The Black Death - Tarpaper on wood floor

I'm deep into trying to remove the kitchen floor. If there were not so many layers to it already, and if those layers were not so saturated with animal waste and mold, I'd have left the floor in place. But it had to go, so here I am.

There are three layers of linoleum and vinyl, plus a layer of 1/4" plywood sandwiched together and nailed 1' on center. The plywood and top layer of vinyl are relatively easy to get up, but the bottom two layers are stuck to tar paper which is in turn glued to the wood floor. What a mess to try to get up. I've spent some time online looking for a simpler solution and it seems that either heat or chemicals are the key. I like the idea of either a hot iron or a wallpaper steamer to soften the mess, then scrape it off. Several days on my knees ahead.

Fortunately, my only concern is that the floor be relatively level so that we can put down a layer of underlayment and then install tile atop that. I don't have to worry about cleaning and refinishing the wood floor.

Other news, in no particular order:

My "hoped for" supplier of blue barrels has lost his connection. So now I have to find an alternative source for debris removal. I've started to take the plaster out to a convenient hole behind the chicken shed and bury it there. There's nothing in it that will hurt anything I can see. But the linoleum/tile/vinyl needs to go to the landfill.

Speaking of debris removal... the tire on the wheel barrow went flat. I can either take a chance on a new tube ($6) or a new "never goes flat" wheel ($40). The tube replacement would take some time to get the old one out and the new one in. The new wheel looks to be a straight forward "bolt in" replacement. Right now I'm leaning towards anything that won't break or require maintenance and is easy.

On the pool front, I was able to use a product this week that made the particles in solution clump together and fall to the bottom of the pool. This got rid of the cloudiness almost like magic. The problem is that the only way to get the particles off the bottom of the pool is to run the vacuum on "waste", bypassing the filter and pumping the nasty water out of the pool. Getting water in the pool has been a problem from the get go. The water level in the pool dropped below the level needed to run the skimmer/vacuum before I was done vacuuming. Since the well has run dry again, I delivered three loads of water Friday and brought the level up a fair amount so at least the pump could run. But, I will need another four loads before I can vacuum again. And probably three or four loads of water after I vacuum. And I need two days to shock it once it's vacuumed. The only water source is to bring it from our old home, 14 miles away, by tank in the pickup. Yech. I did rig up the gutters on the barn to feed into the pool, but we haven't had any significant rainfall since I did that. This is all a lot of work for a little relaxation, which will soon be too cold to use. Oh, well, at least we'll be ready for next year...

I've ordered a special drill for boring holes in joists and walls. I'm going to be running a lot of wires and tubing, I figured I'd better have the right tool for the job. It should be here Monday.

The areas sprayed with Roundup earlier this week don't seem to be showing any signs of ill effect. Those areas I hit on the first application are really dead, no signs that the sumac is coming back. Yet. But those areas from application #2 are not showing any ill effects. I'd hoped they'd be yellowing by now. If they don't start to turn yellow by Monday, I'll hit them again on the next bright sunny day we have. I think I sprayed them too late in the day for it to be absorbed in the plants. I spent some time Thursday evening picking up dead limbs and debris in the "sumac grove" on the north side of the property. Friday I cut some dead limbs off some trees there. I think this might actually work and the area look OK once the grass recovers! My neighbor on that side has a lot of old lumber she wants to burn up. I told her she could bring it over and toss it on my burn pile and we'd take care of it for her... :)

That's all I can think of for now. More another day.

Doug