In need of a project

Wonderful day. I went golfing with the nine holers and shot my best round ever. No cheating, no mulligans or putt again, I shot a 57 for nine holes. That was with landing in two sand traps, and shooting 20 putts for the round. Slowly my game is coming together. 

I was in such a grand mood after golf that I went browsing. First I checked in with Trev to see if he needed a ride. He had walked over to an Eagle scout project after being dropped at weight training. The project was to put in a new garden for a local church. The Church had auctioned off its large azaleas and rhododendrons for a fund raiser and were replacing the plants with small ones. The scouts were the labor crew and the Eagle had raised the money for the plants and new dirt. One of the parents volunteered to drive Trevor home later as they were not done yet and he was a hard worker they did not want to lose until they were finished for the day.

This left me free to do a little hunting. I have been looking on the Internet, Craigslist, for 200 square feet of inexpensive solid surface to replace the carpet in the family room. The carpet is, well, gross carpet. Well used and abused. The color hides a lot of sins. Everything I found was a bit more than I wanted to pay on my strict budget that I am trying to maintain. My credit card bill came yesterday so I knew I had to be really frugal and good. That bill covered when my friends were visiting and we went vacationing. I am cheap, but you just can't take a family vacation and not spend anything on food and souvenirs. The bill hurt my budget, yet I really need to do this carpet. It grates on my nerves the feel of it and the faint odors, even after cleaning.

.  I stopped in at one store without any luck, then realized Habitat for Humanities would be open today. Talk about bargain hunting, you just never know what you might find. I was in luck. It wasn't hardwood, but I hadn't found enough on line either. You can get 100 square feet pretty easy because that is what is usually left after a project, 5 to 10%. I needed 200 square feet. The store had just received the same kind of flooring my Mom has in her beach house. It is strip vinyl that looks like hard wood. They had well over 200 square feet. Enough to do the room, cheap. Each box was 30 square feet and $13.80 a case. I could get what I needed for $100. It is vinyl, but within the budget.

I came home with the flooring. To lay vinyl I will need to pull up the tack strips and any staples or nails that might pop up. The floor will need to be pristine clean. I call for Riley as he is home playing video games.I  bribe him with  $15 for the whole project. He takes me up on the price. Little knowing it will probably be several hours of crawling on the floor, but I will be there working right along with him.

We pull up the edge of the carpet all around the room and remove the tack strip and edge staples. Riley does the tack strips with a miracle bar and hammer,  and I do the staples with a pair of pliers and a flat head screw driver. Once we get all the way around the room I vacuum the edge then tuck the carpet back in place. All this takes about an hour and a half, just removing the tack strips then hiding our work.   I don't want to start the big part of the project until we have the whole day tomorrow so we can start and finish before Tom gets home.

Tom doesn't want to deal with the mess of moved furniture and I don't want to hear comments before I present the completed finished product. I get a much better response when everything is done from Tom. Of course, I wish I was installing real hardwood, but this is a nice substitute and a cheap fix. Budget budget budget.        

There are the problems I see developing tomorrow, though, which I will need advise or thoughts. When we removed the tack strip from the doorway going outside, I found the fiber board sub floor to be swollen and puffy and tending to crumble. There was water damage. Now, do I fix this by cutting out the rot with my circular saw and replace the sub floor or do I just lay the vinyl over the top and pretend it is fine. I know what I should do and what my friends that are particular would do but they are not here. 

The other problem is the seams between the sub floor boards. Do I fill these gaps with caulk or just lay the vinyl over the gaps? Don't know the answer to this one. The next problem is do I remove the base boards or not. I have found to do a good job it is best to remove the base boards. The vinyl is thin compared to carpet. There is a gap. I will need to hang  the baseboards lower or get extender pieces, which they had at Habitat today.

There is also the problem that two different heights of sub floor were used. It is subtle, which the carpet hid. Vinyl will not hide that small difference. Riley suggested laying two courses on top of each other of the vinyl, which just might work to raise up the small area that is so slightly lower than the rest of the room.

Tomorrow, Riley and I  go to work. I hope it turns out beautifully. It is vinyl, but at this price it is worth a try. I can always come back later and do something else. Meanwhile the carpet and smell will be gone and clean up will be so so easy. If this turns out well I am going to tackle the upstairs hallway. Perhaps even buy the rest of the cases of vinyl for Riley's room, if he likes how this turns out. 

Can't wait for tomorrow.