sore muscles

We are about half way through the flooring install. It takes a lot longer and much more care than the laminate to install, but the end result is real and beautiful. We are loving it. Tom just spelled me from my turn working in the room. It is very physical work, crawling across the floor setting boards in place with the hammer and hit block.

You don't hit the wood directly, you use a blocking piece about six inches long that disperses the hammer strength along more of the board, prevents the board from being noticeably dented or bruised. You then come back over the same line of boards with the staple gun, using a special rubber weighted hammer to hit the end of the gun, a big black ball is located there. Hit the end just right to release the air and set the staple just so, in the tongue of the board, every six to 10 inches. Be sure to put a staple near both ends of the board to prevent the board from warping or lifting later. If you don't hit the button hard, you can end up with an only partially set staple which then has to be dealt with and is time consuming. The staple has to be hammered in or cut off. They don't pull out easily. It is easier just to snap a bad staple off or hammer it down. Set a new staple nearby. A badly set staple is a pain to deal with, so don't misfire the staple gun if you can help it.

Our boards are over three inches wide. They sell boards thinner. I can't imagine the patience it takes to set thinner boards. This project is already long enough. Laminate comes in six inch widths. It can be installed in much less than half the time. Snap and click the boards in place. The only cuts are at the ends. No staples to misfire. The boards are set in place and snapped together at the same time virtually. No going back over to set and then back over again to nail. But there is no comparison to the look. Real wood is real wood.

Wood is a natural material so you have to get used to seeing small flaws. The first day Tom and I were pointing out little spaces until we realized that is nature of the beast. I was so impressed when Tom finally got the bull nose installed. You can't tell where the cut points are at all. Once the bull nose was set we could continue with the rest of the room.





Yesterday we moved the furniture from one side of the room to the now finished side of the room in order to do the floors on the not finished side. The pallet in the garage has shrunk to less than half the boxes. I just hope now that I have enough. If we run out, we'll just tile the kitchen area in the room.

This house will be here, with us in it, thirty years from now, with luck. Our hard wood floors will still look lovely. Laminate, well, it is laminate. It is like vinyl, practical and inexpensive. I will probably put it in Riley's room upstairs, like the old house.

Riley's floor now that the carpeting is removed, is fiber board with a paper finish to make it look like hardwood panels. These panels are laid out like plywood sub floor, with surface nails and rough cut seams. I am trying to figure out how to seal the rough seams. We can live with it for a while if I can seal these deep one inch seams. I just can't figure out what the previous owners were planning to do with this floor.

Under the fiber board flooring is one inch thick cedar planks. I would expose the planks except for the fact they are grooved just like they are in the ceiling below. Quarter inch deep grooves every four inches look beautiful on the ceiling, but not so good under your feet. That is one reason the sub floor was laid on top of the cedar. It could have been a cheap way to finish the upstairs if the first owner ran out of money while under construction.

I can hear the staple gun going as Tom continues to plug away at his man cave. My hands are sore from swinging the weighted hammer and from tapping the boards into place. My wrists hurt from swinging the tools. My back hurts from being stooped over. My shoulders hurt from muscles that are doing things they haven't done for a long time. Tom told me yesterday that he could tell I was five years younger, as he lay in bed recouperating from his own exertions with the floor installion.

Riley went to school today. He was still coughing. I told him to call if he needed a ride after school, if he was going to stay after and start making up classes. Five days, six classes a day, that is 30 make up hours. It will take the rest of the semester. I can only hope he doesn't miss any more days. I know he will be exhausted.

Math should be easy to do at home if the teacher would just send it. Tom can help Riley with math, or even I can. But Tom can explain things better than me, I have found. The boys argue less with their father than with me.

English was wonderful. She sent work home so Riley doesn't have that much to make up. The rest, we will just have to wait and see. I told Riley I would pick him up if he had to stay after school. That way he might start scheduling his make up stuff right away knowing he was getting a ride. I also figured he was going to be so tired he wouldn't want to walk home, save his energy.

Tom is not feeling well himself. He is blaming Riley for giving him a cold. I just say drink fluids and wash your hands and don't share utensils or cups. I may have to get back to the floor install sooner as a result. My break may be short lived.