A Case of Mis-Stapler Identity

Ok - first you'll see on your left, a pic of my truck after a night of awesome mud-action. Beautiful, isn't it? Couldn't resist showing you all.

Second - I'd like to thank everyone for their help and suggestions on where the heck to purchase a nailer - which were Awesome by the way. Some stuff I would have never thought of... like pawn shop.

But, there's a twist to this story that Mike and I did not expect. And now I'm going to tell all 'yalls about it.

Thursday night, Mike laid down the first few rows - face nailing, then pre-drilling through the tongue and hand hammering with finish nails. Then, he did a couple with the nailer. (As you guys know from previous posts.) Well - the nailer wasn't doing a great job. It seemed to be set up for 3/4 hardwood instead of 3/8.

Friday, Mike and I got together, talked to TJ, our carpenter, and asked for his advice on it. He told us that a stapler would probably do a better job for us than the nailer. So, we decided to check out Home Stupid DeepHo and see what they had for staplers. And lucky for us there was a guy in the rental dept. who actually had 1/2 a brain. (Annoying as hell because he thought he had a full brain...I was thinking the whole time, just shut up dude - stop talking.)

Anyway, 3/8 hardwood actually requires a specialty stapler. The nailer we had been using was only designed for 3/4. (So at that point I'm psyched I didn't buy a nailer anywhere.) We asked if we could purchase the specialty stapler, but the dude said no - it was too much of a specialty item for the store to carry and very expensive. He may have just been trying to lure us into renting the thing - but whatever.

So we gritted our teeth and rented the thing for a day. (At least I could put it on my DeepHo card - it was about 30 something bucks.) And we figured we'd bring the other nailer back to United Rentals on Sat and bitch them out until they gave us a full refund - or at least a refund of 6 days. Because we barely used the thing.

So - I say "so" too much. Have you noticed? "So" and "Anyways"

Anyways, so we get back home from the DeepHo with the stapler & some staples. And boy what a difference! That thing worked awesome! I laid out and cut the planks and Mike did the stapling. We might have finished Friday night, but I was pooped. We were more then halfway done by 9:30/10:00 though.

Saturday morning we got up early and drove 20 min to return the bad nailer in Hyannis. Well - guess who's not open on Saturdays anymore? United Rentals! Those bastards still had the Saturday hours posted on their door too. We were so pissed. Hopefully this morning Mike went there and gave them a little bit of hell - because we definitely shouldn't have to pay the weekend rental. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Upon returning home (see, I didn't say "so") we got right back to work. And the floor was done by early afternoon. It took us some time to do the cutouts by the closet and end the room - but all in all - it was an easy and straightforward install that turned out beautifully. Oh - the color I chose by the by was Aztec cherry I believe, from Lumber Liquidators Casa De Colour series. (By Durawood - 25 year warranty, 3/8 of course as you know.)

As soon as we finished the floor we were in the truck headed back to the DeepHo to return the gun. And, while we were there, we decided to purchase all the floor moulding (while the room's cleared out) and also crown moulding for our loft storage space. (We still need window moulding, but that can come later.)

So, here's the Sunday pics when everything was done. (Sunday we didn't work - it's Mike's ATV-riding-with-the-guys-Day and my day to do girly things.) Take a look at how the painting turned out - I put on the final coat while Mike was measuring and cutting the moulding. (Which is still drying in our basement from staining by the way - that we'll put on this week at some point.)

Ok - so here's the Before Pic - all in primer.













And Here's the after pic. It's a little hard to tell just how awesome it looks just from these pics. But you'll have to trust me on that. You see, previously, I had painted the upper slant red too and just left the flat part where the recessed lights are white. I think this way though looks much better.
And here you can see the closet loft storage area moulding - we stained that right on the wall, hens the blue tape. It needs one more coat, but you get the idea. And also, you can see my beautiful closet organizer, in once again. That red thing on the top shelf is Dracu-Bear. He rocks and sucks... your blood that is.