Operation Floor: carpet removal

Because daycare was closed for vacation last week, the Danish Boy had his hands full of moving furniture while I ran around after the Spawn.

First he had to organize the garage.  I FINALLY got to label the boxes that I've spent the last few months sorting though and repacking.  Then they were stacked in an orderly fashion in the garage and I just hugged myself with glee.

Yeah, I'm a little sick.

We decided to get rid of a bedroom set.  (Pictured, hopefully, to the left.)  It was in the spare room in Ærøskøbing, but since we didn't have a spare room here, it was dismantled and placed in the garage.  Also with the set was a beautiful mirrored wardrobe (dismantled and in the garage) and a mirrored vanity that sat next to my bed.  Alas, the drawers were overly large and ungainly, so I didn't actually use if for anything other than a night stand.

Since none of it was really being used, we (I, because the DB was willing to hold on to it if I couldn't stand to be parted from my vanity... heh) decided to let it go.  Part of me is heartsick over it, but that's the hoarder side of me that keeps birthday cards from previous years stashed in drawers of my desk.  The rule of thumb here is: it must be useful and it must be pretty.  So some ugly night stands went away as well.  Night stands out of Miami Vice, they were, and so were banished to Red Cross.

All our extra furniture goes to Red Cross.  Anyone wanting to make a killing in antiques should check out Red Cross.  There's a fine collection of very old furniture there.

Slowly, but steadily he moved closets and bed into Spawn's room, dining room furniture into the garage and kitchen, and in one case, moved a closet into the mud-room where we now have to go around it to get to anything.

Well, no one is perfect.

Now the rooms looked like this:

"Master" Bedroom

Dining Room

Skanky carpet in the MB, very dirty carpet in the DR.

The carpet was peeled back and...

"Master" Bedroom

Oh, look!  Sisal.  What would posses a person to put sisal carpeting in a house?  And what would posses that person to GLUE IT TO THE FLOOR??

Dining Room

In the dining room, under the carpet, was evidence that there had been sisal glued down as well.  However, this carpet (unlike the skanky one in the MB) was laid professionally, so the sisal (and a good amount of the glue) had been removed.

Back in the MB, the sisal was attacked by a rabid Dane wielding a scraper removed.  Now, on one wall  under the bang-up wallpaper job, was evidence that there had been a wood stove in the room.  You could see the circular plug where the stove-pipe had gone into the chimney and there was a small rectangular bump where the chimney could be accessed by the chimney sweep.  So when we removed the sisal, we were only sort-of-surprised to see a zinc plate where the stove would have sat.

Can you sort of see the zinc square?

Here seen after it's removal

So now the floors are ready to be scraped... or probably just attacked by the Dane with his big sanding machine, rented from the local hardware store.  I'll be brought in for the fiddly bits, like edges and corners, that have to be done by hand.  Since the Spawn's daycare is open again and I'm toddler-free, I really don't have any excuse for not helping.

Um, I think I'm developing a pain in my... um... ugaritic bone.  Yeah, that's it.  Ugaritic bone.