Flooring It!

..Oh, and in case you missed it…I added writeups to the last 2 posts which had no writeups..not having commentary for those 2 posts was my early Christmas present to you all. hehe..my bad.

Well the good news is that we did finish off what we should have finished off in the first place..the floor is all finished and ready for stain. We have some unfinished plank boards in the attic..but we had almost enough finished boards in the shed…we had to get a little creative with some pieces we had as old baseboard to fill some gaps but since the area is mostly going to be covered the rough spots will not show.

..the the staining yourself into a corner competition begin!…there was room to get out but its hard to tell since the area is all stained with Golden Oak stain..most of it 2 years ago so it should be dry.

..and the finished product..and A*’s cute bottom. It was the only finished shot I had but we did put 2 coats of poylurathane on it to toughen it up…the floor not A*’s bottom.

 

On a Roll with Bathroom Flooring

The flooring we bought has been hanging around getting in the way so we decided to stop doing hurdles in the entryway with it and just install it instead. We bought some cheap stuff but it was a type that was tear/rip resistant at least. When we were renovating our old house we put in new vinyl flooring in the kitchen and mid-install we ripped a hole in it…bummer. the most timportant things for an install like this is is going slow..we took out everything not nailed down and put it convieniently 2 ft outside the door of the bathroom..you never know when you might need to wash your hands in a non-working sink when installing flooring so 2 ft away from your cramped workspace is perfect. Hehe

Out comes the bathroom sink, after some effort..in comes the flooring we cut after we measured the pattern out on the flattened flooring in an even more cramped living area..it is not easy finding a 10×12 free space in a 24×24 house.

I did not want to disconnect the heavyweight cast iron tub so we resorted to a flooring shimmy as I would tilt and A* would feed and fit the flooring.

A highy technical and extra patient A* does a final trim around the terlet then around the baseboard area where the fit is too tight….and done!

Tile someday but done sounds pretty nice. We are 1/3 of the way through wood stove season then it is onto landscaping season so inside jobs need some attention! We hope.

 

Click away

..so while A* washed the dishes for supper I put together the entryway floor. Let me just say that I wish all flooring could be this easy. Lay a couple down, make a cut on the tablesaw…repeat x 10. There is only one way each length can snap together so it is impossible to click in the wrong piece..I did cut off the wrong end on a cut but was still able to use it. In the doorway I did need to make a couple of cuts to fit it all in..but an hour after starting 50 feet of flooring was in. Sweet. The flooring also has a 10 year warranty..so we will see how it holds up to the everyday wear and tear.

This camera sucks for inside night shots.

 

Living room varathaned

..3 coats of varathane. We ran out of supplies and needed the living space..as soon as the 3rd coat was done overnight drying we had most of the furniture setup..didn’t even wait for a final picture with no furniture.

We did leave the area closest to the kitchen area unfinished..we have the wood but the area is going to change so we wanted to hold off on final choices..not to mention we had no room to move the kichen items to with every other space filled with something else.

Now it is onto the next quick project before the baseboards, trim, planing off the bottoms of the doors, etc…it is some vinyl click flooring..tile in the future but done for now..or when I finish it.

 

Varathane..and again…

..the ongoing saga of applying shiny stuff to the floor continues..when we last left our heroes they were applying varathane..and will be all day…and night.

Jango is going to disown us.

 

Stain 1 and 2

Staining is so much fun when you know you won’t have more to do in the future..A* starts with the ‘Golden Oak’ stain..

and keeps going..and going and going…(while she goes she stains..hehe) . I love the transformation that takes place with stain on wood..some of the pieces don’t even look the same when they get the stain on..it really adds character.
And while we stain, Jango gets to have a relaxing day outside. With all the construction I think Jango has a sense that we is not welcome inside. He alternated between sleeping in front of the door then going and sleeping in the pile of sawdust..I think he sleeps in the sawdust for spite.

We applied the second coat of stain after we did some yardwork..but when we got home it was too dark. On to the varathane tomorrow..we are thinking 3-4 coats since the area is so high traffic..it will depend on time and materials I think.

 

Nailed and countersunk’d

..oh my stupid blistered hand. I realized too late but needed a glove to finish up countersinking the 500 or so nails. As I progressed with nailing in the boards the small differences in the widths became big gaps later on in the rows. After I got to a part where I noticed the gaps I was creating I cut off the edges of the wider boards for a snugger fit for the remaining rows. There were some big differences with doing this room due to multiple things..the wide boards, the number of joins, the need to offset joins, the size of the room as well as my lack of patience..compared to the 2 bedrooms this was more difficult..but then again I am really glad I did not start out in the living room.

Ready for stain

 

Yeah..

…a bigger job than anticipated..but it is roughed in now…a couple of dips here and there and some more sanding to do on the new edges..but done…barring any changes at sun-up.