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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Group Therapy or Kitchen Floor Demolition


Well y'all, my kitchen floor is laying in the driveway. That can only mean one thing.

For my birthday, I got to do a little dem-o-lition! We got to do a little demolition, I should say. Or as my dad likes to put it, "Group therapy".

We started by pulling up the louon that the black and white rug up there was attached to. Took about thirty minutes. Deceptively easy.



You can see from the above picture that there is another layer of louon beneath that.


Conan took the day off to hang out with me on my big day and look what I made him do, manual labor!

Next came the layer underneath that which, if you noticed is FULL of staples. I mean FULL. This made it impossible to pull up in big chunks like the previous layer. Instead, Conan and my dad just broke it to bits using flat bars and hammers.


They made quick work of it, considering. I lost a little of my wallpapered stairs during the demolition. I think it was when Conan was taking the base shoe off so we could re-use it. Smart guy, that Conan. 


Now if you're feeling extra perceptive today you may have also noticed (in addition to the insane amount of staples) that there are two different floors underneath that layer.


Part of the floor has that awesome orange-ish rug on it, the other part has some old timey linoleum which Conan joked that was probably sold to the homeowners by saying something like "It's so easy to clean and it looks JUST like wood flooring!" *eyeroll* Yeah, totally. Just like wood.


The brown stuff continues under the orange-ish stuff, too. I scraped a little of the brown stuff off just to see what we were working with. It looks exactly like the flooring in the rest of the house. It matches up perfectly with the wood floor in the hall.

The four of us, my mom, my dad, Conan and myself spent the next hour or so pulling staples out of the orange-ish stuff with all manner of tools. Basically, whatever would get them out was fair game. Screwdrivers, pliers, side cutters, etc.

Unfortunately, even all of that diligent work still left us with about a zillion staples. As well as a zillion theories as to why anyone would use that many staples.
A) First time using a staple gun (it is very fun)
B) A lil' too much Miller time = "I can't remember if I stapled there, better staple again just to be sure."
C) "Hey, I'm never takin' this stuff up! Staple away!"


Basically, this is what we're left with right now.


Shorty was feeling mighty photogenic today so I let him do a little "walk, walk, fashion baby".

I mean, aside from being hideously ugly, it's not really that bad. I kind of like how the yellow looks with the chalkboard fridge and it makes the black counters and white cabinets stand out. I'm totally tearing it up though. Totally.

But first, I have to go pull a few more staples. I've read a little about using a heat gun to get this stuff to come up easier. Anybody ever tried that?

Welp, I'm off to pull some more staples. Ugh! Wish us luck!



12 comments:

  1. oh heavens... you mean to say it wasn't just our house where someone went totally staple crazy? i'm so sorry. i won't even tell you how long we spent pulling staples out of floor of the little house/rental we just bought (well, it was just attached to the house we *actually* wanted, so yeah. kind of a package deal. heh) but yeah. staples every 2 inches! seriously, who needs to attach a carpet pad with that many staples??

    anyhoo, wide nosed pliers worked best for me. and then hand cream and some thorough rubbing of palms and fingers to prevent serious cramps and pain the day(s) after... good luck!

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    1. Oh man, that sounds rough! I pity anyone who has had to do something like this. I do NOT pity however, the people who put this in. I mean, what were they thinking? There are staples on top of other staples!

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    2. i hear totally hear you. we think there must have been multiple carpet pads over the years attached with copious stapling because some of them were old and rusty, and some were still shiny. but still- too many staples!!! ahhhh!!
      though i have to admit, listening to my husband and two of our friends discussing how the pulling of all those staples might or might not resemble the Catholic concept of purgatory (they are all classical humanities buffs, lol) was *pretty* hilarious.

      hope you've been able to get them taken care of now, and even gotten a few laughs (if only to keep from crying)!

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    3. Purgatory is either pulling staples or grouting hex tile. Either way...

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  2. I think a heat gun would help mainly with the glue, not the staples. Unless you've got a heat gun that'll melt the staples. Hmmm, probably a bad idea.

    Happy birthday!

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    1. Ha! That'd be some heat gun! Forget the staples, just melt your entire floor away and start over! Gotta' say, I would consider it at this point. I. Hate. Staples.

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  3. I'm thinking, "Hey! This is fun!!" I can't begin to imagine any other reason for that many staples. So many. Seriously.

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    1. We can all learn a valuable lesson here: No matter how fun it is to use a staple gun, keep your wits about you.

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  4. happy belated birthday Katherine!
    i love this project, can't wait for the end result... crossing my fingers that all goes well with de-staple-ing. that yellowish ornament floor looks kind of ugly cool from the photos, granny style {a friend of mine would love it} but i look forward to what you will do with it. xx, Helene

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    1. Thanks for the birthday wishes, Helene! "Ugly cool", I'll have to remember that one! I joked to Conan that maybe we could start a new trend, have everyone loving their 70s linoleum again! Highly doubtful.

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  5. Happy birthday! OMG those staples! What a nightmare. Your floor will be soooo amazing when it's all said and done, though. Since you like the yellow are you considering painting the floor yellow?

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    1. Thanks! Truth be told (and I'll post about this later today) I just said, "Forget these staples!" and started pulling the rug up. Can't wait to share the pictures! And you know, if salvaging the wood is out of the question, I think yellow and white might look really nice. Who knows?

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