~Floor problems~

It was not until we were doing our final walk-through of our home that I noticed the kitchen floor was not a linoleum, but rather sticky linoleum "tiles". So maybe that was why the previous owners had strewn dirty laundry throughout the house the day of our inspection? They wanted to draw attention away from the floors? (Seriously, there was laundry everywhere! Our realtor picked it up off the stairs so we could walk down without tripping! Baskets were everywhere all over the kitchen!)

I know that many designers on HGTV make use of these "marvelous" sticky tiles, and I have seen a job done correctly with them. But this is not a long-lasting floor solution! Unless the tiles are laid perfectly, there are gaps. Also, the tiles lose their stickiness and start to come up, or slip around.

So here's what the floor by my stove looked like:


I took off six tiles:


and now look (oooh, don't look too hard, I still haven't cleaned the floor/cupboard doors!):


There is still one tile in that area that has gaps. Honestly though, I could have removed the whole floor last night. Because once you start going, the rest of the floor looks bad too. But, I would have run out of tiles (at least the previous owner left a box and a half in the basement for us), and the tiles have lost some of their stickiness. So I'll be content that the huge gaps are gone!