Digging in

Today I picked up the keys to the house! In with the keys was a $100 gift card to Home Depot from our realtor (thanks Paul!)

Mr. House and I headed over after he was done with work to get started.  We took some necessities that we thought we might need: paper towels, soap, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, radio, flashlights, etc, plus some pb&j sandwiches for dinner.  When we got there I didn't even want to eat, I wanted to dive right in and see what was waiting for us under the hideous and stinky carpet.  We'll we found out that in addition to being hideous and stinky, the carpet was also absolutely filthy. As we pulled it up dust clouds filled the sky.  On the underside of the carpet were huge and numerous stains.  It was in a word, gross.  The pads looks clean and fresh, which was odd, but encouraging.

Finally the moment of truth.  We pull back a big section of the carpet to find this:

Yikes. . .  I am not sure what it was.  But it is obvious that whoever laid the carpet just walked right over and didn't even try to clean it up.  I took a sponge to it and it miraculously came right up.  Here is proof:

That was a big relief.  Next we decided to continue pulling the carpet up that comes from the entry way and down the hallway.  First we noticed huge stains on the carpet and pad this time.  Then underneath, the wood there was pretty clearly warped and rotted.  Right under where the hot water heater is.  So then we continue pulling up the carpet directly in front of the water heater only to find this:

A big plywood patch in our beautiful hardwood floors!!  The original boards must have been ruined during some sort of leak and were then pulled out and replaced with this ugly. 

So that was our big surprise of the day.  This basically means that our plan of having hardwood in this section then in the living room and down the hall can not be.  What we will end up doing is carrying the tile, which will go in the entry way where you can see the white linoleum now, down this passage way and will meet the wood at the opening to the living room.  The next question is if we can salvage the wood in the hallway enough to leave the wood exposed there, or if we will have to run the carpet from the bedrooms down the hall.  I am really hoping to keep the wood just because that hall will get so much use as it is the only footpath to the bathroom.  A carpet there will get very worn.  Also then we would have tile, wood and carpet all meeting together like Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, except without Utah.

So that was our first major problem.  Also Mr. House broke one of the faucet in the master bath.  The can of worms is officially opened!