tearing it up

Despite my efforts to remember to keep it in perspective, the itch to knock some of the bigger things off of our home to-do list has been kicking up a lot these days.  And so, awesome guy that he is, a few days ago Mike ripped out the old kitchen floor~ a crumbling grayish-beige "faux brick" linoleum that was glued down over plywood.

Under it, was this:

An aged and well loved pine floor that was once painted brick red.  We think it's in pretty good shape, with the exception of one small area with a bit of old water damage.  We knew the original pine was under there, but weren't holding our breath that it'd be in decent condition.  The plan is to get it sanded down and finish it with the same plant oil based floor finish that we have on the rest of our floors.

(and then of course to address the plaster mud, paint, counters and cabinets, but that's another day/year)

Mike decided he hadn't had enough after tearing up the old floor and headed down below to clean out the crawlspace, pulling out some old shelves and paint cans and some pallets covered in globs of a suspicious looking dark brownish red mold.....  mmmmm.  That mold is just one of the many reasons (energy efficiency, being able to use our crawlspace for storage, etc...) that we are preparing to seal the crawlspace ourselves. (here I use the term "ourselves" loosely... I will most certainly help and get down and dirty, but it will likely be he who does most of the work, I know)  So, if you're in the area and are itching to come out and get nasty with us for a day or two, give me a shout!

That papa is one mighty hard worker, I tell you what.  Two big things crossed off the list in a few hours~