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House Work
Jul. 23rd, 2006 11:23 pmNo, not like cleaning. Like demotion and refurb-prep work.
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lorac and her guy bought a house. Yay. It needs some work. We agreed, with a buncha other friends, to descend this weekend and help destroy stuff in order to get it ready to become pretty.
Saturday was planned "Carpet Removal" and "Wallpaper removal. EVERY ROOM had at least one of each, and some had both. We had approximately 10 people yesterday invade the house, from 9:30 to about 7pm, and yanked ALL the wallpaper down, and almost all the carpet. Hmm, all that was planned for Sunday was... carpet? Huh. Oh well, we'll have a short day!
Naaaah. We arrive today, and we look in the kitchen. Hmm, ugly linoleum. I wonder how the hardwood under there is.... they could have the refinisher do that room too... so I grab a chisel and a hammer, and carve out a little piece under the stove. Hmm, one layer of linoleum, one layer of plywood, one thin layer of water-block/glue stuff that flakes off... and a very nice looking piece of hardwood! Oh, and a staple. (That's important in a little bit.)
So, we decide, sure, we can pull the floor up, in about an hour, they can get it refinished, everyone wins!
We set to it with some small pry bars, some large pry bars, and some hammers, and in about an hour, all the linoleum is up, all the plywood is up, and most of the water barrier stuff is up... and we've discovered some staples. Actually, we've discovered ALL the staples. There's a lot. Oh well, we've been pulling staples all this weekend, in the carpet! I grab a pair of plyers, hook onto a staple, and yank.... and my arm almost dislodges from the shoulder. Wow, tough staple. Lemme try this one... Nope. Hmm.... Oh... oh god. They've used SUBFLOORING STAPLES INTO the HARDWOOD through the plywood and through the water barrier to hold it all down... Oh my god... it's full of STAPLES.
So, yeah, the rest of the day (from probably Noon-7pm) was spent by between 3 and 6 people, AFTER I made a special trip to Home Depot for the world's most adorable teeny pry bars, honing our hand, arm and shoulder strength removing staples. Half of them broke, and after trying to figure out a graceful way to remove them easily, I gave up, put on ANOTHER pair of Heavy-duty work gloves over my thin ones, grabbed the BIGGEST pliers I could find, and stood over them like a weightlifter ready to deadlift a weight, and simply RIPPED the staples and staple pieces out of the hardwood. For hours.
My hands are rather sore. My shoulders feel pretty tight, but in a good way. I sweated gallons. But I'll be DAMNED if they don't have a pretty good looking hardwood floor in there ready for sanding!
Thanks tohumanbeatbox, bluekniggit, siercia, prunesnprisms and various and sundry other friends for not finding some way to blame this kitchen death march on me. We did good work today. :)
I'm gonna go do some pushups, and sleep the sleep of the dead.
Our friends
lorac and her guy bought a house. Yay. It needs some work. We agreed, with a buncha other friends, to descend this weekend and help destroy stuff in order to get it ready to become pretty.Saturday was planned "Carpet Removal" and "Wallpaper removal. EVERY ROOM had at least one of each, and some had both. We had approximately 10 people yesterday invade the house, from 9:30 to about 7pm, and yanked ALL the wallpaper down, and almost all the carpet. Hmm, all that was planned for Sunday was... carpet? Huh. Oh well, we'll have a short day!
Naaaah. We arrive today, and we look in the kitchen. Hmm, ugly linoleum. I wonder how the hardwood under there is.... they could have the refinisher do that room too... so I grab a chisel and a hammer, and carve out a little piece under the stove. Hmm, one layer of linoleum, one layer of plywood, one thin layer of water-block/glue stuff that flakes off... and a very nice looking piece of hardwood! Oh, and a staple. (That's important in a little bit.)
So, we decide, sure, we can pull the floor up, in about an hour, they can get it refinished, everyone wins!
We set to it with some small pry bars, some large pry bars, and some hammers, and in about an hour, all the linoleum is up, all the plywood is up, and most of the water barrier stuff is up... and we've discovered some staples. Actually, we've discovered ALL the staples. There's a lot. Oh well, we've been pulling staples all this weekend, in the carpet! I grab a pair of plyers, hook onto a staple, and yank.... and my arm almost dislodges from the shoulder. Wow, tough staple. Lemme try this one... Nope. Hmm.... Oh... oh god. They've used SUBFLOORING STAPLES INTO the HARDWOOD through the plywood and through the water barrier to hold it all down... Oh my god... it's full of STAPLES.
So, yeah, the rest of the day (from probably Noon-7pm) was spent by between 3 and 6 people, AFTER I made a special trip to Home Depot for the world's most adorable teeny pry bars, honing our hand, arm and shoulder strength removing staples. Half of them broke, and after trying to figure out a graceful way to remove them easily, I gave up, put on ANOTHER pair of Heavy-duty work gloves over my thin ones, grabbed the BIGGEST pliers I could find, and stood over them like a weightlifter ready to deadlift a weight, and simply RIPPED the staples and staple pieces out of the hardwood. For hours.
My hands are rather sore. My shoulders feel pretty tight, but in a good way. I sweated gallons. But I'll be DAMNED if they don't have a pretty good looking hardwood floor in there ready for sanding!
Thanks to
humanbeatbox, bluekniggit, siercia, prunesnprisms and various and sundry other friends for not finding some way to blame this kitchen death march on me. We did good work today. :)I'm gonna go do some pushups, and sleep the sleep of the dead.
