V-Day

Sunday. Yes Sunday. I had my goals. Mike had his doubts. But in the end it all came together so perfectly.

We were all up and movin by 7:30 and I was out the door with the baby by 8:30. Meanwhile, Mike got right to work, calibrating the nailer and preparing those all important first couple of rows. I was back by 10 and by noon, we were half done.

Yeah, we were MOVIN! I lay out the courses, Mike nails them, Mike marks the end piece, I cut it, he nails it, and we start on the next course.

And I tried my best to keep Mike down on the floor, since all the ups and downs tend to be what holds up the process. And if I was getting something, or moving something, or even laying out my courses, I was running, rushing, or sliding across the new flooring. (Always fun in the sawdust.) It made all the difference in terms of time.

Here we are at the halfway mark.

Here we are sometime just before lunch.

We kept on speeding along until about 1 when we ran out of nails. At that point we went out, picked up the nails, picked up the lunch, and were back, fed, and back to work by 2. I said at that moment, "I bet we'll be done by 3:30"

Mike was skeptical.


We were done with the main body of the floor at 3:30. All that remained was the difficult last sliver. Yes, you can see in the above pic how the drywall pulls away from the plywood. Turns out, there was a small section in the middle of the wall where trim just wouldn't cover the gap. So Mike had to cut a very very thin piece of hardwood, cut the drywall, and glue and squish the very very think piece of hardwood in there. Easier said then done. But still, he was even finished with all that by around 4:30.

Meanwhile, as he worked on all that, I began cleaning. So as soon as he was finished with the difficultness, we were able to just slap on the trim - which was all stained, dried, second coated, and dried previously. (Very good idea.)

That big long piece is the final trim board for the opposite side of the room. And no, there's not a big triangle of dark wood flooring... that's just a shadow people.


By 5:30 we were bringing the couch back.

And by quarter of six we were sitting on it.... and then we had to rush out to go pick up the baby.

WE DID IT!

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