Our little helpers! I made them put on glasses after I took the picture to protect their eyes. That’s when they quit!

We’re finally doing it! We are finally doing a home improvement project that has been in our heads for 7+ years. Next week marks the official start date for the contractor to demo and prepare everything for new flooring throughout the downstairs and a new tub and tile surround in the upstairs bathroom.

The dining room. A layer of floor leveling compound, luon and plywood were removed.

The past couple of months we have been doing exploratory demo. That’s a real thing when you live in a victorian house that is close to 200 years old. We knew that there were hardwood floors beneath the carpet and subfloors, we just didn’t know its condition. So, I chipped away at a corner in all the rooms to see if there was really anything worth uncovering. It was exciting until it wasn’t! I discovered that our dining room and living had hardwood floors just around the outside edges with the centers missing. I then found that the bedroom and office have pine wood floors that do not match the oak floors of the other two rooms.

The living room. A layer of carpet, permanent vinyl flooring, and some type of thick cardboard/paper like 3/4″ board was removed.

We were sad with our exploration but we weren’t discouraged. I could see potential with our findings.

The master bedroom. The carpet, permanent vinyl flooring, linoleum, and 4-6 layers of a 1948 Indianapolis Stars were removed.

The office. The carpet, permanent vinyl flooring, linoleum, and 4-6 layers of a 1948 Indianapolis Stars were removed.

The potential that I saw was not the direction that we started with. Years ago, I picked out shiny new pre-finished flooring because I was fearful of the unknown. What if we took the time to discover that there was nothing under the subfloors and we wasted our time and then new subfloors would have to be installed? Is this something we could do, or is it something that we should really hire someone to do? Knowing our limitations is one of the hardest parts of home remodeling. Then, if we hire someone, are they going to run their own agenda and not listen to what we want? How patient are they going to be when we change our minds or ask for something that seems impossible at first? So, I came to the conclusion that just going in a completely different direction would be best for us.

One last before picture of the dining room.

Then we met our contractor back in August.

I told her what we wanted and when she came back with a very detailed estimate and everything we talked about was in our budget, we were sold. Eric and I  looked at each other and said now that we have a contractor to work with what do we really want done.

One last before picture of the living room.

There was only one “must be done” element, our upstairs tub and shower surround needed to be fixed. Almost a year ago, during bath time the tile fell off the crumbling wall behind it. It was a bit bizarre and so not something we wanted to spend money on. So, we removed enough tile that backer board could be put up and we would address the issue later. Later, is now.

I had a few meetings with the contractor and lots of conversations with Eric about the floors and how to go about finding out what was underneath. With a little bit of courage after a conversation with the contractor and excepting that our house could or would be a hot mess for a few months, we started removing the carpet and subfloor. It was hard, but Eric worked to get it done. We were able to clean the floors enough and add rugs to hide the ugly and the house has only been a luke-warm mess.

Oh, the potential I saw with the floors. While removing the living room subfloor, my wheels were turning. I really liked the look of the original floors, and as we pulled the nails, screws and staples out, I kept falling more and more for them. Then, I got it. We could keep the existing and add a boarder detail, fill the center in to match the existing in the living room and the dining room we could feather in new planks that would smoothly transition into the kitchen. Easy, right? We just had to talk with the contractor and flooring guy to make sure it could be done and it can, that’s the plan, right now.

So, the upstairs bathroom, open up a wall in the kitchen, remove the closet in the master bedroom, match existing hardwood floors and add new flooring to kitchen, bedroom and office and re-wire parts of our house all made the cut for phase one.

The next two months are going to feel long at times and super exciting at others. We can’t wait to watch the changes happen. Wish us luck!

Happy renovations!

Jill

ps. I know your wondering why are you removing the master bedroom closet. We’ll get to that later!