First impression of the dining room:
After closing (bank cleared it out)
We didn't know about the wood floors underneath the tile, and the first thought was to design a color scheme around the existing tile. The problem was that the tile was ugly, even though it was in good condition. Looked cheap and was pink
So, I thought it would be better to remove it and put down new tile. However, once some tile was lifted, we saw these great floors.
Lifting the tile itself was quite the job. At first, I tried prying up tiles, but they were breaking off in tiny pieces, which would have taken weeks to do. So I used a crow bar underneath the underlayment and lifted up big chunks. It took about 2/3 of a day to get all the floor up. That day was the most physically tired I got during the whole rehab.
Then it was just a matter of wall patch, paint, new light fixtures and floor finishing:
