Last Saturday was spent prepping one of the bedrooms for flooring. Caren painted the walls while I pulled staples left after pulling the carpeting and padding. We'd meant to leave the carpet in the bedrooms for awhile, but after listing the carpet that we pulled from the living room and hallway on Craig's List we were able to sell all of it, including the bedroom carpet to a buyer that was in need...
John was an interesting character. He drove over an hour with his adult son to pick up our nearly brand new carpet. The bank had put the carpet in to make the house more salable; Caren and I chuckled knowing that we were just going to rip it out. Anyways, we placed an add on Craig's List for the carpet wondering if we'd get any interest. It is amazing how many people want used carpet. John was the lucky winner of our carpet. When I talked to him on the phone I told him that he could have the bedroom carpet also... once we pulled it out. John loved to talk. He talked our ears off about our project... the fireplace, the floors, the paneling. He also talked us into pulling the carpet from the bedrooms so he wouldn't have to make a second trip. I couldn't refuse when he said that he and his son would provide the labor. Long story short, the carpets were out of the bedrooms and we had the flooring and the nailer, so...
Laying the flooring is pretty simple so long as one only has to do one room. Start on one wall with the tongues facing out. Face nail the first row near the wall, then use the nailer to nail down the tongues, slot the second course into the tongues of the first course, nail the new tongues and repeat until one reaches the far wall. Super easy until one has to join a second room. We'd finished the living room, kitchen and hallway a couple weeks ago. The front bedroom was next on the to do list. The problem was that we had to work from the hallway into the bedroom, but the last board in the hallway had the groove side facing the bedroom. Let me remind you that the nailer is designed to nail the tongues... not the grooves.
Problem... how do we turn the boards around in the bedroom so the tongues face the other direction without making an awkward seam? Solution... I used a biscuit cutter to widen the groove on the board in the hallway and the first board to be placed in the bedroom. Then I used biscuits to serve as a tongue that would join the two and... presto... the boards in the bedroom were facing the right way.
Caren and I are getting pretty proficient at laying hardwood flooring. We had the bedroom completed by noon on Sunday, leaving enough time for some more fun. I say fun, because I was really excited to try out Caren's idea for the wall behind the stove in the kitchen...
Our 1921 Detroit Jewel stove will fit in between the two posts. Above the shelf will be covered in the ledge stone you see in the pic. Below the shelf we were going to place vertical 1x12 barnwood siding that we got from the Corning barn tear down, but Caren thought rusty corrugated might look cool. Kelby and I had dug about 250 square feet of the stuff out of some blackberry brambles in Placerville two weeks ago, so I said I'd give it a go...
Over the next two or three hours, I selected three pieces that were uniformly rusted, cut them to size, and used a wire wheel mounted on my drill to remove any loose rust. That last sentence makes it sound simple. In reality, cutting corrugated metal with tin snips is no small task. Tom, the neighbor, came home just as I was finishing the last cut and offered his larger tin snips... just a little too late. I definitely will be buying a blade for my circular saw that can cut metal before I tackle the pile of tin that will wainscot the exterior of the house.
The tin is just set in place for now. I haven't decided if I want to rust a bunch of sheet metal screws using muriatic acid to screw the tin to the wall or buy bronze wood screws from the Blacksmith's Depot that provided the black lag screws for the fireplace. Decisions, decisions...
In the pic one can see the gas stub that will supply fuel to the stove. I did think far enough ahead to cover the stub with the blue tape to keep debris from falling into it while we work on the wall. One can also see the floor vent that Tom, the plumber, moved for us. We were able to have him place it under the stove because the Detroit Jewel stands well off the floor on Victorian legs.
So, after a long day we had the car loaded with dogs and coolers and dirty laundry and were ready to head back to the valley by 6:30. Caren waited for me in the car while I locked the place up. Once in the car, I asked her where the keys were. She looked at me kind of funny and said, "I left them in the house so you could lock the door." The door doesn't have a deadbolt and can be locked from the inside before closing the door. I locked the door before I closed it. A few minutes later I was worming my way thru the only window that I could get open...
The bathroom window is eight inches tall and thirty-two inches wide... one of those narrow little slider jobs. Once I got it slid open I had an eight by sixteen hole to squeeze thru. Good thing I'm such a skinny little cuss. Mind you that the window is about eight feet off the ground, so picture me standing first on Caren's shoulders, then on her outstretched hands, and finally with just my feet sticking out of the opening while I slid head first down into the shower stall.
Caren is kicking herself for not taking pictures, but in her defense, she was laughing and shaking so hard that the pics wouldn't have turned out.
Anyways, all's well that ends well, but I think I will put a deadbolt in the new front door once we install it...
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