Well, I had to revert back to my original plan for the hallway flooring. That original plan was to remove all of the flooring and replace all of it rather than trying to feather in the boards that needed to be replaced once the hallway cabinet was removed.
But then I thought that maybe…just maybe…I could actually remove those boards without damaging the neighboring boards and feather those in. I thought, perhaps, I would get lucky and find that this process would save me lots of time and effort. So I got out my Dremel Multi-Max, and pry bar, and a hammer, and got to work. I got this far.
Yep, I got one board removed, and started cutting down the middle of the second board to remove it. At that point, I realized just how much time those 1.5 boards took me, and realized just how many more I’d have to cut and remove. There were 24 boards in all that had to be removed, and some of them were so long that the ends of the boards were out of the frame of the photo below.
And at that moment, I said TO HECK WITH IT. I could literally remove the entire floor in less time than it would take me to remove those 24 boards without damaging the boards next to them. So I got busy, and within about 90 minutes, I had the whole floor out. Thank goodness this is a small area. If I had been dealing with a large room, I would have had no choice but to stick with the very tedious work of patching that floor. But since this is a small area, I went with the most expedient route. I just want to get this done.
This subfloor is relatively new, so nothing needs to be done to it. And installing new flooring is very simple and straightforward. It should go very quickly.
I won’t be taking up that small area of old subfloor, either. It’s in very good condition, and it’s not a big enough area to mess with. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s where the new scuttle hole to the crawl space will go, so when that’s cut, the cover will be replace with plywood anyway, so there will be very little of the original subfloor left after that anyway. It’s not enough to worry about.
I started working on it yesterday afternoon, and had hoped to get the flooring installed in the hallway, but Matt had a very bad day and I wasn’t able to get hardly anything done.
But as he almost always does, he has bounced back this morning and is having a much better day, so I should be able to focus on installing flooring today. I brought my miter saw inside and set it up, so I’m ready to go.
I had a few people ask me why I’m doing the flooring first. They suggested that I start at the ceiling and work my way down to the floor, and do the flooring last. That might be a possibility if I were using pre-finished hardwood flooring, laminate flooring, or vinyl flooring. All of those can be installed with virtually no mess.
But the reason I’m doing the flooring first is because I’m using unfinished red oak hardwood flooring to match the rest of the house. That’s the flooring that’s original to our house. That means that after the flooring is installed, I have to rent the big drum sander to sand the floor before staining and sealing it. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find one of the nice dustless drum sanders anywhere in Waco. The drum sanders I’ve rented in the past are the very opposite of dust-free. They leave dust in virtually every nook and cranny of the room, and it’s a huge job to clean up after sanding.
So the last thing I’d want to do is get my ceiling freshly painted, install wainscoting with lots of dust catching trim, and install grasscloth wallpaper on the walls before sanding the floor. So the floors definitely need to be finished first. But don’t worry. I will protect them before I start working on the other projects. I promise!
And speaking of other projects, look what arrived! The new bedroom doors!
I was so shocked that these came so fast! I ordered them on Thursday, and they arrived on Saturday. I might try to install them today if I can work up the nerve to take my circular saw to the doors. Each door will need about an inch trimmed off of the edge, and that makes me so nervous. But it has to be done! So I might try to work up the nerve to get that done today. If not today, I hope to have them up by the end of the week. Either way, flooring and doors are my focus for this week, with a little break on Thursday for turkey, family, and a bit of relaxation.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
