Makeover Mondays

So I think I'm gonna make Monday's my official day to post on our re-models.  Since we've only started working on 2 of our many many rooms...it should last a very long time.  Haha!

For today...Our kitchen floor.

Wow.

I think the linoleum was original to the house.  It was filthy and no matter how hard I scrubbed...it just would not get clean.

Yuck.

So it had to go.

#1...I hate linoleum so we were definitely NOT putting anything laminate back in.  In the process of remodeling...we discovered wood floor.

Original wood floor.

Unfinished wood floor.

It was a miracle.  And I may or may not have jumped up and down.

So we ripped up the linoleum.  And this is what we found.

60+ year old mastic.  With tar underneath it.  Uh say what...?

Tar.

I was kinda in disbelief and may or may not have cried.  Yup...went from dancing and jumping to crying.  So yeah...we had to get the mastic up.  We read many many ways to get mastic off the floor.  And we tried 'em all.

First up?  Water.  We were told to put water all over the mastic and let it sit for 20+ minutes and then the mastic should just scrape right off...like putty.  Result?  Nuthin.  Other than a huge mess.

Second.  Let a mixture of water and vinegar soak on the mastic and then again...it should just scrape up like putty.  Result?  An even smellier mess.  It was pretty much disgusting.

Thirdly.  Mineral spirits.  Again...nothing.  Other than major fumes which really really smelled.  BAD!  I banished the Princess from the house when the Hub's was experimenting with that one.

It went from messy to messy and smelly to messier and smellier to downright disgusting.  So something had to change.  I was ready to throw in the towel and get some tile.  I was looking at slate tile and some pretty ceramic tiles and also the price of unfinished hardwood floor since I kinda had my heart set on it.  But then the Hubs found an article mentioning dry ice.  Now the Hubs has a hard time with dry ice.  It's one of those things he was just a bit afraid of buying.  Well, he's over it now.

So we put the dry ice on the mastic.  We let it sit for a minute and then he was able to scrape it off...

Just like this...

So he scraped the whole floor free of mastic.  It was some hard work.  But the tar didn't come off with the mastic.  After he was done scraping...it looked like this...

Um yeah...that's not happy.  Again...I started shopping for floor options.  Slate was looking better and better.  But the Hub's wouldn't have it.  He was determined to get it off so we paid a visit to our bestest flooring friend...

Yup...our favoritest floor sander.  We love this fella and even nicknamed him Handy Manny...or just Manny for short.  Here's another shot of the lovely floor...

Yup.  That's a pretty bad before.  I was absolutely sure it wasn't gonna work.  I just knew that it was not only a waste of time but a waste of money...I was trying to get the Hubs to just let it go but he was emotionally invested in the floor.  His blood, sweat, and tears (all quite literally) were in that floor.

So after all of that work and my doubting...the Hubs unveiled THIS!!!

Yes...I know it's still a little rough...but this is the floor, sanded down and unfinished.  I couldn't believe he was able to do it.  I was seriously in shock that it looked this good.  He went through the roughest grit of sandpaper oh...about 5 times and then all the other grits to make the finish nice and smooth.  Staining the floor is gonna be our last step.  Here's another shot...

You can see the corner where the window benches are going.  We were lazy and didn't scrape that corner.  It's just gonna be covered up with built-in window seats anyways...which is also why we didn't stress about the bead board going all the way to the floor.  Hee hee...

That picture also gives you a sneak of my tall wainscoting.  Isn't it beeeeeeautiful?  And the paint color is a bit green in that picture...which is odd.  It's actually not green at all.  More blue gray than green gray.  Weird.  Obviously we haven't put up the window casing or the crown molding yet...but it's just a sneak.  Hope you liked it!