Over a year ago I moved into my new office in the back of the house where there is so much natural light.

My old office has been in limbo. What do we do with it? I want to move my workouts back in there. Is there room for a guest bed too? (no) What about a tv? (sure?)

We finally took the first step and Jeff ripped out the carpet.

The carpet has always been old and gross. And the room has always had a smell. Of what? I don’t know. Just a smell. When we moved in, the carpet was covered in what looked like mustard? I used the carpet shampooer and cleaned it up, but it didn’t make a difference. Since then, Sally has had enough furballs in there that I’m always spot cleaning it.

Jeff removed the carpet a couple weeks ago, and the underlay, and to our surprise, there is a fir floor in there! We had no idea! I had looked near the old heat register and it had plywood, but that was just a patch!

After letting the room sit for a few days, the smell WAS STILL THERE!

The fir floor is nice, but old, and has damage and paint splattered on it. We toyed with keeping the fir floor, maybe sanding and restaining, but nah.

So we decided to see if a layer of Kilz primer would work to seal in whatever the smell is, assuming it is even coming from the floor?

First we vacuumed several times and pulled out every staple.

And Jeff figured out how to patch the two large holes in the floor from the old duct work.

Then Jeff spread the Kilz primer down. It is oil based and it stinks!

It needed two coats, to be sure it was sealing the little gaps between the old floor boards.

But by the end day, my throat and lungs couldn’t take it. So following Dad’s advice, Jeff found whatever latex paint we had in the garage, and painted over it again, to seal in the smell of the primer (kinda ironic).

The next job was to cover the floor with some thin plywood, and to screw that down really well, hopefully to take some of the squeak out of the floor. Likely impossible, this old historical fir floor makes our house super squeaky everywhere. You may find a way to get in our back door, but you aren’t sneaking into the house.

With so many options for flooring, we’ve decided just to match my new office, and use the same vinyl click flooring planks. We’re thinking of putting down a new hardwood floor eventually in our living room and bedroom (which are connected), over top of that old fir floor, but one project at a time.

Next up, flooring!

This flooring is vinyl and has some flex, but it is pretty unforgiving. It doesn’t really click like the old laminate floor installs do. And you absolutely can’t hammer it because the ends will break off, or weaken, and break after the floor is installed (see my office floor). It’s either correctly installed, or it is not.

Jeff did all of the installation. I was his support.

He did a great job! He’s got one more strip to do along the door, and then install some new trim around the edge. The door has also never closed well, so Jeff wants to tackle that too. We’ll paint this room again this year, but not until the weather is warmer. (Remember Jeff tried to paint my new office last winter and the walls were too cold and the paint slid right off the wall!)

Soon I can move all my dumbbells over and maybe get a TV on the wall for YouTube workouts! I’ve already moved Sally’s litterbox and food back in so she’d be happy.

Thanks Jeff! Great work!

Oh! And the smell is GONE! So it was in floor! The Kilz primer saved us!