The previous owners had cats, and they left a pungent odor throughout the house. The worst of it is in the downstairs bathroom, but second worst was the foyer/dining room rug. So before we moved any furniture in, we decided to rip the rug up.

Tearing the rugs up was easy, but getting the carpet pad off the floor was more of a challenge. It hadn’t been glued, but parts of it were literally glued to the floor with dried-cat pee. MMMMM.

Here is my mother scraping the gunk off our floor, and a close-up image of the gunk. That big wet stain is ammonia and hot water, which is what we used to get it off. Once it was saturated it came off pretty easily.

(Click the thumbnails for larger images.)

The floor underneath is hardwood, which was a huge relief. There are a few areas that have been pushed up, and there is rot underneath one radiator, but overall it looks like the floors can be saved. A little sanding will do wonders for them, since someone apparently thought it was a good idea to drip white paint from one end of the house to the other.

We’re thrilled with this discovery. We both love hardwood floors, and putting new ones in is definitely not in the budget.

Here’s what the rooms look like minus the carpet – that’s Teague’s mom ripping up the carpet tack.

What remains of our nasty carpet – now living on our front porch. I’m sure the neighbors are thrilled.