The wonder of wood!!!

I think the thing I like best about an old house is the wood floors.  I love the personality and charm that wood floors add to a home.  I do not mind the scratches.  I love how it feels to walk on wood floors. I love how it sounds.  The first real decision we made about this house was that we would put wood floors in as many places as we could.  That was a fact from the very  beginning.  We have a good friend who does the most beautiful wood floors, so we even knew who would install them.

Before the wood could go in, all the flooring that was in the house had to be ripped out. The carpet was no problem.  The linoleum in the family room and kitchen was an entirely different story.  I have never seen so many techniques tried for removal of flooring.  I am no expert, but even I could tell that it was near impossible.  The actual linoleum came out with some difficulty. It was the glue that was used underneath that gave the biggest fight.  They finally resorted to some sort of chemical that they poured all over the floor and let sit for some time. That did the trick.

Then there was the tiled entry way.  No big deal, just bang the heck out of it and the tile comes out.  NOT.  The tile did come out.  It was the underneath stuff that was quite content to stay right where it was.  But if you have the right tools and enough perseverance even the most challenging stuff has to eventually come out...and it did!  And finally it was time for the crew of wood floor peeps to arrive.  Oh happy day!!!

Later on they will hand scrape the wood and then finish it. The hand scraping will be an awesome touch as we have dogs.  You will not be able to tell what is an intended scratch and what is dog!