Day 2: "Either that wallpaper goes, or I do..."

I began with the wallpaper. It was dry and old and almost as optical as a Bridget Riley painting.

It was time for it to go. 

I began removing the carpet: first, in the living room and then, in the hallway. 

As you can see, there was old underlay underneath which was quite deteriorated and had been glued down in spots.

Staples in the floor and tack strip greeted me around the perimeter.

I was thrilled to liberate the hardwood floors. The house began to breathe again.

The carpet had looked okay beforehand but when I pulled it up, there was an astounding amount of dust and sediment underneath. In a word -- yuck. 

I did a lot of vacuuming as I worked.

The more I deconstruct the house, the older I realize it is. At first, I thought it might be circa 1940 but after seeing more of its bones and speaking with a local builder (who came to see the house), I am quite sure it is about 100 years old.

Free the wood floors!

 I think you can see where this is going.

I cut the old carpet into smaller pieces as I removed it, and rolled it up for easy disposal.

This is the view of the Bay of Islands from the front windows of the living room.

There is a large tree, as you can see, in the front yard and in the summer you cannot see the house from the street. It becomes somewhat secluded which is nice.

However, that tree also obfuscates the view of the water which is not so nice.

The two trees directly in front of the balcony (seen here) are very old, large, twisty lilacs.

I removed all the carpet and underlay from the hallway and living room.

All the detailed, time consuming work of removing the tack strip and staples by hand, awaited me for the next day.

This is a common feature in old Newfoundland houses (perhaps in other places, too): in the centre of the living room, there is a patch of floor approximately 6' x 6' laid with unfinished, less expensive wood. This was done to save on costs because an area rug would have been placed here.

I will probably fill the wide gaps with wood filler and sand and stain this part of the floor just like the rest, when the time comes.

Success! As you can see, it is dark and late at night. Hard but satisfying work.
Time to call it a day.