One thing Mel and I have become increasingly proficient at in the last few years is the fine art of making a mess! Through out the last few months we’ve been refurbishing the floors through out the house and in doing so, we’ve made our fine home look like someone hucked a pipe bomb through the window. What I love the most is that rush of pulling up everything and that exquisite “Holy Shit! There’s no turning back now!!” feeling you get from the sheer abruptness of it all. First we redid our bedroom, then the living room, repainting and ripping up nasty carpet, then laying down laminate.
We’ve done so much and yet there is still so much that needs to be done!
Well, the next chapter in the saga got written this weekend when I started tearing up the hardwood floors in the dining room and laid down more laminate. It was quite the task, involving a light hand with a crow bar and a 3 pound sledge hammer. I say “gentle” because if you plan on reusing any of the hardwoods, you can’t tear away at it (it sure is satisfying when you do though 
). If you brute force it all, you only end up with a ton of shattered, splintered wood. You can reuse some of it, but not on a floor. We plan on using the intact salvaged hardwoods in our next home! At this juncture, we just might have enough for a foyer or a smaller room, like a mud room. All this stuff can be pretty exciting for me, so, after walking in the Raleigh Race for the Cure, I got home and still had some energy, so I just got to it.
I pried every plank up with the crow bar (Mel was an angel and saved my back by pulling up the wayward staples that didn’t come up with the boards. Thanks so much honey!! 
), and ended up with a nice pile of wood.
Then you have to lay down an underlaying layer of foam sheeting. This deadens the noise that footfalls and dog claws make, as well as protecting the underside of your new flooring.
Then, if you buy cheap laminate like we did, you add a layer of plastic to guard against moisture that might somehow get under the flooring. That and it’ll stop late night beer spills and doggie accidents from leaking to the base floor below.
Once the under layers are laid down you lay and snap the together the pieces of laminate and when all is said an done, if you take your time, you should have a good, solid floor! It’s back breaking work for sure and the clean up is a bitch. But if you take your time, do the job right and make sure you don’t cut corners, you shouldn’t have to do this ever again! So think of it as the means to an end!
Now that that’s done, we can look forward to the kitchen. <sigh> 
