You'll Be Floored!

     Can't you just think of it? Late March, sunshine, sand, ocean, think about it. Girls in the smallest bathing suits you can't even imagine, me in a speedo...

You know what that means, SPRING BREAK!

MammaD and I packed it up, went to Costa Rica to drink out of coconuts.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand now I'm lying.

     As a teacher, we are blessed with the spring break, as a teacher, we are cursed with the spring break. Sure, in my twenties I took a trip to LA, Charleston, visited my sister in Boston, and had a couple cocktails at 7 in the morning to annoy my roommates as they went off to their jobs. 2013, we demolished our home.

 

     One of the biggest faults of Dueselhouse was the tile running from the dining room, through the living room, down the hallway to the bedrooms, and allllllll the way to the bathroom. Big project. And just for good measure, why not strip the floors from the blue room and our bedroom?

     Weeks before, we pulled up carpet in the blue room, realized there was some throttled hardwood beneath it, and then pulled up some of the living room tile. It wasn't salvageable. Whoever had laid the tile put the thin-set/cement right onto the hard wood. Terrible. I had the blue room emptied the weekend before spring break - Aura helped me one day too! (sorry, no photo of her tearing up oak and counting nails as they were chucked into the trash barrel outside the window)

     The first Saturday of spring break, I picked up a pile of laminate flooring, and it was go time! We employed the brothers-in-law, Matt and Anthony, also Lyn rolled up her sleeves too! The first Saturday of spring break the tile was gone, and after tearing up some tar paper, sweeping a dozen or two times, a hundred passes with the shop-vac and repeated searches for stray nails. It was awesome.

     The flooring was Allen and Roth laminate from Lowes; Hand scraped chestnut is the color and texture. It is very good looking. Each plank is made to look like a single plank, and is backed with a foam underlayment. All it needed to be laid down is the plastic moisture barrier! Also,we over-ordered, and after returning half still there is enough to re-do a room or two!

     Saturday afternoon I was putting down the blue-room floor. Before bed, my goal was to be into the living room 24 hours from then. And I made through the room, and the hallway by Sunday night.

Monday, my first day home alone, I rallied and took care of the living room/dining room.

Some rotten floor planks had to be repaired before floor could go down. 

It's all a custom job, you know.

Plastic is always laid down before the flooring...

Lots of plastic...

 Slow but steady progress! (This photo is some time around noon, I believe)

Down to the final row!

Katie literally came home from work as I had just finished the final row.

It looked good.

    Everything looked really good. I was happy, and then I turned a corner, and realized that our bedroom wasn't done! Also, I had a truck and trailer full of trash flooring that needed to be removed. Tuesday was spent dropping roughly 1.5 tons of oak, nails, tile, and tar-paper at our wonderful recycling center. It was fun. I also tore up the floors for the bedroom, which was not nearly as easy as the pictures make it look.

     Tuesday night, my project looked like, Wednesday - my thirty-second birthday - was going to be a full-on bedroom and assault then the big flooring project would be considered "a wrap". Tuesday night, I was a little excited about being finished and wanted to get things started and pull up a few rows of floorboards before bed.

Never try to do anything when you are excited before bedtime. Never.

     I crushed the edges of the planks leading to the bedroom. Popping the tongue into it did nothing to make it look good. I was the complete opposite of happy. Wednesday morning was spent (wasted) carefully cutting, measuring, and trimming a new plank. It turned out great, but would have been better had I not wasted from 8am to 11 fixing ONE plank!

 Just above the 2, that is the broken section.

Dumb.

Cutting the plank to get wiggle room...

This is the cut I made, and then I used the removed pieces as a template to cut a new one that would pair right up with the cut.

     Everything appeared to be back on track -though delayed. I was still mad at myself, but there is always one error to keep my ego in check. Time to reconsider the speed of attack, and be more careful.

On to removing the hardwood, and laying the new floors!

 Stripped to the tar paper...

Then clan floor boards, many passes for nails later...

Floor done! Right about 7pm, in time for a big birthday dinner!

     This wasn't the end of the project. There was more trash for the dump, and baseboards. The thresholds aren't finished yet, and the baseboards haven't been completely fine tuned. The fireplace looks terrible too. But the big part of the project is done, and I will slowly whittle away at the little pieces as we get closer to the drop date. The house looks amazing, and we'd love to show you around. You may try to schedule a visit in late July or August. 

Until then, have a great rest of May and June. We're still putting final touches around for the little-Duesel.

-Jeff