My darling, manly husband worked until 2:00 in the morning last night ripping out the floor (or more aptly - floors) in our kitchen. I wish we could have saved the wood, but the portions of the floor that were originally butlers' pantries were oak, whereas the small original kitchen area was fir. And then there is the 5' square area near the garage and back doors that was originally an outside porch, so there really was no way to save anything and have it look right.
On top of the wood were green and tan tiles, maybe 5" square. I had always thought they were sheet flooring of some type - real linoleum maybe? - but they were individual tiles. In some places, those tiles had been nailed down along the edges with nails that were 3.5" long. Hubby said I wouldn't believe how many swear words he uttered as he pulled out each one of those nails into the wee hours. He said some of the nails were only an inch apart. Why anyone would feel the need to nail these tiles down in any fashion, rather than simply re-glue them, boggles the mind.
On top of those tiles, there was another layer of red tile (attached with glue), and then the layer of glue from the more recent application of the dreaded kitchen carpet. As new flooring was added and rooms were shifted around, previous owners cobbled together "subfloor" with bits of scrap wood and other odds and ends. Getting it all out was a job.
As with all our other demo projects, the house yielded up some answers to mysteries and a few treasures. We were able to uncover two holes in the floor, the first of which was the laundry chute to the basement. (It originally went from the second floor to the basement, where laundry was washed in a three basin soapstone sink [still present in the basement], wrung out in a wringer, and dried on the clothes line in the backyard.) The second hole was an ash waste dump that would have been next to the original cookstove. Here's a shot of it from my cell phone:
On top of the wood were green and tan tiles, maybe 5" square. I had always thought they were sheet flooring of some type - real linoleum maybe? - but they were individual tiles. In some places, those tiles had been nailed down along the edges with nails that were 3.5" long. Hubby said I wouldn't believe how many swear words he uttered as he pulled out each one of those nails into the wee hours. He said some of the nails were only an inch apart. Why anyone would feel the need to nail these tiles down in any fashion, rather than simply re-glue them, boggles the mind.
On top of those tiles, there was another layer of red tile (attached with glue), and then the layer of glue from the more recent application of the dreaded kitchen carpet. As new flooring was added and rooms were shifted around, previous owners cobbled together "subfloor" with bits of scrap wood and other odds and ends. Getting it all out was a job.
As with all our other demo projects, the house yielded up some answers to mysteries and a few treasures. We were able to uncover two holes in the floor, the first of which was the laundry chute to the basement. (It originally went from the second floor to the basement, where laundry was washed in a three basin soapstone sink [still present in the basement], wrung out in a wringer, and dried on the clothes line in the backyard.) The second hole was an ash waste dump that would have been next to the original cookstove. Here's a shot of it from my cell phone:
The first treasure was a wad of magazines and newspapers from October 1951 which had been used to shim up an uneven spot in the floor. They were addressed to the third owner of the house. Another cell phone shot:
The second was a large poster board drawing labeled "Manor House" and signed on the back by one of the daughters in the third family to live in the house. There was also a hand-drawn USA map, also on poster board, but it couldn't be saved because it was nailed down to the floor in too many places. Why they were under the tile, I can't begin to guess.
I think that this family must have been the one to open up the porch area and include it in the kitchen, and I also think this is when a banquette was installed in the kitchen. We are still in contact with the daughters of this family, and they explained to us that there was an angled bench along the wall (now gone) where the radiator stands. I suspect it followed the original angled wall that was the access to the enclosed butler's pantry. I sent an email to one of the daughters with a bunch of pictures, so we'll see what she has to say.
Here is a shot of the work in progress:
And here is what lunch for 14 looks like when you can't set foot in your kitchen for fear of foot impalement or potential asbestos inhalation. ;o)
How fun to uncover little treasures! You must have gained an inch of space taking out all the layers of flooring. :)
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