Thanks for all the comments; I appreciate all the info you folks share. We bought the house Monday. I tried to return it for a cash refund on Wednesday. LOL Yes, the carpet padding is definitely glued down. The carpet was loose on top of the pad; it rolled up with no problem. The the pad was glued down to within an inch of its life. They used a trowel, like you'd use for tile grout, to spread the glue around; the teeth marks are perfect. I took photos today, but I'm too tired to download them right now. The housing inspector (he's redoing our mud-room...another issue altogether) started pulling some of the pad up with a putty knife. Before we quit for the night, we had about two square yards of the thick, rubbery pad pulled up. Of course, the glue and thin streaks of padding is still on the beautiful oak flooring. He called the floor a Quarter Bead; the boards are about 1 1/4 inch wide, but are longer than the premade flooring I've seen in the stores. I think it will be lovely when it's finished. Cass62, I can't wait to try your "hot water glue removal" method. Are you getting any grain or swelling problems from the water? DH is researching long-handled scrapers even as we speak! Again, thanks for the inputs. P.S. Does anyone want to buy 2,900 sq. ft. in beautiful North Dakota? It's complete with an odd, but very effective, home-engineered geo-thermal air conditioning system. It's a cute little doll house that needs just a "few" projects completed. LOL

The real problem here is any state along that southern border is just overflowing with uneducated trades people who don't understand what quality is. Then add contractors that were working at Walmart last week and homeowners who all think they should have marble and gray walls just like they saw on TV for a price that couldn't possibly cover the proper costs. Illegal workers no matter how you feel about their legal status are a huge problem for the construction business. We have people undercutting bids and have zero idea how to perform the work. The same guy hanging cabinets is your electrical Tuesday and your plumber on Friday. They don't speak or read a word of English which causes even bigger issues. If you cant read how to install something how do you do it? They are somewhat trained from the country they come from which does not have the same standards that we have here in the USA. I live in SOCAL and I see these greedy flippers and realtors using these illegals to make a property look good in a picture. And then the realtor just keeps saying don't worry you'll have an inspection and a home warranty. Of course the warranty doesn't cover any of it and the inspector is in the realtors pocket. The real home market crash comes when all these flipped to the hilt overpriced messes start needing corrective work. Homeowners can barely afford them and as you have here the corrective work will cost more then the original repairs. There is nothing to be salvaged in those pics and what is NOT seen is the real problem.

First things first: find out the species of your wood floor. We don't have very many room shots of the floors...which makes figuring out the COLOUR they will become once sanded/finished in a CLEAR COAT finish. What you are seeing right now is not a 'stain'. It is oil based polyurethane that has ambered (turned orange) just by aging. I would say there is NO stain on the floors. They are a birch (maybe maple....TOO HARD to tell from these slices in the photos) with a finish over top...no stain. The floor colour will drive the rest of the house. And yes...those floors in the kitchen are the very reason why we tell people NOT to put fake wood next to real wood. And the person who did it is probably colour blind. The clash of colours is enough for me to scratch my eyes out! But I digress. Personally I would find out the floor species FIRST. Then I would get a hardwood flooring professional to come in and offer a quote for the purchase of 'more' of the same wood (in the same cut, width and grade) and the cost to lace in the two floors and refinish them. That's going to be your 'big budget' ticket item. That will tell you what's left in the bank account. Painting out the trim is going to be a pain. The HEAVY graining of the red oak = doesn't look good when painted. I would assume you will need to remove/replace the wood trim unless otherwise convinced that something awesome could be done with them. I doubt it. Much of the trim looks like a patch-work-quilt that has been done a different times with different species of wood and different finish at different times with different skill levels. The doors on the other hand are a different story. If they are solid core, then they are worth a bundle. I would keep them and try to find a shade of stain or paint that would look handsome with the FINAL look of my floors. If you find out you have a VERY PALE wood underneath the orange oil based finish you might discover how pale they are when finished in a high-end two part water based finish (ahem...do NOT go with oil based finish or else you will simply end up with the same colour of floor = bright yellow/orange). I've seen Birch and Maple as well as red and white oak look as pale as wheat or dry sand. It is a markedly different tone compared to what you have now.

Ten years after we had this place built, we had the kitchen gutted and completely redone. The layout with it's too long kitchen island, clutter-magnet, space-hogging kitchen desk, and too deep pantry cabinet were very much not working for me. Around the same time, our son's bedroom finally morphed into our guest room, once he bought a home of his own. That was a fun decorating project for me!!! Five years ago, we had most of the windows replaced, with more energy efficient ones. And, we had a cedar storage closet built in our attached garage for out of season clothes. A great move! Three years ago our in-floor radiant heat system totally died on us. It had been set into concrete with the entire floor throughout then bricked over it as it was built. So, we had the choice of tearing up all the bricks throughout our entire one story home, jackhammering the entire concrete subfloor, and putting in a new in-floor heating system, and then bricking over it all once again (and this was in November when it was quite cold here in our Northern New Mexico mountains!), OR installing a new heating and air conditioning system up on the roof, with all heating and a/c venting being cut through our beautiful wood and beamed ceilings, as all our walls throughout are thick, real adobe brick. We chose the latter, but Ugh, what an expense and disruption that was! But, up until last week, other than refreshing the walls with the same cream-colored paint now and then, we really haven't done anything else, except adding more paintings here and there. Oh, and having 4 more adult trees and 2 large evergreen bushes planted by our favorite nursery just the other day (LOL). And then, last week, our 27 y/o daughter, came home here for an extended Thanksgiving visit (because, as a therapist, she can counsel in her dad's private study via the internet on a kind of private facetime). Anyhoo, she and her dad decided to turn her old bedroom into a serious workout room for him/us. Soooo, our home is now upended and a mess as they work on this project whenever she's not counseling. I'm a good decorator and my husband and I still like and enjoy how I've decorated our home. It doesn't look of feel dated, and we're satisfied with it just looking welcoming and comfortable. I'll be very glad when the new workout room is finished, though! No other updating plans are in the works!