Hard as Nails!

We spent several productive hours at the farmhouse yesterday. Through applied archeology (i.e., searching for clues, doing a little digging and detective work, etc.), I had determined that there had to be heart pine wood floors in the dining room.

The question was, in what condition and under how many layers of "modern" materials?

The answer to the latter, just a measly four layers!

One of the ancestors of the home was bound and determined to preserve that beautiful hardwood for us, and in doing so we now are faced with over 400 sq ft of small, old, rusty nails every 4 inches in 4x8 panels of underlayment! Mind you, this is under two layers of stick-down vinyl tile and old linoleum and over a still fourth layer of some sort of tarpaper-like substance printed to look like shag carpet!

After about half an hour prying up nails with a hammer and cat's paw, we revealed a small 2 foot square section of finished #1 premium grade quartersawn antique heart pine! This very inspiring "after" view of the hidden treasure will serve to spur us on whenever we tire or lose patience. But if anyone knows of a miracle tool for digging up embedded nails, please let me know!