Admitedly, this isn't a very exciting post. But I do want to document the whole process, so here we are ripping up the old floor, marvelling at the weirdness, puzzling over what to do and finally being disappointed by the price of making it look nice. How will this all turn out? You'll just have to stay tuned.

Here's a photo of the old tiles and copious amounts of floor leveling compound being removed. The floor leveling compound has the consistency of cement. Over the years the old tile has cracked in places causing little bits of the cement to spill out. Needless to say, stepping on these pieces is very painful and I, for one, cannot wait to rid the house of them forever.

We ended up just taking up the tile and stuff on the right side of the kitchen. That's where the problem was. The other side seems stable and straight. Besides that, the tile wouldn't come off and I got sick of it!

There are several areas in the floor with pretty big gaps. You can look right down into the crawl space. I try not to think about it...

Speaking of the crawl space. Pete had to go in there a couple of times to find the joists that we have to reattach the subfloor to. I was thrilled when he found a couple of things in there and brought them out for me.

A nice piece of china that seems to have been part of a tea cup saucer at one time. How it ended up in the crawl space I'll never know. And why only one piece?

He also found this old whiskey bottle that was repurposed for Methyl Hydrate (wood alcohol). It has a nice old label from Lumb Hardware on Adelaide Street. I'm not totally sure where that was but I'll have to jot the address down and take a look next time I'm in that area. The old phone number indicates it's at least from the 50's (not exactly sure when phone numbers turned to 8 digits?)




















So now we're at a bit of a standstill (after we fix the subfloor) because the quote came in for the flooring and it's going to be WAY more than we expected. I guess I have expensive taste because the main cost is for the product itself. You can see the sample in the background behind the bottle and china shard above. Subtle, but retro--with a really nice thickness to it. It's made by Domco. However, I think it's going to just be too expensive for us. So I think it's back to the drawing board. We'll be doing some shopping on the weekend for alternatives. Hopefully we can find something that's a little more affordable, but just as nice (and durable).

Stay tuned...