Hmm.. This seems vaguely familiar....

Fireplace demolition in progress.

It's almost like we've been here before.

We finished tearing out the sheetrock surrounding the firebox in the fireplace a couple of days ago. We chipped up the tile in front as well. We felt better knowing the moldy sheetrock was outside -- but we realized that the same moldly sheetrock actually runs behind the pilasters that make up the mantle. What this means is the mantle will have to eventually be taken apart to get that sheetrock out... but we don't feel up to such a thing at this point and hope that someday in that land over the rainbow - professionals will swoop in and take up the task.

Having said that.. I'm still a bit puzzled why on earth someone drywalled around the firebox at all. I would have felt happier had there been plywood -- and I'm sure the tile that was stuck to the sheetrock would have been happier about it as well.

So with the fireplace almost finished -- and the stairway stripped bare -- we returned to our original job in the kitchen closet this weekend. We managed to scrape up all of the remaining linoleum with nothing but a hammer, chisel, and sheer determination... but when it came to getting the glue and paper-backing off the concrete subfloor -- we realized we needed more. Dave went out and found a long-handled heavy duty scraper tool early Saturday morning and the job started moving quickly.

Now, of course, we have not actually finished with the scraping of the kitchen closet floor -- but we are much closer. Had we worked on it continuously throughout the day - I dare say we would have it done. But you see -- when Dave came home with that heavy-duty scraper.. he also came home with a rotary tool meant for cutting drywall.... And having that new gadget - coupled with a burning curiosity as to the state of things behind what was supposed to have been our salvaged drywall - meant that the floor would have to wait a bit.

Missing walls! Missing floors! It's almost like home again! Er... wait...

In a previous post about our fireplace - I had mentioned almost being glad to find the mold there... The same strange and twisted feeling came over us when Dave cut out the first chunk of old sheetrock: Woo! and Alas! We were not disappointed. The studs were blackish in color -- particularly closest to the subfloor... and we were blessed with some bright green growth in a couple of areas too. We were rather irritated to find that the 'special mold resistant sealer' that our professional flood restoration crew had sprayed on the previously exposed studwalls (which turned out to be nothing more than Kilz primer) was quite obviously sprayed on when the studwalls were still at least damp. The primer was flaking off in chunks or had turned to powder in other spots. So much for mold remediation.

It was all the more confirmation that anything that had been submerged in the icky water during the storm and was not removed immediately after had to be removed now.

We're game. It's well after midnight here now.. and as I type this Dave is chipping up the kitchen floor. The tiles themselves are just... dirty.. and have a dank mildewy smell once they're pulled up. The subfloor looks amazingly clean -- I guess the nasty floor tiles soaked up all the good stuff... But as we suspected -- the floor is proving much easier to pull up than it should be. It's obvious that the mortar is beginning to break down in places, while the exposed grout actually bears a sediment line when viewed from the side. I knew I had remembered my grout being a different color.. I just knew it... But now it is quite obvious as at the very bottom of the grout it is still mostly a light brownish color -- much like the grout in the rest of the house and probably by no accident, either. But the top two-thirds of the grout has turned a very dark black. Ew.

Ah well.. Maybe grout color isn't all that interesting at all.. but it's late and I'm delirious. I shall see if after some sleep I still find all of this as fascinating as it seems right now....

More to come...