The Floor Part 2

We needed to find someplace that could rent us another nailer today (Sunday) and would be open on Labor Day. We finally found a Home Depot store in Mishawaka that fit the requirements, and we started off on the hour and a half drive to the store.

We stopped nailing at 9:15 p.m. with 30 rows of hardwood floor nailed down. We didn't want to make any more noise that late, so we dry fit another 25 rows before setting up the mattresses for bed. Taking the time to dry fit the floor saved quite a bit of time in the long run. We were able to finish the remaining rows on Monday morning (about 11:30). CMV drove the tool back to Mishawaka and had 9 minutes to spare before we got hit with another charge for additional time on the rental.

We cleaned up, fixed some dinner, and left for home. Not much of a holiday, but the results look great. I need to finish that porch wall next week so CMV can start putting down the tile.


Here is the finished floor. We need to pull up the rest of the carpet in the kitchen area, and then lay the tile, but that is a project down the road. Maybe in a week or two.

The Floor

We decided that since this was a long weekend, we would tackle the floor in the living room. Currently, the room is carpeted with no distinction between the living room and the kitchen area. We want to lay ceramic tile in the kitchen area, and hardwood in the living room. We purchased some flooring (clearance) from Home Depot that we wanted to use.

I don't know if you have ever tackled a hardwood floor, but the key is preparation. We rolled back the carpet and cut off the padding which we saved for possible future use. The old floor had been patched with an odd layout of luan sheets. These had to come out and needed to be replaced with something a little more stable, like half inch plywood.

We finished the day having only torn up the old floor and nailed down the plywood sheets. Well, we did quite a bit more than this, but most of it involved driving around the area looking for plywood sheets and picking up the hardwood floor nailer. I found the nailer in Syracuse at the Syracuse Tool Shed, Inc. The only problem was that they were only open until noon on Sunday, and because of the holiday, they were closed all day on Monday.



Remember when I said the key was preparation? Well, we woke up Sunday morning, taped down the vapor barrier and then discovered that we didn't have the right nails to use on the first two rows of strips. The first couple of rows are nailed by hand, because the hardwood floor nailer will not reach them because they are too close to the wall. I had to leave to return the rented tool at 11:30 with only 3 rows completed. It was at this point that a frantic search of all local hardware stores began.

First Weekend

We left Indy at 7:30 on Saturday morning, armed with supplies, tools and building materials. I was anxious to get started on the wall in the front porch. The trip is about 2 hours and 15 minutes, but this morning it felt longer. I was anxious to get started on the wall in the front porch.

Upon our arrival, we unloaded the truck and met our next-door neighbors. They seem very nice, and offered to answer any questions that might come up.

I went in the house and started removing the car siding panels that made up the interior wall of the porch. The planks were very easy to remove, as the top and bottom plates as well as the studs were completely dry rotted. This originally simple project was beginning to worry me. How much would I need to remove? How bad was it everywhere else? Why didn't the inspector find something like this?

I removed all of the wall planks on the front side of the porch. The side wall was very solid, so I did not need to make any repairs to this area. I brought some 2 x 4's with me, so I cut them to length and decided that I should replace the plates with treated lumber. After the drive to the nearest Lowes, I returned with 2 pressure treated 2 x 4 x 10's to use as replacement top and bottom plates.

I needed to remove all of the original frame, but with the windows (and the rest of the porch) resting on this wall section, I felt that I needed to act carefully. I first replaced the bottom plate, and then toe nailed the studs into the bottom plate. The next step was to wedge the top plate between the window supports and the new studs. This made an immediate difference in the stability of the wall. I attached the studs to the top plate, and the top plate to the window supports, and was finished with the framing repair.

We needed to head back to Indy on Saturday night, so we decided to call it a day and pack up our things.

Closing Day

We drove up to ______ today and had the closing on the cottage. The closing was at 10:00 a.m. and finished around 10:45 a.m.

After taking possession of the keys, we had to drive over and check it out again. I wanted to change the locks and CMV wanted to get started making it ours. The first thing that had to go was the old maroon carpet that was in the front porch.

CMV quickly removed the floor molding and pulled up the carpet in no time. Oftentimes, one project will lead to another, and this was no exception. The carpet pulling disturbed a small colony of ants, that was no match against a can of Raid. We decided to wait until next weekend to open up the wall and assess the situation.

We finally bought a cottage

  




Our new house is located in _________, IN, and is on ____ Lake. We had the closing on August 21st. I will post a picture or two as soon as I get one.