Tearing Up the Kitchen Floor

I remember this being one of the first things I did once Nick started his job and I began working full-time on the house. I have never seen such ugly flooring, which was motivation enough to get it done ASAP. It was also pretty easy.

Here's a before shot of the kitchen floor:

It was in such bad shape that it must have been the original flooring. There was evidence that it might have been covered by carpet at some point. I just can't imagine that the previous three owners just lived with it like this...

Pulling this up was pretty easy. Had to use a razor to scrape up at the edges and then pull using pliers once I had enough to hold. Once a large enough chunk was loose I could use my hands. Some areas came up more easily than others. Some in strips like below, but many areas in ripped, random chunks.

Below is the floor with all the linoleum removed. Still ugly, but much better. I also had to go over every inch and pull out small pointy broken staple pieces to prepare for laying the new tile.

Notice the mini-fridge on the right of the photo? The only appliance the house came with was the pictured range, so while we waited for our new fridge to be delivered/time spent laying the new tile/grout/sealant, we lived out of that mini-fridge. It's now in the garage and will eventually be a fully stocked drink fridge, especially once we start brewing our own beer, cider, and perry.

The tile below was my favorite after searching and we quickly agreed that it was perfect, though they weren't available in the store so we had to buy without seeing them in person:

After the floor was prepped, I measured and ordered 6 cases of the 16 x 16 size. It's called Marazzi Imperial Slate, in 'Black'. We laid the tile ourselves, but that will be another post on another day!