Step 1: Clean the place up and figure out what we’re in for. I arrived to the work site to find the dumpster already full, the carpet ripped out, and the carport “enclosure” torn down – Matt had been hard at work.
The next step is to figure out exactly how many layers of crap are under the linoleum in the kitchen and dining room, and exactly what kind of “Uh, ohs” those layers may be concealing.
OK, let’s see. Linoleum. Then 1/4 inch plywood. Then linoleum. Then particle board the consistency of graham crackers. Then linoleum. Then, uh, oh.
In the photo above, you can see the old flooring coming up, with no small effort. Those layers were like a superglued sandwich of futility. We also removed the paneling from the back wall, to see if we could strip it all off and refinish the sheetrock. Now you can clearly see the line on the wall and floor where the house was added onto.
The verdict on the walls: Don’t. Remove. Any. More. Paneling.
At this point I left town, taking my camera with me, and while I was away Matt finished ripping up the subfloor and taking out the kitchen cabinets. It soon became evident that this house had had a plumbing leak (multiple leaks, actually) for a long, long time. The water had worked its disintegrating magic on the floors and walls, as evidenced by the holes in the floor and the moldy, rotten sheetrock behind the cabinets.
It also became evident that the person who added onto this house may not have actually known what they were doing.
Uh, oh.
