Renovation Begins

Renovation has begun! After I talked to the realtor I made my plan of attack and have begun the work. Some of it will be expensive from my point of view, but a lot of it will be just plain hard work. 

For my first project I pulled out the cabinet in the library on my own. It took nearly a day as it was built in place and in a method my Jake would have been proud of. In other words: hell for stout. It was nailed to the wall and the floor and as I was trying to do as little damage to the floor and walls as possible I was being extremely careful. I got more bruises than the structure of my house did. I got it out, though, and now that it’s done I have a pile of usable furniture grade plywood, with a lot of nails in it, 3 very heavy duty drawers for some other use, and a fire safe that closes but has no key to lock it. That is ok, I guess, because I don’t think a fire would care if it is locked or not. I have moved the bookcase to the dining room in order to be able to work on the library. 

In the course of tearing out the cabinet I have to report both good news and bad news. The good news is that there is a solid wood floor underneath and it looks like good tight pine boards. The bad news is it is under two layers of vinyl flooring, instead of just one, with the attendant adhesive which will have to be removed. It will almost surely be a real mess to clean it up. I plan to check what is under the carpet in the living room before I make that final decision. If there is glue under the carpet I may have to go with a plan B which I haven’t concocted yet. The realtor assures me, and I know it’s true, that people really like wood floors. I personally like carpet, but this house is not for me.

For now I have the room empty enough to wash down the walls, paint the ceiling and use it as a staging area while I get rid of a few pieces of excess furniture. At least now I know where all my demolition tools are at.

I should note that the name “Library” is my own for the tiny room that is actually a converted carport. My daughter calls it “the mud room”. I figure with a fireplace, internet cable, a bookcase and a couple of comfortable chairs it makes a good library. 

 Desk/Cabinet as it started out.

  Pile of goods after it was disassembled.

The floor underneath the cabinet gives me hope.