More Than We Bargained For...

So ripping up carpets and refinishing the hardwood floors has already turned into a much bigger project then I originally anticipated.Even with basic things like just ripping the carpet up.  I didn't realize just how many nailed down rotten carpet tack strips were going to remain and need to be removed with a pry bar.  And I didn't imagine JUST HOW MANY STAPLES were going to be stuck in the floor.  And let me tell you...prying up staples in a wood floor is hard work!  I mean look at how the carpet was staples down to the hardwood:

And to make the project more manageable, my boyfriend and I ripped up the carpet in sections of the house so that we had time to complete "finish" off cleaning up and prepping that one area before we moved on to the next.  This actually worked out really well for us, so that each night when I went to sleep, the house wasn't a complete disaster and I knew that the one section we had just worked on was clean (well as clean as it could be), prepped, and ready to be sanded.  Because I am a little crazy, this method worked really well for me.  So we started with the dining room, moved on to the hallway, then did the back of the living room/entryway.  These were all done fairly quickly (as in rapid succession) and took care of the carpet removal for most of the house. 

So the only carpet that was left was a large piece that covered out living room.  And since we hadn't found really any problems with the hardwoods underneath in the rest of the house, we surely WERE NOT ready for what we found on Saturday morning when we removed the rest of the carpet!  We found this:

Pretty extensive termite damage (like down to the subfloor) and mold!  And the mold smelled so bad!  As soon as he carpet was removed the whole house smelled of it.  And I have been sick for a few weeks now and was out of work last week with what I thought was another bad cold.  So I went to the doctor and she told me that she thinks I am having some sort of severe allergic reaction to something in my house!  And well now, I have a pretty good idea what that "something" is.  So Rob went to home depot and bought me two of these...

We are doing a mold test inside the bedroom (where my reaction tends to be the worst) and one right outside of the bedroom.  So hopefully it will come back as nothing...but at least now I will know! Now back to the floors...check out some of the termite damage...

So I cleaned up the mold with the only thing in the house I thought would really kill the growing spores...Kaboom mold killer with bleach!!!

After I was done using this (and then mopping the floor with Murphy's soap) the smell was gone and the floors looked much better...

So today marks the first day of sanding...and I will post pictures of the progress along the way.  Fingers crossed that this can be done by the end of the week!!!

And another definite big benefit of getting all of the carpet up to expose the original 90 year old hardwood underneath (and getting paid early and discovering it Saturday afternoon) was.........having a great dance floor for the new Xbox Kinect and the game Dance Central!!!  Yes that is right folks...I have a new addiction!  Dancing in my living room to Dance Central using the Kinect...it is amazing!  As soon as I have the hardwoods refinished you can bet your sweet little behinds that I will be hosting dance parties at my casa!!!!  And I am sure there will be more on that latter too!  Happy Monday!