Day 3: Upstairs de-carpeted!

Well I can't say that I expected we would have progress to report on Day 3. In our efforts to figure out what's going on with the upstairs floors, we did a bit more exploring beyond Friday's poking about in a bedroom closet. I'm thrilled to report that the verdict of "no buried hardwood on the second floor" has been overturned!

Realizing that we don't have any photos of the rooms up yet (house tour coming soon!), here's a shot of the carpet that covered the three bedrooms and the hallway upstairs.

See gross thin carpet in the front bedroom. Also note the awesome built in drawers!

Our "bit more exploring" became "let's pull out the carpet," under which we found a foam underlay that has basically disintegrated into dust. The shop vac (which we picked up used - a bargain at $20!) made quick work of that.

Should it be possible to remove flooring with a vacuum? Probably not.

That clean-up revealed the next layer of flooring: green, beige, and black vinyl tiles stuck to masonite boards with mastic adhesive. Indications are that these are asbestos-type vinyl tiles so the dust masks are staying on, despite the discomfort and strange spearmint scent.

Despite how lovely the vinyl was compared to the carpet, the pry bar in Garrett's hand was calling and next thing I know, there's hardwood in the hallway! The masonite is attached to the hardwood with ring nails so it's kind of a pain to get off because we don't want to damage the hardwood any further. We're just lucky there wasn't any adhesive put right onto the hardwood... although we won't be so lucky with the stairs.

Any thoughts on what type of wood this is? (Current candidates: maple and oak.)

Some of the vinyl in the closet was sitting on plywood instead of masonite - no idea why. This may explain Friday's verdict. The tile Garrett pulled up was in a closet sitting on mastic-covered plywood boards which we mistook for tongue and groove flooring. Lesson: don't extrapolate from a single data point.

So the hallway and front bedroom have been de-vinyled with the other two bedrooms still waiting for their hardwood reveal.

Pulling up the vinyl tiles and masonite.	Check out that beautiful hardwood!

It's certainly not pristine. The ring nails have left hundreds of tiny holes but we think a refinish will bring it back to its full glory. We've been told about some floor refinishers who sand the floors, collect the dust and mix it with a sealant, slap that all back onto the floor to fill the holes and gaps, and then re-sand. Add that to the list of things to do before moving in - scheduled for the end of March.