As part of the kitchen renovation, we replaced the kitchen floor. The old floor was plastic laminate, on top of an older floor of corkboard tiles, on top of an even older pine floor, which was probably the original. I had hoped that we could remove the newer layers and rescue the original, but it was both very uneven and very drafty, so it got torn up. Underneath it was a layer of peat insulation. I guess at some point it may have filled all the space under the floor but now it had mostly turned into peat dust, and a wide empty space above it explained our cold floors.

I found two pieces of an old newspaper under the floor. On the first piece, one side seemed to hold a letter to the editor, where the writer complained about a barber who kept insisting on using various treatments and fragrances on his hair and beard. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – that’s an eternal struggle apparently because I have the same trouble whenever I go to a hairdresser other than my usual one.

The reverse side of this piece reports from the annual meeting of Sveriges Praktiska Livförsäkringsförening, Sweden’s Practical Life Insurance Association. Systems/rules for determining the payout upon death were discussed.

The other piece was from an ads page. One side was full of ads for rooms to rent, as well as ads by “proper girls” and “older ladies” and “young men” looking to rent a room. Replies to these ads were to be addressed to “St.-T. Annonskontor V. Slussg. 3”, among others, which indicates that this page was from the Stockholms-Tidningen, and that the newspaper had multiple ad offices.

On the reverse of this page there are ads for cigars, cheap firewood, and some kind of juniper drink. Cigar prices ranged from 5:50 öre to 9:50.