It's mine! Let's tear it apart!

I don't know what it is about going into 30 years of debt but it seems to drive people to do strange things.... Like tear apart the house they just bought.

  

First things first though... lets get rid of that stupid sign out front!

Ok... it took a little more effort than expected but I got it!

I asked all my friends about superstitions they had about new houses and I was instructed I needed to purchase a new broom, salt and bread....  I did.

Sully wanted to help..  

Then we got right into the project of the day which was to remove all the carpet (haha.... how naive we were).  We started with the steps because I figured that they had to be the easiest part (again... we didn't know better).

After some choice words and a lots of cutting and pulling and confusion we got the carpet off the stairs.

 And were greeted with rubber tread covers, tack strips, tacks, staples and foam..  oh the joy of home ownership!

 All better.. until we get the floors refinished.  At this point Becky decided the horrible tiles were no longer welcome and went to work.  Most came up fairly easy......

 Some required some persuasion in the form of heat from an AWESOME Ryobi adjustable temp heat gun Becky got me for Christmas.  

 Action Shot!

 All clean.. some residue decided it liked where it was and will remain there until the floor gets refinished in May.  

 Sully approved

 Then we said, "What about the living room?"

And I got to ripping up the threshold strip.. 

 Then more carpet.. 

 Then we discovered some hidden sins..  

 Unfortunately all that wood is gone...  Fortunately it was an old leak and after taking a look below I was able to confirm it was just the oak flooring and there was no damage to the subfloor.  That area will need to be patched when we have the floors refinished.  

 The rest of the carpet came up easy... albeit with tons of staples left in the floor.  

 After careful inspection Becky gave her approval.   

  Having found rot at both radiators we looked into the entryway closet to see if the floor was the same... 

It wasn't... it's pine.  Which means the flooring guy will have to work some magic.  Fortunately both patch spots are in corners and they can play around with the stain to make it blend better.  We may end up looking for some old boards from the local Re-Stores.  

Flowing hardwood makes the house feel so much bigger and much less stuffy.  

We'll tackle the rest of the carpet in future posts. Stay tuned!