In the beginning...

We received the key to our new house on September 22, 2006. We didn't actually expect to get our keys when we closed, since it was a Friday afternoon and didn't know if our loan would get funded. It did and we high-tailed it out of there, across town, and stopped in on our latest piece of debt. I had a few of Ellen's friends coming in from out of town for the weekend, so our plans to get started right away were somewhat delayed. I took a trip over Sunday morning while the girls cooked bacon and chocolate chip cookies.



The sliding patio door that didn't really close and sometimes fell into the house.


The master bedroom closets with 12x12 inch linoleum tiles intact (there was carpeting on top of linoleum through the entire house)


The kitchen as found upon arrival (our house inspector was with me during this photo)


The living room area with kitchen in the back left corner (transition in linoleum styles)


On the first day I was able to remove all of the carpet from the house and toss it in the garage (which was already half-full with the previous owner's junk). I lifted the linoleum tiling with a putty knife. The backing was old enough and dry enough that I could slide the tiles off the concrete slab without any struggle. Towards the end of day one, we had mostly black floors and sore backs.


This is the future dining room floor with the tiles removed (note the grid lines, which will prove useful later)