Maple Flooring

Yesterday I did some clean up in the house, then began laying out the wood for the day. I had planned to only work in the morning then load up the trailer and go to the dump. I had reached the point where the Bostitch flooring stapler couldn't be used due to interference from the wall and I had to switch to using a finish nailer.

My Campbell Hausfeld nailer is 18 years old, and I had used it to lay the entire floor in both our Kingston and Olympia homes. I had also used it for all the trim work on both houses plus numerous projects over the years. It still worked well and I recently replaced the rubber tip. I had just started nailing when I stopped to add a strip of nails. The spring coil that keeps tension on the nail supply broke and while I tried (without success) to rig up a quick fix, I notice the plastic feed gate was also broken & ready to fall off. Doh! I gave up, took a break and researched nail guns on the net while Lynna fixed lunch. I found parts for my gun were available but expensive and wasn't sure I should spend the $$ on such an old gun. After lunch the UPS man dropped off the hip waders I was expecting. I had previously bought two vintage bamboo fly rods and an Orvis vest, so once I tie up some leaders and find my flies & reel, I can do some fishing when we get settled in the house.

Later I fired up the tractor and placed some crushed rock in front of the doors to my shop and then made a parking stall for the tractor over by the retaining wall. After that, I hooked up the utility trailer to our Pacifica. Before I could load it up, I had to air up the tires. It had begun to rain but eventually we got it loaded up, covered with a tarp and drove to the transfer station.

We went to Home Depot to shop nail guns. They didn't have much selection and the prices seemed average. I had recently found a good buy on a new air compressor at Western Tool Supply, so we headed there next and arrived about 15 minutes before closing. I was able to check out several guns and got a nice Hitachi for $20.00 under the lowest price I had found in my search.

Today I used my new nail gun to finish out the Family Room and Nook area. I just have one partial strip left to piece in front of the Pony Wall. The new gun is smooth and has adjustments to control the depth of nail from flush to counter sunk. It has a switch to go from single to tap nailing where my old one would do either without a switch. This is a safety feature and I soon got used to it.

Mehai, our sider had called at lunch time to let me know he would come by in the afternoon to replace the siding and cornerboards that the roofers had removed from the North Gable end when they installed the cricket & fixed the roof flashing. He brought a couple of his crew along and they worked about 2.5 hours. When we talked price, he only asked for $50.00 but I held out for $75.00 since they are good, hard working boys and I had expected to pay more.

Maple Flooring

I spent yesterday laying more flooring and it looks like another day's work will finish the dining nook and family room.

Our Bosch oven and Braun hood vent arrived and we made a trip in to Salem to pick them up on Saturday but the oven was to big to fit in our Pacifica. I will make another run in to Salem today with our trailer and pick up the oven. The rest of my day will be spent adding ledger boards for our countertops as the laundry room counter is ready for installation Friday. I also have to prep a parking space near the basement for my tractor as Lynna is having some rock delivered for the walk ways & tractor path.

Maple Flooring

I did some tractor work for Lynna early, then managed to lay some more flooring while she worked at moving dirt near the West entrance. Yesterday, I dropped our car off to have it serviced and 4 new tires installed then rode my Bianchi bicycle home. This afternoon, I rode another Italian bicycle back downtown and picked up the car. I took a picture this morning when I had laid out the wood and had everything ready to start, then I took a few more when I quit for lunch.

Family Room Flooring

After a slow start the first few days, I gained speed at laying the Maple flooring. I am still slowed some by having to carry the bundles in, then lay out the wood in the pattern it will be nailed. This is necessary to get correct joint spacing and also to get a random mix of dark & light wood pieces. The colored patches from the basketball court stripes produce a cheery mosaic that will be sanded off when we resurface the floor. Most of the wood is pretty straight and the stapler is usually able to force the rare warped piece into a snug fit. There were a few crooked pieces that required using wedges to snug them up. Yesterday, I had enough wood down to move the gas stove back & I hooked up its vent pipe.

Once I got a fairly wide strip down, the dogs decided it was their preferred place to lay. This should help cut down the time I spend every day brushing plaster dust off them before we head down to the rental house.

Lynna picked a contractor to do the North porch and today she met with John, our framer, to plan the pad he needs for the stairs from our covered deck. When we do the cement work we will add extensions to a couple of the porch footings to satisfy a request by our inspector.

I finally got the corner cabinets set correctly in the kitchen, then moved on to the four bathrooms and the laundry room. When I finished those tasks, I came back to the kitchen where I installed the dishwasher and fit the trim pieces around it.

Sunday we took both dogs & the cat in to a clinic in Salem for their annual vaccinations. Had to stand in line a long time but they did me proud & were the best behaved dogs there. Peaches was happy to have all the socializing with people and animals, Sunny found some kids to give him lots of petting and the cat just watched all the little toy dogs that were his size.

Monday morning our electrician called to let me know they had a day available & did we want them to do some finish work on our house? Yes! They showed up about 9 AM, worked until early evening and managed to install all the plugs & switches (except for my basement workshop where I still only have two lights & two outlets). They made an enormous mess throughout the house and left a huge pile of empty boxes, food containers, etc. in the corner of our garage. We spent the most of Tuesday cleaning it all up.

Wednesday Phil from Custom Counters spent all day making templates for the Corian counter tops. He also noticed a couple places where our expensive kitchen sink had manufacturing defects. The brushed aluminum finish was flawed on the lower left and on the center divider. We had to make a trip to Salem to return the sink & the dealer is trying to get another one, if they can't find one quickly enough, we may be shopping again. I had arranged for Jorge to come Saturday & clean up the travel trailer so we could put it up for sale but he showed up Thursday morning saying he had no work that day & asking if could he do the job early? This was fine by me, except it meant I had to run down to the hardware store to get supplies for him then stop by the bank to get cash for his pay.

I have been spending Saturdays working on the landscaping, mostly tractor work so far and sometimes mowing the lawn of our rental.

I started laying flooring in the West bathroom and then moved to the family room. Things went slowly at first as I had to get the first course down really straight and also unhook the vent pipe and move the heavy gas heater aside. I made good progress and managed to find time to ride my bike downtown and get a haircut.

I had my last appointment with the doctor and he was pleased with the new bone growth in my left arm and the strength I had regained. The months of physical therapy helped restore most of the range of movement I had before the break as far as reaching out to the side & upwards, but I am still doing therapy on reaching behind, as I can only just touch my left hip pocket. I still have some shoulder pain & difficulty sleeping the whole night.