Kitchen Remodel Part 2 Floor and Ceiling

After Ryan ripped up 3 layers of linoleum in the kitchen we found black tar paper on top of our hidden hard wood floors. There wasn't a floor guy in town who wanted to sand them down with that sticky stuff on the top. After many emails and texts to Ryan's sister, Celeste, discussing her own trials with hardwood floor restoration, we discovered this trick of steaming it and then scrapping it off. What a stinky job! There is something really satisfying though about finding such lovely floors underneath. 

One of the challenges of remodeling a kitchen is getting all your subcontractors in the right line up. We had a hard time finding a floor guy who could refinish our floor on short notice, and the cabinets couldn't go in until the floors were done. Luckily I found a "seasoned" floor finisher who could squeeze our job in, and he did excellent work. I admit, I prayed harder him while he worked than for any of my other contractors. I was afraid that he might move onto the next life while on our job, and I had all sorts of visions of the sander taking off through my house. 

Here is the finished floor -- and to think that all the other flooring experts we talked to said it couldn't be done and that we should tile over it! 

We had to lower our ceiling in order to get our stove vent to discharge outside the house. I cannot count the quantity of onions I have burned because the old vent used to blow straight into my eyes. We also took our that timeless fain and put in recessed lighting.

 The rest of our downstairs has wallpaper on the ceiling, so we decided to keep the theme. We were a little nervous to wallpaper against the laws of gravity, but it turned out great! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, although the arms get a little shaky until you learn to speed up.