Good News - Bad News – Bad News - Good News
The good news is Mike, the mill owner, did not hesitate to say he would replace the stuff that was unusable. I’m a little pissed that he even bothered to try and put the T&G on the undersized pieces in the first place, or that he didn’t replace them when he saw that they didn’t come out good. It is a bit frustrating because if there had been a consistent quality I would have enough wood to finish the room. However, it doesn’t do me any good to tell him I’m pissed at this point so I didn’t bother saying anything. It won’t get me my wood any faster and it might sour the relationship. He knows he screwed up, and he is going to fix the problem at no charge, so that is good enough for me.
The bad news is I won’t get the new wood for a week and a half. So now I’m left with a decision. I have a little over half the wood laid. I have enough wood right now to do about 4/5 of the room. I could continue to lay wood all this week and then do no work on the floor for a week while I’m waiting for the new wood. Another option is to do no more work on the floor until I have all the wood here. The benefits of this is that I can then pick the best wood for the best spots.
I used a lot of the really good wood in the first third of the room because that is the most visible and the highest traffic area. I’m now in the center of the room where a table will go and a large rug. The other side of the table is also going to be a high traffic area. My concern is that if I keep laying flooring some of the better wood will end up under the rug. I haven’t decided what to do yet. It would be hard for me not to work on this floor for a week and a half.
Another odd thing is that it only took 8 sheets of the mahogany plywood to do the underlayment. That is 256 sq ft. I didn’t butt these tightly together because the floor wood can easily span a 6 inch gap that is only 1/8-inch high. I’m willing to bet the kitchen is about 275 sq ft. The 285 sq ft that I had written down for the tin ceiling was probably the main kitchen plus some added for waste. Once this is all said and done I’m going to re-measure.
The other bad news is that I had to pull up about a row and a half of boards today. There was an odd spot that had a little rise in it. I didn’t notice it as I was laying the floor, but two of the boards weren’t sitting right. I pulled them up and found a little piece of a knot had slipped under one board and caused it to ride up a bit. Like I need more work at this point.
And finally, the other good news is that I’m eating strawberry shortcake right now and it is really, really, good.
4 comments:
I say hold off 'til the new wood comes in. I know it will make you crazy but look at is as an excuse to start or finish another smaller project that has been hanging over your head in the meantime. And since you know when the wood is due to arrive you already have a built-in deadline. (Yeah...like you really need one of those, I know)
What kind of finish are you putting on the floor. It might be a good time to experiment on a scrap piece with different finishes. I'm planning on using Waterlox, when I get a chance to redo our fir floors. I'm sure Gary will suggest shellac, which I'm sure would be historically accurate.
I had considered Waterlox and may still try it. First, I'm going to test with boiled linseed oil and turpentine. I will put shellac on top of that. And I'm sure I will get a chorus of people telling me it is a bad idea. It won't last. I should go with an oil based poly. I've heard it all before, but the funny thing is, if you ask people if they ever used shellac on the floor they will say no. So I'm going to do it, and if it is a disaster, then at least it will be easy to fix. The one thing you can say about shellac is that it is very easy to work with. It is wasy to fix damaged and it can go under poly.
I agree with Heather. Just wait on it and chew on that infected splintered fingernail. You'd be annoyed if you ended up with sub-standard boards on the edges.
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