Pop goes the nail!

Today was carpet removal day.  I was quite excited, since I knew tearing out the carpet and pad would be exciting.  The chore would allow me get a look into the house's past and tell some of it's story.  My floors certainly had a story to tell.........I was not disappointed.

The day began with yet another trip to Home Depot.  I'm becoming quite the regular there.  At some point soon waiting to hear the staff shout 'Larry!" as I walk in, much like the gang at Cheers used to do when Norm would walk through the door.

My friend are the greatest, and I was fortunate that I had two help with tearing out the carpet.  A thousand thank yous to Lucinda and Autumn.  Lucinda and I began in the front bedroom.  I cut the carpet and she rolled and taped it up.  Once we got the floors exposed it was obvious that they would need to be refinished.  The floor had what looked like a huge discolored square stained into the wood.  We came to the same conclusion......there had been an area rug laying in that spot.

Here are a few before and during shots of the carpet and pad removal.

carpet

carpet

pad

Staples, tack strips, and dirt....YUCK!

The after shots.....

Long before I closed on the house, I  read that pulling staples from hardwood floors is the bane of any homeowner renovating after carpet removal.  True dat!  It's tedious work, but once I got a system going, the work went by quickly.  I found that if I use the point of a putty knife I could pry up several staples, then grip and pull with needle nose pliers.  Larry 1 - Staple 0.  Removing the tack strips was not as hard as I thought it would be.  Again, it's all about finding a system that works for you.  To protect the wood planks, I used a 4" putty knife to wedge under the strip in front of the nail, then hammered the pry bar under the nail and pushed down on the bar.  Pop goes the nail!  I found that I would often have to do the same in the spaces between the nails as well.  

The video will show the system that works for me....

While I removed the staples and tack strips in the front bedroom, Autumn worked on the second bedroom.  She also discovered the same mysterious, square stain on that floor too, in addition to wht remained of someone's sloppy spackling job on the floor.....BONUS!!

After a much deserved break, Autumn and I were ready to tackle the living/dining area.  Autumn was raring to go.  I almost had to hold her back from discovering what new mysteries lay beneath the carpet.  I think she thought she was Magellen or Vasco de Gama.  I on the other hand, felt a bit more like Coronado, searching for the elusive El Dorado......or in my case pristine hardwoods.  I had already resigned myself to the fact that the floors would have to be refinished, that was a non-issue at this point.  However, I was keeping my fingers crossed, that there would not be a mammoth piece of plywood in the center of the room.  

What we discovered told a story of the house's past.....marks showing where the old walls once stood.  

Careful studying of the wall marks jogged my memory of the Sears Starlight home advertisement I read on the interwebs.  The Starlight home was one of their mail order homes in the 1920's.

Source:  http://www.searshomes.org/index.php/tag/the-starlight/

If, and that's a BIG if, my house is a Sears house, at some point in the past one of the former owners flipped the floor plan.  My dream would be to take the floor plan back to the original, but my money tree didn't make it through the winter.  I do find it very interesting to see the old wall marks.

My next step is to get quotes to have the floors repaired and refinished, as my ultimate goal is to keep the original floors.  Should repair and refinishing turnout to be over budget or impossible, the nuclear option is to cover over the floors with new hardwood or engineered hardwood.  Only time and quotes will tell.

I cannot say thanks enough to Autumn and Lucinda for their help and conversation!  Thank you ladies!

Tune in soon for more of my adventures......