This weekend we all worked to prepare the space for flooring to be installed. Mom & Dad worked mostly to prepare the wood flooring. Boy, was it a lot of work! I didn't know how much extra work it was going to be to reclaim the original, old 1890's heart pine we had in the house to start with. But in the end, it will be hard to put a price on such an antique!
The interior doors and trim also arrived during the week. The interior doors were stashed upstairs in the 2nd bedroom for now until they get installed. The 16' long trim pieces were crowding up the living room (the wood floors were there too, making it total chaos), so they needed to be moved upstairs and out of the way.
Apparently Mom had spent a good 30 hours that week (Dad probably wasn't too far behind) working at the house to clean out the caked-on gunk in the tongue and groove of the reclaimed wood slats.... Through the past century, dirt and debris got wedged into the crevices of the groove and got "cemented" there with the smoke from the wood stove. It had a hard, brittle composition, resembling black carbon. Mom went through many flat head screwdriver tips (her tool of choice) to remove it.
Here is the diligent one in action:
Oh and more good news! The electrical system works again so we now have a newly working HVAC unit!!! That was exceedingly exciting to me.
We arrived on the scene late Friday afternoon after a trip to Home Depot (this is becoming a pattern) to see new rails on the front porch. Our framing subcontractor had been at the house during the week working on it.
Exhibit A:
I got busy painting a new set of paint samples on the walls:
This time around went much better. I honed in on one color for the main areas downstairs which turned out to be a lighter version of Raffia Cream and have the porch ceiling color picked out:
They say, if you paint your porch ceiling light blue, the insects and wasps will get confused and think it is the sky and look for a different, more solid and permanent spot to build their nests :) I don't know about that, but I do know that I love me some turquoise blue!!!
To be exact, it is:
I'm going for a light gray blue for the two bathrooms and am still testing this one. Here are some contestants:
A lighter version of this one
At this point, I have ruled out Dolphin Fin, as it looks too much like putty.
After moving trim upstairs through the large master bedroom window, Gabe and I tackled the floors of the downstairs bath and foyer while Mom & Dad continued to prepare the wood flooring slats. Gabe showed me how to use a belt sander to smooth down the seams of the plywood subfloor in preparation for adding cement board (Durock) as an underlayment for the slate tile to go down there.
Along with other unglamorous things such as sweeping and locating and opening up a buried electrical box, these two spaces were ready for Durock:
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| Downstairs full bath |
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| Foyer |
The next day, the wood flooring was nearly ready. Dad had hired a local guy to assist us in laying the wood floors the next Monday, so we needed to have it ready by then. Dad used the sander to remove caked on "carbon" from the groove side of the slats and Mom worked to inspect and sort each piece into piles of size, as per the flooring specialist's instructions.
We also used the belt sander to level out a seam in front of the French doors that had already seen a bit of water, causing it to ripple. We were able to smooth it down rather easily.
Then, we moved on to installing another cabinet in the kitchen.
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| Lookin' good! |
Next, we fastened the cabinet doors back on to keep them off the ground and away from damage as well as keep dust out from inside. This cabinet was the last we could do on the right side before we figure out what to do about the over-the-refrigerator cabinet bump-out and how that relates to the soffit, that doesn't bump out to the same depth yet.
Additionally, we needed to have the subfloor reasonably cleared so the work could begin. This proved to be an awkward task. Cabinets belonging downstairs were temporarily moved to the upstairs, so we did a little cabinet dance. This is where being organized and remembering where you put something comes in handy.
After while, Mom & Dad had to leave for their evening plans, so we stayed and finished what we could of the wood floors. I worked to remove carbon from the remaining dozen or so boards, while Gabe did Dad's task of sanding down the groove side of the slat from all the caked on dirt. We had to leave for dinner with friends around 5, but we had cleaned off all but a few scraps, so the wood flooring installer, Rene, and Mom could get to it on Monday.
Kitchen area all cleaned up for the install:
Boards all sorted into piles of varying lengths:
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| Yes, my mom is an expert organizer |
After a good sweep, we were outta there!
On Monday and Tuesday evening, Mom and Dad met with Rene, who would be installing our floors. Mom laid the boards out and Rene tacked them down with his special tools.
These are the photos we saw of the progress during the week:
Very exciting!! The dark spots in different places are low spots where the original varnish was not completely removed. We plan to sand down the whole floor plane to get a more even finish as soon as it's done. This will remove the dark patches.
On Wednesday, it was established that there was not going to be enough flooring to complete the first floor. There was about 6 1/2 feet that were left along the south wall in the living room. In the original upstairs arrangement, there was a partition wall made up of thicker and wider heart pine slats that we were going to use as stair treads, but we decided to have these planed down to match the thickness of the floor boards. We will buy additional stair treads in heart pine later, which will not be immediately adjacent to the floor. Whew, dodged a bullet on that one!!! It would have been sad if we could not have the same heart pine flowing through the downstairs...even though they say it will look exactly the same as newer, reclaimed heart pine, I had my doubts.
The next weekend, we got to the house on Friday eager to see the flooring. It looked fantastic!! The planed down heart pine to be used for the rest was even delivered already! The only hitch we needed to address with was the width of the heart pine. It is wider, and will be noticeable. The only way we could have made that work was to "feather" the pieces in over a greater space, but it was too late for that. Here are some more shots of what is completed so far:
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| Along the far wall the unfinished section can be seen |
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| looking into the Dining Room |
View into the Kitchen:
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| Coat Closet |
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| Transition into the Utility Closet |
I honestly never thought I would get this excited about an air handling unit. But when it's your first one, anything goes!! :D
Also, we couldn't get a hold of the local lumber supply company that day, to return the pine to have it additionally milled down to the right width. These are the problems we seek to resolve in this process!!! It will have to be done next week.
The project first on Gabe's mind for Friday was to retrofit a line for cable in the upstairs which we managed to forget to do before the drywall went up. Boo. But, he bought the cable line, ran it from the 2nd bedroom closet (where he would eventually tie it in downstairs to the cable box) to the master bedroom, all around the room to the only location a T.V. would work in the space. Here it is, to the right of the large windows:
He's running the line around the baseboard, eventually to be behind the trim. In the dark. Yeah, we don't have electrical hooked up yet...
The next day, Saturday, Gabe worked to finish running the line for cable pretty much all morning. I was there to be a gopher. Yay. Dad was working to get the master bedroom organized to suit the contractor coming next week to work on trim. The miter saw needed to be arranged just so to accommodate the long lengths of trim he would be dealing with. Then he started on the skirt board for the stairs.
Here is Gabe wiring the study for cable:
Running the cable around the 2nd Bedroom:
And then he ran it down to the first floor to tie in with the cable box.
Dad worked on the skirt board running up the stairs, shown here to the left of the makeshift treads, running up the side:
Our next project was to install Durock on the floor of the foyer and downstairs bath. We bought eight 3' X 5' sheets that were 1/4" thick. The plan was to cut the pieces for a dry fit before we mix the Thin-set. We wanted to get the substrate down before we install the wood flooring, so they don't get damaged in the process.
The strategy is to offset the seams, and leave patching and small piece for low traffic areas.
This is what the entryway will look like when it's done:
Moving into the downstairs bath:
Mixed Thin-set:
And we are ready to lay it down! But we have to be quick... Gabe spread the Thin-set with a grooved trowel:
And then I came behind him and screwed the boards down at 5" intervals.
Then, I had to leave so I could keep a commitment for that evening volunteering at our church so Dad took over my post. And, wouldn't you know it, there are no more pictures!
My school semester has been underway for about a month now with two afternoon classes a week, which is a lot more manageable than last semester, which was really, really busy!! Our goal is to have the house finished enough for an occupancy permit sometime in April.
We are going gang-busters until then to get it finished!
'Til next time....
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