My Old House: Starting Reconstruction

Hello out there!

I've been using almost every free evening and weekend on My Old House, and am soooo excited to be turning the corner into the re-construction phase!

Yesterday, I finished carefully removing the hardwood flooring from this main floor bathroom. I'll need as much of it as I can to use in the kitchen, as well as patching the holes in the floor where we'll be removing the old, crumbling chimney.

I admit, I was kinda terrified of this task...but it went much smoother than I expected. I gently pried the boards with a pry bar, loosening the edges, then cut out the nails from underneath with a carbide-tipped metal blade on my oscillating multi-tool. There were several boards that had screws into the floor, as well -- those were tough.

I was able to hire a contractor to replace or install the windows and doors...which was a huge blessing on multiple fronts: this was done during my super-busy season at work, and he discovered rot in the patio door baseplate as well as in the "foundation" (there wasn't any!) of the old deck that was folded into the kitchen.