Who knew hardwood veneer existed?

We didn't. 

Blast it though. 

Apparently you can buy flooring that looks like hardwood and feels like hardwood but is not true hardwood. It is a thin layer of hardwood on top of a lower quality wood. What's the implication when you want to sand & refinish this type of wood? You can't. You would sand the hardwood right off & be left with the un-stainable low quality wood beneath. What is the solution you may ask. (I'll pretend you did ask, for the sake of continuing my post :) The solution is to tear up the hardwood veneer and lay down new material. Ugh. The ironic thing? This veneer stuff was clearly the nicest looking wood in the house; probably because it was the newest addition :)

Here goes nothing; I am starting to tear this stuff out of our Dining Room & Living Room.

This is the result of my 1st round of pulling up hardwood.
1 trash can of veneer & 1 of tile/scraps/gross underlayers.

Its hard to tell from the photo above that I've changed anything........this is because the floor is literally filthy from the drywallers sawing the sheetrock and mixing up the joint compound.

Day two I made more progress, which was nice. Wearing my sweet knee pads, breathing mask & protective glasses I went into beast mode with my crow bar. Never has a fulcrum seemed like a better discovery! So many boards to pry up. So many nails in each board that needed to be pried up separately. Then the tile. The dreadful tile that was not only nailed in place, but also glued. Man oh man.

The wonders a giant push broom can do to clean up our floor!
Here is after Day 1, before I got started on Day 2.

After Day 1, before Day 2 work started-
the wood ran from the Dining Room into
the Living Room 

I stopped to stretch out my legs & back and
see how far I'd gone. Day 2 is moving!

I love the peekaboo of wood I've ripped up in the Living Room,
not sure why this photo pleases me as much as it does.

The great surprise came midway through my work on Day 2; look at what was hiding under the layers of flooring:

Beautiful REAL hardwood flooring that we think is
original to the house! 

All the flooring layers on full display. From
top to bottom: hardwood veneer, tile, real
hardwood, strange cloth like material
(lurking under the tile, on top of the real
hardwood)

After Day 2: Almost the whole Dining Room done!
 Part of the Living Room too.
Satisfyingly large pile of debris to clean up!

After Day 2; the only veneer left in the Dining Room is
along the far wall & extend under the radiator. I couldn't
figure out how to get it out from under there.

I was quite pleased with my progress on my 2nd day. I stopped working into the Living Room because I didn't want to move the drywallers bags of sand & boxes of joint compound....because they are heavy. I changed my mind after all :)

Good thing I have the best Dad ever. He knew
how to get the veneer out from under the
radiator.....brute force :) Getting it done
on Day 3

I was amused on Day 3 to find a hole in the floor
when I removed the veneer. I wonder what
used to run through here?

All done for Day 3. Clearly I changed my mind about moving
the drywallers stuff. I stacked it on the hearth to get it out
of my way.

Next up? The very front part of the Living Room, it used to be (waaaaaaaaaay back in the day- way before we owned the house) an exterior front porch. It was time for me to get the flooring up from that area too!

My boots toeing the line between the floor I've ripped up
and the front porch area I haven't yet!

Nothing like an empty dumpster to handle the
discarded hardwood veneer! And my Dad
cleared a ton of the old concrete we broke up
and put it in the dumpster too. He is
simply the best.

During my Day 4 removal, you can start to see
the original front porch floor boards
peeking through! 

All the veneer I could get off, is off. The last
few rows on the far wall are stuck under
the hearth for our fireplace....another job for
Dear Old Dad :)

Coming soon- my "after" photos of the whole room - I can't believe I didn't take any on Friday when I was done; but Chris & I came to Philly for Easter to be with his family; so I was preoccupied with packing & travel!