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! 

Porch Progress

The exterior changes to our house have been some of the most striking. We spent the first 4 months of ownership looking at the house almost exclusively from the outside - so we are thrilled to see our planned changes becoming reality!

Last week the framers started building the back porch; perhaps some hiccup has slowed the progress because they've moved around the house to work on the side porch as of yesterday!

I'll update with more photos as the work continues.

The frame of the new back porch is on the house!

Ah the mud pit. Its beautiful this time of year.
Gives a slight sense of what the little back
porch will look like.

Don't tell our contractor we were out on the start of the back porch.....

Another haunted house photo :) Couldn't help it! I'm so excited about the start
of the new side porch! This entrance will open to our mudroom and the kitchen
beyond. This means I'll likely use this entrance 99% of the time.

A few things left to demolish & the rebuilding has officially begun!

The guys were back at demolition again this week!

Where did the ceiling go? Into the dumpster!

Honestly - there are about 5 places in the house that have not been destroyed so far! Who knew how extensive this part of the project would be?? Clearly not me :) Regardless of my surprise, I continue to be happy with the work the guys are doing. 

I have a clear view from the 2nd floor up the rafters in the attic now - which I wasn't expecting! The ceilings have been removed throughout much of the first floor & second floor. Almost all of the walls have been removed to the studs, which was quite the project given the walls were originally plaster.

This is the best view of the attic I've had yet. I have never been up there!

Today when we met with our contractor, the guys had dug holes to get ready to pour the concrete piers that will hold up our new side & back porches.........AHHHHHHHH the work on building the new parts of the house has officially started as of today: November 19! 

Let the work begin! This hole (which will be
filled with concrete) marks the first tiny
little step in making the house new! 

It is officially official; we bought it!

We are happy homeowners! It is official!

I'm starting a little late in the game on this blog, but I wanted a place to track the progression of our house to a home!

We bought the 2 flat in February, 2015 with plans to convert it to a single family home. A single family home that will be our forever home! We fell in love with the location of the home before we knew the home was an option for us. We live closer to the El at this home than we did in our city house, closer to the Metra too! There are lots of parks, some tennis courts & a golf course within a block or two. We can easily walk to a few different neighborhoods for bars, restaurants & shopping. Once we were able to see the inside of the building, we saw past the mold & mildew (see photo below), past the beer signs & bed sheets cum curtains, saw past the messes and saw lots of potential. One of our tenants even allowed us to see how nice the home could be despite its less than up to date state. I should have mentioned that the house was built in the 80s. The 1880s! Depending what record you believe; it was built in 1883, 1885 or 1888. Regardless of its true age, I know 1 thing....it is very old. The other thing I know; Chris & I like old houses! Fun fact; we are nerds & watch a whole lot of the PBS show This Old House. Check it out - it is amazing.

Sweet blue tub with LOTS of mildew

One thing we both knew was that we could envision having coffee and/or happy hour on the home's sweet little front porch:

Honestly, I can't wait for coffee out here!

Also, there is a little porch off the back of the house on the 2nd floor....there will be many mornings spent reading the newspaper and drinking coffee up there. There is a lot to love about this building and lots to be improved upon (mainly the electrical system & plumbing system!). Our plan is to do some of the demolition ourselves and hire a general contractor to complete the bulk of the renovation.

Things started off slowly, as they tend to do, mostly because we had tenants living in the building until the end of June, 2015.

So, here we are, July 14, 2015 - almost exactly 5 months after we closed on the building, really getting going on transforming this house into our home!

Stay tuned, I'll be sharing lots of renovation photos in the coming weeks & months!

Thanks for visiting,

Liz (& Chris too)