More Kitchen Excitement

[sraun]

We discovered that we had what looked like a nice hardwood floor under our 70's-era vinyl tile. The professional refinisher came by today and gave us an estimate (thanks lsanderson & mizzlaurajean!) - the end result is he starts refinishing the floor on Monday!

It's a nice 1+" wide, ~3/4" thick, tongue & groove maple hardwood floor. There was this wonderful 70's era linoleum tile and wallpaper. The wallpaper is gone, the tile goes this weekend. He'll sand the last of the adhesive up (it's mostly coming up with the tile, there's a very thin film left), and then seal the floor. Over that goes two coats of water-based polyurethane. I'll try to remember to take pictures while it's in process next week.

This means that this weekend we have to take the refrigerator and range out of the kitchen. We're going to move them into the dining room. The gas range we'll just disconnect and live without. The refrigerator we'll plug in in the dining room. And we'll find someplace in the living room or dining room to plug in the microwave. And that's what we'll use for a kitchen for two weeks.

Fortunately, he says I'll be able to walk across the kitchen floor in my stocking feet each morning - that's nice, it means I'll be able to take a shower! We will have to keep the dogs out of the kitchen completely next week. That will be exciting.

Comments

[technomom]

Hardwoods - yay!

I cannot understand what would possess anyone to cover nice hardwood floors with carpet, much less linoleum - but I've seen it done, too.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

Well, circa 1970 the finish used on hardwood floors wasn't really up to the sort of messes you get in the kitchen. The finish was fragile and soft--you couldn't even use a broom on it, only a dustmop, otherwise you'd scratch it--and it was easily water-stained.

Scott, you are sooo lucky. I took up the carpet at my old house and found wide heart-pine, but it had been painted green and patched with plywood. Gah. Maple? In good condition? It doesn't get much better than that!

[jennlk]

Wood floors were declasse in the 50's, 60's and 70's. You had wood floors because you couldn't afford linoleum or carpet. Wood floors in the kitchen were a real problem, because there really wasn't a way to finish the wood so it wouldn't soak up every tiny little spill without making it really really slippery.