After purchasing the actual boards a few weeks ago, we chose May 15-16 as our installation date. We were determined to do it ourselves and recruited a couple of family members to help. But before we put in the pretty new floor, the old one had to go. With a plethora of tools to choose from, we found the hazel hoe to be the most useful in ripping up the linoleum. Joe had this laborious duty as I followed behind with pliers, ripping out countless staples. (FYI- this was the biggest pain in the ass ever.) If you ever plan to do something like this yourself, plan a few extra hours minimum. Even with Joe's uncanny ability to destroy things, this took WAY longer than we thought. In addition, we discovered that we had to move our kitchen island, stove, dishwasher, and fridge in order to rip out all of the linoleum. This was not in our original plan, and needless to say only added to the process.
Although it was a huge pain and took way longer than we thought, once the floors were ripped out the actual laying of the hardwoods went pretty quick and was a lot of fun. We still have the entryway and pantry to finish, so the finished product pics will have to wait. But here are quite a few of us tearing our house to pieces...
The before: our living room from the entryway.
Looking into our kitchen/dining room from the living room.
The furniture all moved out and the floors ready to be demolished.
It began so simply...
and escalated quickly.
Dominating the linoleum.
Making progress.
Two 12-hour days working on the weekend= lots of caffeine necessary.
Damn you staples...
No more kitchen island.
Yes, that is our island countertop and stove on our deck.
Casualties.
Taking out the trash, and ready for the fun part...
What an exhausting process... even Jack was tired.
