When I was in high school my father bought a new house that we lived in for a couple of years. He rented out our other home and we eventually moved back there. I loved that house on Panarama Ridge. It was on an acre and a half and had a swimming pool in the backyard. It also had a big kennel next to the house, but alas, my parents wouldn't let me have a dog. They did let me bring my horse there one summer to eat down the overgrown lawn there.
I remember my father pulling up the carpet in the living room and discovering hardwood floor underneath. All the carpet was pulled up, the hardwood sanded and refinished, and a big area rug was put in the room.
Last year Kerry and I bought an older house in Cloverdale. I don't like the house. Its a place to live, that's about it. I like the sundeck and the size of the back yard and the big cedar tree in the back yard. The house itself is boxy and the room are small. It was built in 1964 as a one story rancher and in 1981 it was raised up and the basement was built. These days our basement suite is rented out to tenants. The upstairs where we live has ugly carpet in the living room and bedrooms, ugly linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom. But thinking back to my father's discovery in the Panarama Ridge home, shortly after moving in I asked Kerry if we could check under the carpet just in case there might be a hardwood floor. We went to the cold air duct in the hallway and lifed it out and checked there. Nope, was Kerry's determination. Just plywood under the carpet.
But I continued to hate the carpet. Its a light color and with two large dogs and Kerry refusing to take off his muddy shoes in the house, its impossible to keep clean. We have a carpet shampooer and one of us has to operate it while the other one collects the clumps of dog hair that roll up. Every time after we shampoo I get enough dog hair to make two new dogs!
I want laminate floor everywhere. Something that will be easy to keep clean. No more dirty carpets, no more dog hair clumps when we shampoo. Just easy maintenance for me. I hate that ugly, always dirty, hard to keep clean carpet.
A month ago we installed laminate floor in a friend's condo. That got me wishing for my laminate floors again. This time to the point that we checked stores and prices, with Kerry promising to take measurements so we'd know how much to buy for the living room, hall, and three bedrooms upstairs. I'm still waiting for the measurements.
On the other hand Kerry has started a project of installing a pocket door in the bathroom. This is because too many times our dogs go in there for a drink and accidentally shut the door and then they bark for hours (if we're not home) hoping someone will come along and let them out. The door he installed is a glass door - we're going to spray it with that frosted stuff so nobody can peak in. We have bought the drywall but haven't finished the wall he took down, so anyone in the house can peak in. This is going to have to be like my cousin's house with a sheet as the bathroom door if he doesn't get to this soon!
The other project is another closet for our bedroom. Remember the house getting raised in 1981? That left a high hallway on the other side of our bedroom wall where the steps come up. Kerry is going to extend the closet over the downstairs entry. That will be great. This house has small closets in the three bedrooms and a linen closet. There is no coat closet. Like I said, I don't like the house. And I especially hate the lack of closet space and nowhere to store stuff.
So Kerry is messing around on the stairs last night punching out part of the wall that he hopes will be approximately where the floor of the new bedroom closet will be. Then he comes into the bedroom and pulls the couch out from the wall to check where his hole came out. I hear him fiddling with the carpet back there. Then he looks up and tells me that underneath the carpet is a beautiful hardwood floor made of fir. I hop up to take a look. And sure enough, its like the Panorama Ridge house all over again, there is a gorgeous floor. Unfortunately someone long ago was painting the walls and got white paint splashed on the floor. Don't worry about it, says Kerry, that can be sanded down.
Now we're excited and go back to that duct in the hallway for a closer look. This time Kerry uses his knife and slices back part of the carpet to discover underneath - a tiled floor! Darn! Go more, I suggest. Maybe they tiled over the hardwood. Kerry peels off the vinyl tile, and yes! There's the hardwood floor. We go into the living room and pull back a couch. If we're ripping carpet we want to make sure it can't be seen. And if there's no hardwood, its no big deal as we're planning on the laminate. So he sliced the carpet, saw the tiled floor and peeled it off, and there is hardwood there too. We immediately check the other two bedrooms with the same story: a tiled floor on top of the hardwood. Clearly the master bedroom was the only room not tiled and where the hardwood is going to be easiest to uncover again.
But we're stoked. Kerry pulls up all the living room carpet, the underlay, and then the tile underneath. And its an odd tile. There are two different green color schemes in a checkerboard design. And no, its not the ugliest tile floor I've ever seen. That belongs to a house I lived in about 20 years ago. The owners told us that the previous renters had cats and dogs in the house and they were worried they may have peed on the floor. It was winter and we didn't notice any smells. But when summer hit - whooey! Stinky pee! We called the owners to let them know and they pulled up the carpet, to discover underneath a checkerboard tiled floor red and green. And they were hug tiles, about four times the size of the tiles we pulled out last night. After letting it air out for a couple of weeks the owners put in a lovely laminate floor. Anything was better than smelling the cat pee on the carpet during the hot summer months!
Its our guess whoever was raising a family in the sixties in this house decided to glue down a tile floor on most of the hardwood because it was more practical with kids in the house. Then in the seventies they probably carpeted the house, after all shag carpet was all the rage back then. And no, our current carpet is not shag. So the house has probably been recarpeted a couple of times over the years.
The hardwood uncovered in the living room has tile glue all over it and we're hoping it will sand down nicely. It also needs to be repaired in a couple of spots, looks like pipes came up through the floor at one time, and there are a couple of transition areas that plywood or similar was used. If worst comes to worse we'll put down laminate, but here's hoping the hardwood turns out well in the end.
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