Work in progess

So here's the hallway after the carpet was removed. There's something on the floor here that we thought was linoleum, but someone on the Old House Web suggested it could be oil cloth, and I think they may be right.

At first we thought we'd have to refloor over this stuff, but it turns out it was held down with a water-soluable adhesive. So after much scrubbing, and some really foul-smelling adhesive and old paper, we unearthed the pine floors. We'll keep that scrap of the old flooring though. Just for fun.

All of the floors have been a lot of work. They weren't in the greatest of condition when we got the carpet out. There was an old paint border around the rooms that proved to be rather stubborn. But about a dozen trips to Home Depot and an incalculable amount of sandpaper and beer later, the floors are looking good. Here's before sanding:

Tonight we'll start polyurethane.

You can see here that John's demolished the hearth, and we found the original hearth stone underneath. Yes, the wood bricks are still there. They'll have to wait.