Master Bedroom Floor Demo, Part 1

April 18, 2018

Started off the morning with a bit of an indulgence: I went out for breakfast at Valois. Liz and I started South Beach about a week and a half ago… and we’re still in the first phase, where we’re avoiding starches and grains (and sugar of any kind).

I ordered up a Denver omelet with a side of sausage. The poatoes were tempting, but I was able to just leave those alone. I’m sure things were cooked with way more butter than is allowed on South Beach, but it was a nice change of pace.

I sat in the far corner, with my back to the rest of the diners. This was my view. Spent a lazy bit of time eating, reading news on my phone, and occasionally just daydreaming out the window. This was exactly the kind of morning I sometimes wished for, when rushing to work.

Back at the house, with a stomach full of energy… I tackled some relocation work. I’m looking to rip out the floors in both the master bedroom and the guest room. While the master bedroom is pretty clear, the guest room still had a lot of “stuff” in there from the last time we filled it up.

This is one of the major challenges of living in a house as you’re working on it: there is a lot of moving things from one room to another. Over and over again, one room to another.

After a lot of shuffling around, the office is now full again and the guest room is now clear again.

Starting in on the floors. Per Bob’s directions, I was able to use the sawzall to cut a line across the room. As far as starting the line on the right, I used a small paddle bit to get a hole in the board, and got the sawzall blade in from there.

While I was tempted to try to rip out large lengths at one go, keeping the segments smaller ended up being easier.

Debris pile.

The first few rows cleared out. One challenge: with the floor gone, there were some big nails left in the joists – every six inches or so. Once I ripped up a length, I’d have to go back with a hammer and pry out all of the nails. In a few instances, the heads snapped off (being super old and brittle as they are), and required a pair of channel locks to finish the job.