Friday, July 25, 2008

Archaeology

A small leak in our laundry tub has begat me re-doing the floors in our laundry room and our powder room.

The plumber came out and removed the old tub/sink and I removed the old floor using a hammer and a chisel/scraper thing. I wanted to put the new floor down under the new sink/tub while the basin was gone. I also had to remove the ugly faux tile from the wall.

As with all begats projects, it was not that simple. I must have used 20 tools and 30 curse words for that little space under the sink.


You can see in the second picture here the new floor and new tub.
I then had to tackle the rest of the floor in the room. Lauren, who should have her own home improvement show, told me to use an iron and a wet towel to heat up the tiles. It worked like a charm. It made the whole process so much easier.

I felt like an Archaeologist, discovering layer upon layer of the past. As you can see in the bottom half of the picture (below) the pale octagon patterned tile that is circa 1980s. The orange tile that is underneath it is definitely from the early 1970s or as some scientists call it the Bradybunchzoic period.

And in this last picture (the yellow tile) you can see the original asbestos tiles from when the house was built in the 1960s. If you look closely at the wall you can see the yellow flower wall paper that I have not been able put into a time period but I am sending out for carbon dating.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what 'might' be under the tile that was there when the house was built? It 'could' have been built over an old roman villa? (I can't believe I just said that!)Ok so if your house was here in the Uk it 'could' have been!

Maybe a native american burial ground?

Patience said...

It's just like an archeological dig! You might just find something prehistoric under all that glam tile!

Charlotte in Pa said...

You're the Indiana Jones of blogging! (The original handsome, dashing Indy, of course... not the tired, bitter Indy of the latest installment)

Practically Joe said...

... use an iron and a wet towel to heat up the tiles.
Damn it! My wife was right. It is me screwing up the floor. Okay ... You convinced me ... time to get an ironing board.

eclectic said...

OHGOD... the Bradybunchzoic tiles are like the green ones my mom had in our house growing up. Gah! Watch out for the asbestos, eh?

Anonymous said...

William,

Your stories will never go out of tile.

Amber said...

Hey William.

Ben and Bennie said...

(prayer)Please, please - don't let wife have time to read this post.(/prayer)

My weekend of lounging by the pool will be shot.

Spilling Ink said...

OMG. This sounds like our last house and its 'layers'. One room (of course it had to be a BIG room) had velvet wallpaper under foil wallpaper, and when I scraped it all off, the wall was painted bright orange underneath. The whole house had ugly stuff like that; beaded curtains, green shag carpet, a light fixture that looked like a disco ball. *sigh* What can I say? It was a STEAL and I couldn't resist the sweat equity factor at the (broke) time. The place was an eyesore, though. When I first saw the place, I thought JJ Walker was gonna jump out of a closet and slap me five. I really busted my hump in that place.

sari said...

My old house had green tile like that orange tile. It was green with some horrible blue and something that I think was supposed to be beige, it was hideous.

JP said...

Ah yes, another home project gone terribly awry.... I love giving the estimation of one hour for a "simple" job and eight hours, multiple tools, and several colorful metaphors later finishing..

Lowa said...

This is interesting since we are studying archaeology here in the home school.

Maybe I should show the kids your blog?? Well, the oldest reads it already anyway, but the younger ones might learn something:)

The Maid said...

Carbon dating is a hoax.

But I am impressed with your mad skills.

The Maid

Anonymous said...

A house's history is so neat to think about...all the couples and families who lived within those walls, who just LOVED that yellow flower wallpaper or orange floor tiles.

Bogart said...

Handy are we?

Here is hoping you find burried treasure.

Unknown said...

LOL - Wow! I had no idea that archeology was so exciting. :)

roll-wit-it said...

I feel you on that. One little thing always turns into something else. I went from patching a 7 inch hole in the wall- to cutting a huge hole for a bar and putting in a ceiling fan. Folks at home depot know me by name. Lol. Don't know if thats a good thing.