Tacky

I have been in the house for a month and a half now and my sister moved in a week ago. There are still towers of boxes and bags everywhere, but I have made some improvements. For the past couple of weeks I have been making the house safe for bare feet. There was carpeting in every room except the kitchen and bath. Some of the carpet (in the living and dining rooms) had been removed prior to the house going on the market. I arranged to have the remaining carpet pulled up before I moved in. The man I hired was a subcontractor of the person who did the preclosing repairs. The sub removed the carpet and padding and bagged the waste. But that was all. I think he expected me to call him back to remove the tacks or refinish the floor. Um...no, I got that.

So I've been getting down and dirty, literally, with the tack puller and pliers. Not hard work, just tedious. Most of the tacks were still anchoring small pieces of padding. So while the floor looked like it had some sort of pox, it was fairly easy to get under the staple and lift it out. I soon developed the motion where I could lift/pop the tack without scraping or gouging the floor. The stubborn ones were those without padding, like on the riser portion of a stair. Those tacks were flush with or even a little set into the floor, meaning I really had to really pry and leverage those suckers out.

        

      

Now that the tacks have been removed, I can begin to address the needs of the floor. I say begin to address because my floors need a whole lotta work! The black cat seen in two of the four images is the Grande Dame of the household, Midnight. She's an eleven year old tortie that I rescued from the street. The floor is host to umpteen paint drips, trails, and splatters. As well as gum and various other unknown sticky substances. My next step is to gather the materials to determine the floor's finish.