Our Next Big Renovation Issue

The renovation of the duplex into a quilt shop was proceeding nicely, if slowly.  When you watch renovation shows on HGTV the renovation is always wrapped up in a hour (with commercials).  If you watch those shows, be sure to catch a little phrase they use before revealing the final results -"months later".  Judy and I were getting desperate to get the building open and our Certificate of Occupancy approved so we could open the shop and start recouping some of our money.
That said, carpenters were building, plumbers were plumbing and electricians were electrifying.  It was time to address a big issue - flooring.  The duplex consisted of 6 equal boxes.  Living room, bedroom and kitchen in the front, living room bedroom and kitchen in the back.  Small bathrooms were attached to each duplex. The living room and bedroom in the front was carpeted and the living room and bedroom in the back was hardwood.  Both kitchen floors had linoleum that had seen better days 30 years ago.  The back was where the eye-watering odor of cat urine was.
The easiest way to start on the flooring seemed to be to remove the carpet from the front duplex.  Oh yeah?  The carpet had been glued to the subfloor so that when you pulled it up it split off from the mesh it was sewn on.  A gluey mess remained on the floor.  Not to mention that it was back breaking labor for an old man like me.  I was down to the last piece of carpet and couldn't get it to budge. My 38 year old son happened to be there at the time.  He walked over too the spot and yanked it out like it was nothing.  Oh well.  Carpet and linoleum gone we contacted a flooring contractor and ordered flooring for the front duplex which would be our showroom.  I asked the contractor if he could get the carpet residue up before laying the floor.  He was aghast.  "That residue is full of asbestos" he said.  "If we do that you're going to have to do an asbestos abatement and that will cost at least $20,000."  After he picked me up off the floor he told me his plan.  "We'll cover the residue with plywood and lay the floor on top of that."  "That way you won't have to do the asbestos abatement."  Whew!
The next task was to tackle the cat odor.  As you may recall from a previous post, our veterinarian told us that it is impossible to remove the smell of cat urine from hardwood.  The best plan would be to remove the whole floor in the back and throw it away.  We didn't have the budget for that, so using sophisticated olfactory instruments (our noses) we determined that there were 3 kitty restrooms in the back.  We replaced the flooring and baseboards from those 3 spots, refinished the floors and painted the walls and ceilings. That took care of the odor.
In my next post I'll get to a most interesting decision  - the color of the building.