Saga of a floor

All week we've been crossing our fingers, hoping we could salvage the old floor.  There were many reasons why we doubted this, most having to do with how we could get down there without damaging it; some having to do with wondering what condition it might be in.  

Here is an update, how it began and where it stands today:

Dad began working on the floor Sunday and has been "busy at it", non-stop, since then.

Until this morning, we didn't know if we would be able to salvage the old, original floor, having no idea what we would find.

Dad begins: here he is removing the white tiles and you can see the ugly, brown linoleum underneath.

 The room was completely emptied by Monday and all the brown linoleum removed by Tues.
 What you see here is the underlay of that linoleum, which remained glued to the subfloor.  By Wed. the brown linoleum was gone.  Dad "accidentally" discovered how to remove the glued paper: water left on the paper dissolved it in no time, allowing Dad to simply pull it up with no effort. The removal was done in sections; time consuming but effective!

 Yesterday Johnny came over to help move the radiator.  You can see the old wallpaper that was left behind :)  At this point, Dad decided to expose the old floor. This done, he could measure exactly how deep to set his saw to remove the entire subfloor.  The floor under the radiator is a mess but no reason to believe that the entire floor is in equally bad shape.

Early this morning Dad set out to remove all the glued paper ~ some still remained in entry hall and this room ~  as Johnny is coming over to help take up the entire old subfloor. But Dad took up this section and this is what we saw.  It's old and distressed but sound!
The tedious job now is to remove the thousands of staples used to attach the subfloor.  Dad had Andrew on board to help with this but realized that each section has to be done when exposed as the staples are very pliable and easily bent if walked on.

Johnny has arrived!  Now it's a matter of getting all the subfloor off and removing all those staples.  Assuming the floor is a go (and Johnny will know this), we sand, stain and finish!

Dad remarked last night that we still don't know the condition of the floor in the kitchen. If it can't be salvaged, we will tile it.   For now, though, we need to get this eating area done.  I don't know how long it will all take but I DO know that Dad is going to be happy and relieved to get outside again ~ his job on this floor almost completed.

Dad and I have an appt. with Bob, our kitchen guy, tomorrow.  We received his designs earlier this week and now have a better idea at what we're going to be doing.  We have to decide on cabinets and drawers; final placement of sink and dishwasher; counter and backsplash, etc.  One definite change is the microwave.  In one design, Bob placed it on the counter opposite the stove, in between the cabinets.  This gives plenty of wiggle room to make final decision on the open shelves and cabinet/drawers where the microwave now sits.  That design, btw, was so nice!  A HUGE difference in that section of the kitchen.  Also, the cabinet above the pass-through window (to left of stove) will be replaced by a shelf so that I can display my "pretties" (as in the plates that will no longer be placed below the kitchen window.

Once we've decided on kitchen hardware, we wait 4-6 wks. until everything is delivered.
And as soon as the floor in the eating area is finished, big appliances will be moved into that area and demo can begin.

We'll be without a kitchen for quite some time.  Thank God for crockpots!


PS : 2 hrs. after I posted, I walked into the room and saw this.  Had to add it :)

Staples headed for the trash

View from entry hall into eating area.