Our friends Kami and Jim have made so much progress on their new place (all while continuing to live in it). Since July, they've stripped wallpaper, stripped wood, installed heat, painted, tiled...and we're probably missing many things on the list.
Finally, we see the kitchen floor restored, after ripping up linoleum and layers of newspapers from the 60s and 70s. Thanks, Kami and Jim for letting us in. Anyone else have before/after stories to share? We're talking small alterations in your rental or big re-dos in an owned space. An office-turned-nursery perhaps? Show us!
(Left, the floor "after". Below, "before" floor pics):
Why the newspapers? Was is common for people to put newspaper down underneath linoleum?
Even though I know it was a lot of work redoing the floors, I bet they had a lot of fun seeing advertisements from the 60's and 70's!
When my folks were rennovating their 1905 Victorian 2-Flat they removed a damaged mosaic in the foyer to find full newspapers from the date that the mosaic was in set. In following the tradition they put several cover pages from newspapers under the new marble...
So perhaps in another 100 years...
It's really amazing what one finds in homes during rennovation; in the walls, under the floor... fantastic treatures that slowly reveal the life of the home...
I believe newspaper acts as insulation.
Just a thought.
When the building next door to me was re-roofed there was all this paper floating around; it took me a while to realize that it was from the roof AND that is was from 1938! They used to use it as underlayment for everything; probably to allow some movement between materials.