Well my boyfriend, son and I moved into a WW2 style row house in Oct 05. We are renting the place but have claimed it as our own for awhile. (We'd have better luck getting a mortage for a cardboard box right now )
The hardwood floors are orginal and still intacked. All the mouldings downstairs are also orginal.
Our first bit of craziness was tearing up the indoor/outdoor that was only tacked down in the corners. The floors underneath need to be sanded and finished. They have never been stained just had polyurethane put on them. Due to carpet and time most of that has wore off. So our project starting June 9 is to get the floors sanded. My son will be with grandma and out of the way.
Being unable to settle on one project at a time the painted over moulding in the kitchen is driving me nut. I want to strangle the nut who thought painting that moulding was a good idea. It looks like at least three layers of white paint not old(not lead danger I believe). Any ideas on stripping?
The second more major project is the kitchen floor. It currently have torn up badly put down lineomium. Under that is a sub floor that was not put down to rest edges of cupboards so it looks as equally bad.
I need hints and horrors to removing this subfloor too. Is it going to be worth it or will all I find is a nightmare.
I realize this is a rental but I'm stuck living here for at least 4 years so I might as well enjoy it. The place has a ton of personality and our landlord is great. He okays the job and takes whatever we paid in materials off the rent. It also gives me something to do.
Any suggestions are appreciated.

Laura in Michigan

Hi Laura, as far as stripping the wood work....if there is a coat of varnish under the paint...a heat gun works pretty well to get the heavy stuff...the varnish will bubble up and you just hit it with a putty knife. You sill still need to do some serious sanding...but most of the paint will be gone. If there's no finish under the paint, a heat gun will work to get the top layers, but then you'll have to sand or use a chemical stripper....I use Park stripper it works well...the key is to be patient....let the stripper do the work.....niether method is very plesant....I wouldn't strip with your son around...

Well our landlord would like to have our sanity checked when we called and asked what was underneath the sub floor in the kitchen. He would first like to see us prove ourselves with the living/dining room refirech before we completly go tearing apart the house. The kitchen project will now involve tearing up the floor(crossing figures that there is something there)and moving kitchen cabinets along with stripping the moulding. At least this project is keeping me off the streets. Any thoughts and/or suggestions would be helpful. Thanks