unfinished bozNESS

It's so fun to demo! We get to take out all that pent up frustration from the long and arduous loan qualification process on the stuff that doesn't stay in the house. In this house, that means boz spends two or three days planning what stays and what goes and hands us all our marching orders. Then he shows up every day and gets things started and we pitch in when we can and finish things up.

OK, that's how it's supposed to go. But really, what's the likelihood that the three girls on the bozTEAM will actually FINISH anything. Oh, sure, we had some big fun tearing out the replacement hardwoods in the den. Once Debbie and I figured out to work from the same side of the floorboards as the staples, we were in a groove. Dawn Marie stepped in to 'finish' up when we could no longer lift our arms to wield hammer and crow bar...Only to find a layer of linoleum (it tried to look like a buff and gold terrazo flooring, but there is a significant difference between terrazo and this substance).

So I ruined the best chisel (heard about that one from boz, of course) trying to make some progress on the removal of that second layer...didn't get five inches into the project when I gave up.

This wasn't really giving up, just giving in to the realization that there was probably labor more skilled than me to complete the task. I figured this out only after several shallow gashes into the pine hardwoods underneath.

It has become clear that this den was once a pine-paneled, pine-floored lodge with brick fireplace. Unfortunately, unless we hear from our million dollar future homeowner, that will not be what this room turns into. We may be able to save the flooring, but the paneling will GO!

So, on to the hallway and the wallpaper. I think you call this 'wallpaper'. It's really more like wall fabric. Very ranch appropriate grasscloth...sad to see it go, really. But it was clearly decades old, faded and dingy with age; and the raised texture had flattened. The good news is, this was porous and came off with just a heavy application of warm water. The bad news is, we didn't have a ladder at the site yet; so this little 5ft2 gal was standing on a bench trying to reach the 8 ft height of the paper in vain. I made it to the bottom of the crown molding and, with the help of my slightly taller business partner, Dawn Marie, we got most of the wallpaper out of the hall.

AMAZING the difference removing a dark, textured fabric from the wall makes in the width of a long, ranch hallway (and removal of crown molding/chair rail, thanks again to our most diligent worker, boz). But, alas, it took the 6 ft 1 wonder to get the remnants completely removed.

We are now a week into the project. We three girls recovered from our sore muscles after one weekend of demo. And boz and Robert are finishing what we started. Or, to be fair...finishing what they started and what we pitched in on. We still have our marching orders to tear out the remaining wallpaper in the bathrooms this weekend. There's a good chance we will get started on that, too.