Floored!

What did you do for your winter vacation? Please write a 300 word essay.

Well... we installed our floor in the den/living room/dining room. Yay! We started in the den and worked our way eastward towards the dining area. All and all, it was relatively easy. Except maybe for the back-breaking bending over part. And the anxiety of making the wrong cuts and running out of flooring. And the saga of the air compressor that wouldn't start in the mornings. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The installation team for this event consisted of the brother-in-law and me. My spouse distracted the baby in the back room so that the pneumatic nailer and table saw didn't upset him too badly. B-i-L was in charge of the cut list and the master plan (which I printed out for him). He did a pretty good job of keeping me honest. I only deviated once (my fault, not his, although he might argue this point). We were able to install approximately 100 sq ft a day for a total of just under 400 sq ft.

As previously mentioned, our floor is Teragren Synergy Java strand bamboo.

Here's a photo of the den before we started.

We layed a layer of 1/4" thick cork down between the flooring and the subfloor. This was to help insulate the floor for both temperature and sound.

The den turned out to be a dimension that created no waste (12 feet wide). This was great and made the install much faster. Here are some photos of the layout.

I used a pneumatic nailer. I'd originally rented a manual one, but after practicing with it a couple of times, I realized the error of my ways (much harder to use than a pneumatic floor nailer) and went back to rent the right tool.

Here's a photo of the completed den floor. This took one day.

The air compressor that I rented kept tripping the breaker. The Hertz rental place guy said it was that the voltage on my circuit was too low, but I plugged it in on several different circuits (15amp and 20amp, both with and without an extension cord) and it still had a hard time starting. It seemed like the motor was binding up because of a sticky axle. B-i-L and I had to spend more than 15 minutes each morning trying to get the thing started. The the last day it wouldn't start at all so I had to run to Home Depot to rent another air compressor. It worked great and made me wish I'd rented from HD instead of Hertz.

Here's a photo of me cutting the flooring planks to length. It looks like I'm using the fence in the photo, but I'm not.

Day two. I wore knee pads in the beginning of the project, but I eventually ditched them since it was faster to just bend over. More painful at the end of the day, too. The buckets in the next photo are being used to weigh down the floor next to the wall since I couldn't use the nailer in tight locations. I glued the flooring in these spots since I didn't want to nail through the top of the floor (as is common practice).

B-i-L took a photo of the floor that I thought showed the color and visual texture quite well.

Here's a photo of the fireplace and future hearth location. We centered the flooring planks on the fireplace.

This was the end of day two.

As I was bringing the air compressor inside for the night, I noticed the view from our entryway. The angle makes it look like the flooring is complete, and this really perked me up.

We took Christmas day off.

Here's a good shot of me using cutoff pieces as hammering blocks. I used them to get the flooring planks nice and tight.

This was the end of day three.

Day four had me worried since I had to spend time renting a new air compressor and I didn't want to run out of time (we try to put the baby to bed by 7:30).

I had to glue the last four rows of flooring down. The buckets of leftover wall clay and the leftover flooring planks were great weights.

I returned all of the equipment the next day. I told Hertz about my problems and they chose to only charge me for two days' rental of the nailer and not at all for the compressor. While disappointed in the overall rental experience, they made up for it in the end.

The floor looks great! B-i-L thinks the heaters turn on less frequently, too. We put felt pads on all the furniture to minimize the risk of scratches to the floor. All that's left is the trim work.

Halloween Tree Pruning

My brother was visiting during this last Halloween and wanted to be useful. Every winter brings a wind storm here in the NW so I was anxious to trim some branches from my neighbor's tree that touch the house. Some of you have seen these photos before as my sister/girlfriend-in-law posted them on her Picasa album.

Finishing the Den Walls and Ceiling

Let me just say that being a father is amazing and wonderful. However, I seem to get less done on the house when I'm holding my baby in one arm.

This post is about finishing the den walls and ceiling. The drywall has been up for a while. I've been taping, mudding, and sanding as I've had time and energy.

With all the seams and screws mudded, I next primed and painted the ceiling. I ended up having to paint the whole ceiling (including what I'd already painted in the dining room) because the paint colors were not a perfect match and we could see the transition. I don't understand why. The paint was the same paint from the same can. I guess one-year-old paint shouldn't be expected to match itself when it was fresh.

After the ceiling was painted, I put sanded primer on the walls in preparation for the clay, one layer of Loma and one layer of Porcelina. All I have left to do is burnish.

Next is the floor!

Washer and Dryer Move

I had to do a few things before moving the washer and dryer. Specifically, I had to install a new dryer vent, connect into the drain line for the washer, and connect the 110V and 220V electrical circuits for the washer and dryer.

Here's a photo of me installing the dryer vent. We're going to stack the dryer on the washer some day so the vent is located in the ceiling.

I'd show you photos of the drain line, but I hate going under the house enough as it is so... no photos. Instead here are some photos of the move.

Sadly, I found that I'd installed the 220V outlet too high for a ground level dryer. So, I raised the dryer. It's a dryer on blocks! It's actually WAY easier to load and unload the dryer at this height.

And here's a photo to of the empty entryway (formerly the utility room).

The next steps are to clean out the entryway and then move all our tools and other gear into the entryway to clear up space to work in the den.

The Big Move

Here are some photos of where the water heater has lived since we bought the rat hole.

As you can see, it's in the way. We have to walk through the kitchen to get anywhere in the house.

The first thing to do before the big move was to turn off the power to the water heater, turn off the water to the house, and drain the water heater.

The next steps were to decommission the old lines and hook up to the new lines. I used Sharkbite fittings so the pex to pex connections were ultra-simple. The only annoying connection was the brass barb into the 1" poly main line under the house. Handling scalding water in a cramped crawl space is tricky.

Here are some photos of some of the old galvanized lines that were removed.

Can you tell which ones were hot water and which were cold?

We used a furniture dolly to move the water heater to its new home. We think it's happy.

Here are some photos of the empty doorway in the utility room. What a big difference!

The next steps took a while. Connecting into the lines for the water heater wasn't hard, but it was a long process.

I'll say it again... Sharkbite fittings are great! And easy! And expensive. One of them leaked after I turned the water back on. I was upset, but turned the pex and fitting a little and the leak stopped. Yay! I really like Sharkbite!

Here's a funny part of the story. After I connected everything and turned the water back on, I turned on the faucets to let the air out of the system. The hot water lines expelled air for a long time since the water heater had to fill up. I noticed that the cold water valve in the washer and dryer closet was expelling air. It freaked me out! Had I made a mistake and reversed my connections somewhere?

After going under the house, going into the attic space, and checking the water heater closet, I was able to confirm that, yes, I had indeed reversed the connections (hot to cold and cold to hot). All of them. In moving the water heater, I also moved the main incoming water line (cold). I connected the main line to the new hot water line instead of the new cold water line. But I also connected the water heater input and output to the wrong lines. And I reversed the splices up in the attic as well. It all stemmed from me misremembering which line was which. Should have labeled them. In the end, because I was consistent in my mixup, everything worked out. Except for the washer valves. Those are reversed. I'll switch them around before the washer gets moved. Three wrongs make a right!

Closet Baseboard

We had a little difficulty settling on the design for the baseboards in the closets. After looking at a number of different profiles, we chose to go with a standard 1x4 (.75x3.5). We liked the height the best. We also chose to put a 1/4" radius on the top corner. We like this look, but we will likely do something different in the main rooms. These are the closets after all. Simple is okay.

The baseboards were installed using panel adhesive and a few nails.

Since nothing is ever straight and perfect, there was a little gapiosis between the boards and the walls. The whole family got in on the gap filling project.

The end results looked great. A couple coats of paint went on next.

And now for the big move!

The Lowdown on the Floor, Click!

As was mentioned before, we chose to use Forbo Marmoleum Click for our closet floors. The tiles are 36"x12" and fit the closets perfectly (the closets being 36" deep).

The install was super simple. I used the table saw to cut off the tab on one end and then just laid the pieces in the closet. Each tile snaps tight to its neighbor. Forbo makes sheet linoleum as well, but the tiles were just so easy!

The finished floors! Next... the baseboards.