This is our entry way vinyl that matches our kitchen floor. It is very photogenic, meaning that it looks fairly OK when it’s shiny from the camera’s flash. In reality, it is a lot darker and sinister. In fact you can’t take a picture of it without the flash, even in the daylight. And note how well it goes with wall colors.

I honestly thought I would have fun ripping out this butt-ugly vinyl in my kitchen. I have hated that flooring since we moved in – 24 years ago.  It is only because we had to fix water damage from an old leaky dishwasher that we are changing the flooring before we put the house up for sale.

The job is much harder than I ever suspected. Admittedly, hubby is doing most of the work which is rightly so, because this type of housework is MANS WORK.  I am helping him, but my level of strength is low, especially compared to hubby’s, so my job is to remove the backing and horrible gluey mess, that will now be referred to as the crap, from the floor that the vinyl left. No sweat, right?

Ha! Lots and lots of it, actually. Not to mention screaming back and shoulder muscles. And the cursing.

My fingers are all torn up and cracked. And I have worn gloves and use a large putty knife to scrape the crap. My carpel tunnel is protesting also. Damn my weakness!

I wanted to hire some flooring guys to replace the floor while I was at work. Is that too much to ask? But hubby is an excellent handy-man who can’t stand other people doing what he wants to get done. And besides that, he has left over flooring tiles in the garage. Which means that our kitchen floor will soon match the one in our guest bathroom. Hmm.. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I am sooo glad that I’m moving out of this crazy house!

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.This is the progress I made on Thursday.

See the darker plywood on the right? That is from water damage. For some reason it makes the crap stick better.

To be continued….