Surprise Hardwood Floor

So the other day, while Chris and I were at work, Aunt Candy and Uncle Don came over and took up the carpet in the playroom.  It was pretty much ruined with stains from the bathroom project and also from my cat (she, for some reason, took offense to the carpet in that room and used it as her litter box).  So I was pretty excited when they called me at work to let me know it was gone.  I was even more excited to hear that there was, in fact, a hardwood floor underneath.  I was not so excited to hear that it was in pretty bad shape.


When I got home, this is the sight that awaited me:

You may be thinking "oh, that's not so bad," which is exactly the first thing I thought.  But then I gave it a closer look and found:

This 1960s era newspaper clipping painted to the floor (there are a few of these).

This rickety middle section of the floor (so that's why there was a dip in the carpet).

 

This metal place covering a hole for an old heat vent.

This huge gouge.

This metal plate covering the hole for (what I assume was) the old chimney.

All in all, it is a bit of a disaster.  The plan is to put down a new floor with vinyl or flooring, but I am not so sure.  Part of me, an unrealistically ambitious part of me, wants to try and refinish this floor.  I don't even know how to refinish a floor, but it can't be that hard.  Ha ha.  What do you think?

But I already love the difference not having carpet in there has made.  It is taking every ounce of my restraint to not remove it from the rest of the rooms upstairs.  I mean, if there are hardwood floors under the carpet in one room, it's probably like that in all the rooms, right?

Also, if you are bored, go ahead and play Spot The Intrusive Cats with the pictures in this post.  I'll give you a hint:  there are cat parts in 50% of these photos.