Friday, March 23, 2012

flooring finished last weeekend; this weekend baseboards and trim

Flooring finished on Saturday.  The last couple of rows needed to be coaxed into place as the flooring nailer could not be used as it was too close to the wall. 

Finished!

Polly working on the windows--filling in the gaps between old widow casing and the new moldings.

Fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand. 

First meal on St. Patrick's Day--Corned beef and cabbage.



Monday, March 12, 2012

marathon flooring weekend!

First things first.  I want to give some major props to Polly, my wife and partner.  I am totally impressed and proud of the way she has 1) come along over the life of the project (now in its eighth month) and learned a bunch of new skills with this renovation; 2) has been right there with me the entire time working and advising--a lot of advising; and 3) putting up with me and my work habits--such as:  clean as you go, go quick and sure, even if you are not, and not be afraid of making mistakes; letting go of what you can't control and being ok with that. 


So, I wanted to say--great job this weekend, honey!


Onto the progress images--

Nelson in the background, helping lay the FloorMuffler on Saturday

Floor prepped to lay out the reference line.

Polly learned to use the chop-saw.   ;]

I did not think this would be such a work-out!  I put in over 1000 nails this weekend.

Polly sorting the boards.  She OKed each and every one's placement...  Note the reference line string.  This was the critical piece of the puzzle.  All boards placement were referenced to the line.

Looking from Anastasia's (middle) room into the front.

Front bedroom finished.

Finishing the little room--Polly's study and wardrobe. We had to work backward here, as the boards in the front room had already begun.  It turned out just fine, with the last two boards being angled and pressed into place in the doorway. 

These nails are nearly impossible to remove from the boards.  So, the Dremel tool makes quick work of cutting.  We mis-laid 4-5 boards, and had several others we did not like the finish/edges once they were placed. Not bad, actually.

The cutting station has moved into the finished area.  Note the reference string's work--the boards run straight through, from front to back.

Sunday night, 9:30p.

Finished for the evening--10p.  Two days, about 20 hours.  About 25 person hours all told, and we finished about 350 of the 520 square feet.  The flooring nailer (Freeman PFL618BR 3-in-1 Pneumatic) performed flawlessly, BTW.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Wood flooring in-house; acclimating this week

The wood flooring was delivered on Friday; it is now been unboxed, and it is acclimating to the house.  We are going to begin the install this weekend, so stay tuned.

34 boxes of 19sq. ft. each, plus a 600sq. ft. roll of underlayment.  Note the floor in need of repair...
Floor repaired--not pretty, but mostly level. 

Note the boards in the back right--those were the only ones out of the bunch which were slightly damaged.  Really happy with the assortment and the constancy of color. 
Jason helped with this section--Thanks Jason!


wood all laid out and sorted.