New Sub Flooring // Very Old Floors

There is nothing, seriously nothing exciting about sub flooring. But if you have been to the apartment and seen how uneven the floors were when we started you know how much I have dying to get them leveled.

Here is how the Kitchen Floors were layered (top to bottom)

Parquet Floors
Plywood Sub floor
Linoleum
Plywood Sub floor
Old Hardwood Floors, in some areas with shims
Really old Hardwood Floors

6 layers.

The bottom layer of hardwood was amazing. Over 1" thick pieces. But time and lack of care have not been kind to them, they are still in great shape, but had been cut and all but destroyed. We found the old (dead) gas lines in between the floor boards. Which is why they probablly covered them up. So when ever this place was fitted for gas was when most of the renovations we see today took place.

Linoleum does not last.

Even though we are in fact paying someone to do this work, Brandon still likes to do what he can to speed the process up. 

 

Amazing hardwood under there. 

So thick, and we had no idea what was underneath the floor. We decided not to poke around. 

So so so many uneven layers. WHYYYY? 

New Sub floor in the living room.

Brandon, not letting me take a picture of him.

Also, this is of no importance or relevance but this is what we have to do when there is no way we can fit long strips of base trim through the front door. Brandon wouldn't lean back out of the window to let me take a picture of him. (husbands....)

Getting Started in the Bathroom

Bathroom Demo Selfie. Again, I was working at night so pictures are a little off. But its my alone time and I cherish it. I also love my work gloves. 

I only had about 45 minutes so I decided to start taking down the tile in the bathroom. It may look like we are wrecking something perfectly fine, but we decided that the bathroom had some serious flaws that we were really going to have to take care of. Like the unlevel bathtub and the very sloped floor as well as nothing being square. 

The previous cheap towel bar and tp holder just popped right off. The mirror was too high for me to reach the screws. So Brandon will help me get that down later this week. 

So behind the tile was drywall, and behind that, more thin set (probably from the last reno) and more drywall. Beyond that, we'll have to wait and see. I did discover that at one point the bathroom was a rust/burnt orange color. I started to pull of the cement backer board from around the tub but it went up too high for me to be able to get leverage. (Perils of being short) But even with the work I did in 45 minutes, I am so sore in my arms and back. This is not work for those who are timid or are afraid of noise, sweat and dirt.

More to come this week on the bathroom!

Removing the Old Floors

We had to remove three types of flooring to make way for our new hardwood. 

Parquet in the Kitchen

Laminate in the Living Room

&

Carpet in the bedrooms

We found some lovely water damaged sub floors and discovered the parquet was glued down to last for eternity. Even though most of the wood was damaged by water or scratches. (Pardon our horribly lit pictures. We work late into the night) 

We love our handy crow bar and hardened rubber mallet. The rubber is much quieter than metal on metal, which gives you a serious migraine after about two minutes. 

As you can see each of the square practically explodes into multiple pieces. Leaving lots of little scraps all over the place and a lot still stuck to the floor. 

My number one handy man. He can do it all! He has been working so hard to make this apartment our home.

I married a good one! 

Junk Junk Junk. The laminate floors were easy to pull out after we got the first few planks pulled up. The carpets were so gross. I am doing everyone a favor by not ever showing them. I am now a firm believer that rentals should never ever (ever) have carpet. 

We are now ready to make way for hardwood! 

Goodbye Pantry Wall!

Behind this wall (one sheet of drywall) that was built around the fridge, is a really big pantry. I am totally serious. We had to take the wall down to get the fridge out. It is a nice big 4' by 5.5' space. And hello kitchen window! Makes me so excited for when I cook bacon. 

Pardon our Dust. Its the only way to get a picture mid demo. Also the sunset was unreal that night, hence the pink streaming through the window. 

The wall was literally one sheet of drywall. I don't think that even counts as a temporary wall! This space is big enough for a washer and dryer combo to sit side by side! Maybe with a folding counter? (be still my heart) 

We had a junk removal guy come and haul away all the appliances, except the stove, because we weren't sure at the time how to disconnect it. But we are starting to see the space open up! Demo requires a lot of junk removal. It can't wait either because you have to clean up the space to move around and work in. Its not like we can dump all the stuff on the curb for Mr. Garbage Man to come collect it. It doesn't work that way in the city. 

It Has Got To Go: The Closets

Ahhhhhh..... Very grateful they didn't damage the moldings behind! Some might call us crazy for taking these out but they weren't build to suit our needs or built well for that matter. They gave both rooms the same amount of closet space and were never finished out. 

Here is the before (ok, really mid demo) shot. That is just dust in the picture. 

So the closets were basically halved with a storage area above. There were some good intentions here. But it missed the mark. We love our ikea wardrobes (the PAX system)  that we have used in our last 2 apartments. 

What We Found: 4 Motorcycle Helmets and an AeroBed.  Any takers for the helmets? Safety First! 

First Things First: The Fireplace!

I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! 

I was practically skipping around the room. A fireplace!

Don't worry I am completely aware of how scary this looks. The original surround is gone and there is some awkward looking repairs over the years. But I have a fireplace! You can see the old outline from what mantle was there. 

We were working at night to do this. So there aren't many pictures of us taking the temporary wall down. It took about 3 hours to take the drywall off and unscrew the metal frame. Welcome back to the world fireplace! So sorry you were left back there. 

I can't wait to make this thing beautiful once again. Already working on plans for a new mantle!

Celebrating our first round of demo with a picture. Hooray! We only live 2 blocks away from the site so we can go back and forth easily. Also hoodies are NOT flattering, but they are so warm!