Still hanging out in the kitchen... this week we pulled up five (!) layers of floor, which brought us down to a felt-like gray, nasty looking stuff over wood that didn't come off easily. I thought for sure it was cutback adhesive, so I had decided we'd just tile over it and be done. I bought the slate, primer, floor leveler compound, mortar, etc. already, but tonight I dropped an ice cube on the floor. I didn't find it until after it had melted, and when I wiped it away, all the crap came off and exposed the wood.

So, I took some water and poured it over the floor and let it soak. After a while, I peeled a lot of the stuff away, and used a scrub brush and rag to clean it off. Now I'm torn. I don't know if I can or should tile over this wood. Our house was built in 1937, and this is the original wood. It has some spots that are rotten and would need repaired, and tons of nail/screw holes in it, plus a few areas where it's short and I'd have to pull the wood up from some places and move it to others to make it look right. It is continuous as you walk in from the entryway, to the living room, to the dining room, and into another foyer. It's the same wood that I've uncovered in the kitchen. I don't what color it's stained elsewhere, maybe early American (which I really don't like so much, but the rest of the rooms are in good condition, and we're moving in 1 1/2 yrs so I'm not going to refinish all of the floors). It would be tricky to match- but I'm sure I could. However, we have planned to put in dark walnut butcher block counter tops, and have already bought them. I don't like the idea of wood floors with wood counter tops, and we cannot afford marble/quartz/granite- which would be the only other way I would be willing to go.

Help me decide what to do, please! It's either pour the leveling compound over it and totally seal it's fate, or repair, and refinish to match the rest of the house for the sake of preserving old wood floors...