We uncovered oak flooring and some bead board walls!

This week I went after the floor. I took a wide putty knife and pushed it under the corner of a tile and it popped right up. One after another, they came up in whole pieces! I threw them in small empty boxes so I could easily cart them downstairs and to the curb for the trash men. It took 1 hour to remove the vinyl squares and the floor looks great. These were peel and press tiles so there is no black glue on the wooden floor – just dirt that filtered down between the cracks. A light buffing should be fine, plus I have a nice room-size rug that will cover most of it anyway!
Meanwhile Chris disconnected the light fixtures in the old kitchen area. I called my electrician/plumber handy man to do some things now – cut the copper sink drain pipe level to the floor and cap it off; remove the gas pipe that runs from the basement to the old stove; and check out the electrical boxes and wiring for safety. He spent 3 hours completing those tasks – not bad!
We tore down the paneling in both rooms – a quick and easy job. Under the paneling in the kitchen area was original pine bead board, unpainted and aged to a beautiful color. Nice find - I’ll just clean it and polyurethane it later on.

We removed the door between the two rooms and discovered a vent pipe in the wall, which limits the size of the opening…but it is a wide enough opening to join the rooms visibly and functionally. On the drywall under the old paneling, some kid had written all over the wall. There were the stats from the sports page in May 1971 and other funny writings. We also found old newspaper stuffed in the wall from 1915. Since I know the house was built in 1900, this addition was probably added in 1915.

When we removed the drywall on the ceiling, we realized that we would be able to go with the vaulted ceiling as the studs were just installed to hold up the ceiling not the roof so they can come down.