The floors might be finished! But they also might not be! At the moment we sort of have Schrödinger's floors.
We last heard from our contractor last Thursday, when he said they expected to be finished Monday (today). If I remember correctly he said the floor's finish would be cured enough to walk on by Tuesday, although we shouldn't bring in furniture until Wednesday. Which was fine because, after the floors were done, we were planning to have a professional house cleaning crew spend a couple hours making the house truly clean before we really began moving in. Finally!
But no not finally! Our current weather forecast is really horrible for the next two days. We are getting freezing rain overnight tonight and expect up to twenty inches of drifting snow to fall throughout the day tomorrow. Governor Nixon has declared a state of emergency and activated the Missouri National
Guard, and the University of Missouri has closed the campus and canceled classes for the next two days.
We paid a visit to the house Sunday afternoon (the floors were lookin' good!), but we did not go back after work today, since we were making some last-minute blizzard preparations. We can only assume the workers finished the floors today.
Furthermore, we don't expect to hear from the contractor until maybe Thursday or Friday, because he will be incommunicado, working grueling hours pushing snow in the bitter cold for the next two or three days.
And there is no way are we going to ask anyone to come clean the house under those conditions.
Stupid winter. :(
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Learn From My Fail: the Distance Between
I guess this is a milestone, the sharing of our first SLA LFMF.
The front door is a half-inch too low to not scrape against the entryway tile as it opens and closes! It never occurred to me to consider the distance between the subfloor and the bottom of the front door when choosing flooring.
Now it is too late to switch to a thinner, resilient flooring. Most of the tile is already glued down.
What choice do we have now but to get our front door raised? The door itself is metal with foam core, so we cannot shave it shorter, to allow it to pass over the tile. Perhaps buying a wood door to shave down would be the cheaper option...if one of us took the time off work today to shop for a wood door.
Tom the husband is going over this morning to see the situation for himself. Our contractor says lifting the door should take half a day of work.
More as the story unfolds.
THE UNFOLDING: It turned out that it was not so great a problem as I feared. The workmen lifted the door, and also leveled it, using shims underneath. Turns out the door had not been made level when it was installed. But it is all fixed now.
And who am I kidding? Half this blog is LFMFs.
The front door is a half-inch too low to not scrape against the entryway tile as it opens and closes! It never occurred to me to consider the distance between the subfloor and the bottom of the front door when choosing flooring.
Now it is too late to switch to a thinner, resilient flooring. Most of the tile is already glued down.
What choice do we have now but to get our front door raised? The door itself is metal with foam core, so we cannot shave it shorter, to allow it to pass over the tile. Perhaps buying a wood door to shave down would be the cheaper option...if one of us took the time off work today to shop for a wood door.
Tom the husband is going over this morning to see the situation for himself. Our contractor says lifting the door should take half a day of work.
More as the story unfolds.
THE UNFOLDING: It turned out that it was not so great a problem as I feared. The workmen lifted the door, and also leveled it, using shims underneath. Turns out the door had not been made level when it was installed. But it is all fixed now.
And who am I kidding? Half this blog is LFMFs.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Floors are Underway!
Our contractor also works clearing snow from parking lots, so the recent huge quantities of snow in our town have been delayed his progress on our home improvements. But the upstairs are now repaired and sanded, and the grout gets put between the laid-out tiles tomorrow. Photos to come!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Upstairs Floors
This is what we found under the bedroom carpet upstairs. Hardwood in rough shape.
About 15 years ago, the house was treated for termites. We do not know if this is old damage from before the treatment, or newer damage since then. The carpet padding was laid over it long enough to stain the wood, so maybe it dates from 15 years ago? I'll keep an eagle eye out for signs of termites when the weather warms.
The plan is to sand, repair, and refinish these floors, staining them to match the new hardwood living room flooring.
About 15 years ago, the house was treated for termites. We do not know if this is old damage from before the treatment, or newer damage since then. The carpet padding was laid over it long enough to stain the wood, so maybe it dates from 15 years ago? I'll keep an eagle eye out for signs of termites when the weather warms.
The plan is to sand, repair, and refinish these floors, staining them to match the new hardwood living room flooring.
clearing the gutters
The gutters are full of debris. In one case, full of compost and seedlings. I like the hanging garden look, but this simply cannot be allowed.
After the big rainstorm, the sun came out and we climbed onto the roof to excavate.
After the big rainstorm, the sun came out and we climbed onto the roof to excavate.
Surprise Water Feature!
We had a hard rain the day the plumber came to power-scrub the sewer main.
Lo and behold, a beautiful water feature manifested! Isn't it lovely?
I choose to laugh instead of cry...
Lo and behold, a beautiful water feature manifested! Isn't it lovely?
I choose to laugh instead of cry...
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Wallpaper and Flooring
I thought I had a putty knife in the car when I went to scrape the backing off the entryway walls. Alas, I was mistaken. However, I discovered that the car's ice scrapers work well.
Now I just need a final wipedown to remove any gluey residue and I'm ready to patch the rough spots.
Tom and I spent the last bit of New Year's weekend testing two different makes of floor tile. Both are porcelain and mimic the look of natural stone, but they are from different manufacturers and have different colors.
(Great googly moogly, boxes of tiles are heavy! Remember to lift with your legs, folks! And don't be afraid to use several shopping carts at once-- I may have broken out the sides of the single shopping cart I used. )
Because we did not have enough of each make of tile to totally cover all the to-be-tiled area, we laid out all we had of one make, photographed it, then moved it to another area. It took a long time, and as the sun moved through the sky the lighting changed. So the comparison isn't perfectly equal from one make to the other...but it will have to be close enough.
It is so hard to decide which to go with! They are both beautiful, and cost the same.
I'll pick one, then the next day change my mind! Argh!
In other news, our favored contractor for the flooring is very slow getting back to us with estimates. But he says he can start January 9 and finish quickly, so I keep leaving him voice mail. I wonder if he doesn't really want our work, or maybe he's just crazy-busy.
Now I just need a final wipedown to remove any gluey residue and I'm ready to patch the rough spots.
Tom and I spent the last bit of New Year's weekend testing two different makes of floor tile. Both are porcelain and mimic the look of natural stone, but they are from different manufacturers and have different colors.
(Great googly moogly, boxes of tiles are heavy! Remember to lift with your legs, folks! And don't be afraid to use several shopping carts at once-- I may have broken out the sides of the single shopping cart I used. )
Because we did not have enough of each make of tile to totally cover all the to-be-tiled area, we laid out all we had of one make, photographed it, then moved it to another area. It took a long time, and as the sun moved through the sky the lighting changed. So the comparison isn't perfectly equal from one make to the other...but it will have to be close enough.
It is so hard to decide which to go with! They are both beautiful, and cost the same.
I'll pick one, then the next day change my mind! Argh!
In other news, our favored contractor for the flooring is very slow getting back to us with estimates. But he says he can start January 9 and finish quickly, so I keep leaving him voice mail. I wonder if he doesn't really want our work, or maybe he's just crazy-busy.
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