More floor work

You never know what you'll find when you start digging into things in a century-old house.

We've been constantly amazed at how many odd things - modifications, remodels, idiotic half-fixes - can happen over the history of a house like ours.

The floor covering guys are back this morning, tearing out dog-stained and ugly carpet to replace it with something that will be more appealing to would-be buyers.

When they removed the brown Berber carpet running up the stairs from the kitchen, we discovered a layer of goofy linoleum with a pattern that looks like a photograph of tan carpeting.

We also found that the upstairs landing has the same fine old hardwood flooring as the other bedrooms, albeit in need of refinishing. Although there is luan or plywood in the office, I suspect there's good hardwood under that too.

If we weren't hell-bent on getting this project done as quickly and inexpensively as possible, I'd put all of the hardwood floors back to near-original condition. But the object of the game is to have a house that shows well. We can mention the hardwood floors to whoever buys the place and let them decide whether to take on that project.

In the meantime, the dogs are in their kennels in an upstairs bedroom with the door closed. I'm waiting for the workers to get all of the nails and staples out of the steps before I take them out because I don't want any hurt paws.