We Can Only Go Up From Here.

You know how they say things have to get worse before they get better?  Well, I found an exception.  It ("It" being the floors) really doesn't get any worse than this.

That's why I was sooooo excited to get started ripping them out on Saturday.  Normally, we could have laid the new floors right over them, but there were two reasons we couldn't do that here.  First, patches of the floor were missing, so we didn't have a level surface.  Second, we knew that some of the sub-floor needed to be replaced(because it felt soft underfoot), and we wanted to inspect all of it.

While Pat took Madison on a grocery run like the Super-Dad he is, I got started by ripping out the quarter-round trim around the cabinet bases. 

Then I found a good starting point for peeling the linoleum and got crack-a-lacking.  Or whatever you call it.  For your viewing pleasure, I've included all three layers of linoleum.

Layer 1:

 Layer 2:

 Layer 3:

 Layer three is so damaged in the above picture that you really can't tell what it looked like. Here it is in another location.

Once I ripped up all three layers of linoleum, I was left with this (treated? adhesive covered?  blackened for no apparent reason?) wood.

 It came up in decent sized chunks, which I hauled out the back door for later disposal.  Actually, we'll just be sneaking bits of it into our regular trash pickup.  It will probably be gone by March 2013.  

 The Pampers box was especially useful for the tiny scraps that peeled off along the way.  I hate construction (demolition?) mess.

An hour later, I had removed all but the most stubborn bits of backing.

 As I mentioned before, we expected to have to replace a good portion of the sub-floors.  Thankfully, there wasn't as much damage as we expected.  We marked the places that needed to be replaced, measured, and then Pat headed off to Home Depot to buy the lumber, plus a few other materials we knew we would need more of. 

 Once Pat got back home, he cut out the bad patches and ripped out that top layer.

 Once we cleaned up that mess, we were left with this.

 Pat caulked the edges to prepare for the next step: leveler. 

 Here's the floor all prepped for the leveler.  Or so we thought. 

 It turns out you have to use primer to prep the surface to accept the leveler.  And the primer has to dry overnight.  Meaning we couldn't apply the leveler until Sunday after church.  Meaning we wouldn't get to install the tiles that weekend.  Meaning we wouldn't have a working stove until at least the following Sunday.  After we absorbed that discouraging news, we read the instructions for the primer and got to rolling.

 We set up the fan to blow out the minimal fumes.  It was very cold that night, so we worked as quickly as we could.

 Thirteen hours after I started on the floors, we were done for the night.  Sunday after church, Patrick started on the leveler while I played with Madison/annoyed him by making him pretend to work while I got pictures.

 The leveler was about the consistency of runny pancake batter.  I would have been really nervous to do this step, but Patrick's pretty experienced with concrete-y type things. 

 The leveler spread into all the low places (of which there were many), creating a perfectly level surface.

 Madison supervised.

Once it was done, Patrick finally took a break,

during which he inadvertently let Bella out of the bathroom.  

 Since, as I mentioned, we are stoveless, we picked up some Little Caesar's.  And it was good.

 This is how the floors look for now.  Come quickly, Saturday!

 I can honestly say I think even this is an improvement over the before.  It doesn't look like leprosy, so that's a plus in my book.  Why, why, why, did we let that floor stay for so long?

Oh yeah, we're okay in the food department.  I went over to my mom's yesterday and baked a party-sized lasagna (healthy, no?) and made some beans and rice.  We'll be able to eat out of the microwave until Saturday.  Don't tell anyone, but I also brought the remainder of the banana pudding back from my mom's.  You know, for my potassium deficiency.  Health is first in the Philpot household!  I wonder what deficiency sweet potato pie would help me with...

What were you up to over the weekend?  Has Thanksgiving wrecked your diet(not that I'm on a "diet"), too?

-Kelli