor was tongue and groove wood floors like we have in the upststairs. It was like an archealogy dig, remove a layer and try to figure out things were like back in the day. The location of the old kitchen cabinets (that are now in the mudroom) was filled in with rough pine boards. The old stairs from the second floor had been cover in drywall and plywood sheet, so that must have come out later. All the old wood shavings from when the planed the baseboards to the floors were stuffed in under the pantry cabinets. We found a few random items under the pantry. Sadly, the most frequently found item was an obituary cut out of the paper and the date written on it. Reminds me of the story from the artist Andy Goldsworth, he was walking around his small village in england and noted that he could name the families and the children born in each house. He related that story to an elderly woman who had lived in the village for many years, she replied that were he sees the people born in those houses she sees the deaths of those who lived there previously. Rebirth and perspective.

More painting

We really haven touched the kitchen. It was so dingy and dark that we avoided cooking. I think Molly was embarassed to have friends over it was so bad. The 70 year-old linoleum was so worn and cracked that sweeping just moved the dirt into the cracks, where it would stayed for all of 5 minutes. We hated the floor so much we'd put shoes on to walk in the kitchen. I haven't put on shoes to walk on a floor since college!
Thanks Dad for helping paint.

mudroom ceiling

The leaky mudroom roof caused the plaster to fail and then damaged all of the square ceiling tile they'd put up. I imagine this roof leaks kinda frequently because the 2 layers of ceiling were both damaged. It looks like we're living in squalor with this picture. The worst part was the shower of dust you got if the back door was slammed shut. This project pretty much spawned the whole kitchen redo...

The patched up ceiling tile. It looks better already and I haven't even fixed the walls yet.

It was your birthday.

I turned 33. I had some sweet brunch at Key's in the great White Bear Lake. Go Bears! This is my interpretation of what I would look like if we'd bought a house in the 'burbs. The hair is fake, but it's creepy right?

So Long Carpets, It's Been Good to Know Ya

They made great drop cloths. It sure was fun to figure out where all of Mr. Remick's furniture was based on the wear tracks. What wasn't fun was pulling out all of the carpet staples and scrubbing the carpet pad off the hardwoods.

Midway is the new Uptown

MPLS aint got nothin on StP.

Sensi-Temp

Pictures from the first non-box meal we cooked at the new homestead. Gotta love the Sensi-Temp dial on the 1962 General Electric oven. Apparently people in 1962 ate a lot of eggs, steaks, french toast, hamburgers, pancakes, sausage and WEINERS. HAHAHAHAHA. Maybe this is what's wrong this the modern diet, not enough weiners.