Monday, June 2, 2008

June 7 show cancelled

The Gay Men's Chorus cancelled their Saturday night show, so that means I'm not opening for them. It's just as well, because I've got my work cut out for me at the house.

I called The Artist tonight and gave him a list of tools we need to borrow. Margaret procured for us a lent shopvac.

If anyone has any advice about how to get linoleum that's fused to the floor off the floor, we're all ears. The paper backing of the linoleum in the bathroom (that was under the carpet and held to the floor by nails, upholstery tacks and - and! - copious amounts of glue is fused to the floor. Careful work with a putty knife has freed some of the paper, but wood is coming up with it. It's hideous. I got so frustrated that I decided to move out to the hallway and pull up that carpet, where I found the same linoleum held down by the same nails, upholstery tacks and glue.

The more we pulled things up, the more I cursed every single other owner of our house. Margaret advised that we can get their names from the Holyoke history room in case we want to hate them by name. I only wish there were time to go over there.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.infotile.com.au/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001971.html

Hope it helps

June 3, 2008 12:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Jennifer!

So happy that you have entered the world of home ownership!

My first question is why do you want to tear up glued linoleum? Are you 100% sure that you have hardwood under there? If not - the normal course of events is to just keep going on top. I know, layers and layers from years and years, but in the long run it is much easier.

Sometimes the cost to us as humans is much worse that what comes out of the wallet.......

Happy homeowning!

Ann (of Kevin and Ann)

June 3, 2008 9:02 AM  
Blogger Jennifer Myszkowski said...

Ann:

We think we want to put down tile, and we're not putting tile over the linoleum. Also, we don't want the next owners cursing US because we were a part of the problem just putting floor over other floor. We want to do it right, and the right way is to get down to the bare bones.

I've already determined that I'm going to make a little journal of all we did and all we found for the next owners so they know exactly what's where and don't have to pry things apart like we have to.

I mean, the bead board under the crappy paneling in the bathroom is just a drop in the bucket over here. Three layers of carpet and padding and more carpet and padding on top of linoleum on top of wood floors is what it's really all about. Hideous!

I know we're going to make it through all this, but my sweet God, it's not going to be pretty.

June 3, 2008 9:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I feel your pain. We are re-doing our living room, dining room and kitchen all at once. Never again will we take on a job sooo large. After a few weeks, you look for where you can cut corners. Maybe linoleum in the bathroom is not so bad.....

June 3, 2008 3:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Jennifer!

This came up when we redid the kitchens. We did have to pull a few nails and take off some trim at the baseboards. Then, Dave tried just about everything everything, including several nasty chemicals, on the linoleum/vinyl floor. (We had some of each.) What finally worked was careful use of a heat gun, and Dave on his hands and knees with a big putty knife scraping it up bit by bit.

Holly

June 4, 2008 5:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you really want to find the previous owners, check out the Hampden County Registry of Deeds at: http://204.213.242.147/alis/ww400r.pgm

or for Hampshire County: http://www.masslandrecords.com/malr/index.htm

June 13, 2008 1:45 PM  

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