Home Upset Home

[LadyKestrel]

I'm having new floors put in most of this 57-year-old house. I had a whole house inspection done a few months ago, not because I'm planning on moving, but because I didn't want any surprises to jump out and bite me in the future. One of the things the inspector found was delamination of the plywood holding up my floors, which I had suspected because of some bouncy and creaky spots. The original floors were dark oak but had been carpeted over by the previous owner. When we moved in 30 years ago, my husband took up the carpeting and put parquet in the front room. Although the bedroom floors weren't that great in spots, we covered most of the blemishes with area rugs. It's a mess right now, but I'm glad I decided to do it because so much of the underflooring is rotten and even moldy in spots. They will put down new oak floors with a natural finish, which will lighten up all the rooms. In the meantime, most of my stuff is in a storage container in the driveway, and I'm sleeping on the couch, but it'll be worth it in the end.

[Val]

Oh well done! Hope the couch sleeping arrangement won't last too long. In the end it will be worth it. Let us see the beautiful splendour eventually please?!

[Diat60]

Wow, that is a major upset! I've been putting off taking up the wall to wall in my bedroom for years, but I think you've just shamed me into doing it.

[Stella]

Ugh, I feel for ya! I pulled up my 30 year old carpet, and what a job that was! Then there's the dilemma of picking out the new. It will be wonderful when complete, but until then, you have my sympathy!

[LadyKestrel]

Yesterday the workers cleared out all the old oak flooring in the 3 original bedrooms. The front room, which is now my dining room, and most of the main hallway have new plywood. They started there because they had to do some work in the crawl space, including fixing the piers holding up the main floor beam and soldering a small leak in one of my baseboard heating pipes. It was easier to do that while the floor was open. The next step is putting new plywood in the bedrooms. While they have those floors open, they'll also fix some cracks in the foundation caused by the roots of the oak trees that were planted to close to the house. I took two of them down a year or so ago, but the damage had already been done.

[Diat60]

Are you able to salvage any of the original oak? I'm sure one of these recycling places would pay for them.

[LadyKestrel]

No, most of it is in pretty bad shape, Diat, and I'm not up to pulling out the salvageable pieces. I'm not even sure if there's a place in my area that recycles wood.

[draclvr]

Oh, wow, what a mess. I'm about ready to take up the horrid carpet in my living room and put down new wood floors. The original flooring from over 100 years ago is beautiful, gorgeous heart pine. Unfortunately the wood is very soft and simply won't hold up to traffic, wear and tear. I absolutely loathe carpet, but when Dave moved out here after we got married 18 years ago, he HAD to have carpet. Ugh... Because we live in the country and both work outside all the time, the dirt and crap that gets tracked in is epic. Now I take my shoes off and never wear them in the house because of that; but Dave refuses to take off his boots and he gets everything from grease to dirt to straw and grass tracked in. I give up and I have henceforth refused to constantly clean the carpet. So, off it goes!! I will have to do the dining room too because the two rooms are next to each other. The flooring in there is a perfectly nice distressed wood laminate, but the chances of me finding the same thing again are slim and none.

PICTURES PLEASE when it's done!!

[Diat60]

I'm a fan of the laminates these days. I know they're not as nice as wood floors, but at my age and with my knees, I appreciate floors that I can push a mop over and don't need extra care. I've got a Swiffer WetJet that I love!

[draclvr]

I'm with you, Diat. I have laminate in the kitchen, dining room and sun porch and love them.

I've been drooling over one of the robotic vacuums and after watching my sister's little robot work when we were up in NW Iowa for mom's birthday, finally took the plunge and ordered one from Amazon. I didn't get the super-expensive one, but a different one that two people I know have highly recommended.

[LadyKestrel]

I thought about getting a Roomba or something similar, but I think it might freak out the dogs.

[draclvr]

It will be interesting to see how the cat reacts to it! They are very quiet and move around quite gracefully...

[Diat60]

We'll look forward to hearing about your experiences with your Roomba-style vacuum! Especially how hard it is to set up.

[draclvr]

Got my Deebot today. Plugged in the base, popped on the little brush sweepers and turned it on. It has just enough battery to go straight to it's home base... plugged itself in and started charging itself. Now to see how it does on my floors tomorrow!

[Val]

If I can get the insert right, check out this cute little video of a dog coming to terms with said robot vacuum cleaner!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTSH3hxdk_A