History Pt II : The Linoleum Blues

Without much luck, just when we we're scheduled to have our bid reviewed, one of the owners died. This unfortunate mishap delayed all bids on the house for at least 2 weeks. When our bid was finally accepted, well counter-offered & then accepted, we had to wait another 2 months for the notary to conduct the necessary research for potential rights of succession. Meanwhile our stuff sat in storage. Meanwhile we paid rent in a hotel. Meanwhile we borrowed the key a lot and worried about what kind of project we'd gotten ourselves into.

On one sunny May afternoon I visited the partially emptied house (*note: partially) and decided to do something constructive, or this actual case de-structive. The linoleum had to go. With no sense of how you actually get rid of piles of dirty, heavy, stinky linoleum I dove head first into the first of many dirty, heavy, stinky projects (did I mention dusty...because dusty is an important word in renovation projects). The linoleum was everywhere; faded speckled greens, mauvey roses, a few daring, checked, 1950's motifs. It was layered in some parts three levels deep. It cracked from age and as you tore it loose from nails it's backing crumbled into a foreboding cloud of black, toxic dust. Beneath it all & in all the corners lie layers of dirt measurable with a ruler. I piled it all into manageble, squares & swept the floors free. All of this I hauled unceremoniously to the local dumpster two blocks away.

In the future we'd become savvy. We'd use a trailer for hauling, we'd use huge metal buckets found in the basement for ease of transport, & we'd go to the dump with everything. Our good friend ... the public dump. We we're so naive we didn't know that a free place to dump our kilos of debris even existed. At this point though, full of ambition & motivation or whatever you call it, I was more than willing to make 15 trips two blocks away to the dumpster. Ah, youth.

* The owners did not completely empty the house. Although it was discussed that they would leave a few pre selected pieces behind, they took it upon themselves to leave these pieces & so much more. It took us several months to haul away the broken refridgerators, ancient fishing nets, broken lawn chairs and collections of scrap copper, mirrors, tiles & glass.

*image courtesy of subtext.info