I’ve got my country’s 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it....

...the flooring to finish, walls to paint, kitchens to install, etc etc.

But what we have done is

...and chisel off all of the smooth edge in the rooms where we will be leaving it as floorboards. This was an enjoyable task that saw me unable to walk for two days afterwards - having spent about 5 hours solid, crouching while I used my chisel and hammer to get rid of it all, and then pulling out the 15 million staples which were also used. This confirmed some sad news for me - a life working on my knees is not something I am cut out for, thus ruling out my back-up career as a prostitute. However, the payoff was glorious, with these beauties lying underneath.

If you have any idea what sort of wood this is, please leave me a comment! I have fixed the comments section to allow comments from anyone! 

When we pulled up the carpet in the kitchen/dining, we discovered that the cream carpet had been laid, in this area, directly over the old gold and brown carpet. Unhappily, I didn't get a photo of this. This was on top of a rubber underlay, which over the past 40 years had become fused to the flooring below.  This left us with a mess to clean up - which had to be scraped up so that the sanders wouldn't choke up 3 minutes into use. 

We scraped up even more from here, and yep, I know I've already used this photo before. 

As you can see from this photo, we've also removed the tiles in the kitchen. I had wanted to remove the tiles all the way through to the back door, but was convinced not to, due to the possibility of flooding from the washing machine. The tiles were stuck to cement sheeting, and this sheeting was nailed to the floorboards. It took four people a whole hour to remove these bloody nails! We then sanded right through but it will need another go before they are varnished. 

As the previous photos show - the arches have also been knocked out, so we have square archways. What's the right word there? Square-ways? These will be re-plastered this weekend, and we're really happy we made the decision to knock them out - they were a very dating feature. 

Other things that have gone - the electric heater in the small hallway, and the gas heater in the lounge. Unfortunately the gas heater was deemed to be too dangerous to keep (it was heating TOO well...to the point of becoming open flame...), and has asbestos lining in the flue. So it has gone, and so has the air con next to it. While this is an additional expense, my decor based vanity is glad - I cant wait for the sleek lines of a split system over the mission brown mass at the end of the room.

We've also replaced the mottled glass in toilet and bathroom to clear glass - this has let plenty more light in, and we've been lucky enough to procure some blinds for these rooms. The beer bottle glass at the front door has also disappeared - as has the front door itself! 

Lastly - as you can see - the painting has started.

To end, here is a photo of the floorboards in the lounge room - what's the verdict, is it a crime to cover these back up with carpet?