Too Much Of A Good Thing

Well, the floor is going in and man is it a lot of work. Almost every board has to be finessed (read: pried) in to place. I’ve only put in two wood floors in my life and they have both been 1X6 T&G boards. The first one was a pine floor and it was much easier. This fir (Yes, I know “Fir?!?!”. I’ve always gotta be different, don’t I) just does not want to budge that last ¼ inch. There is no such thing as a perfectly straight board so each one is going to be off a hair. The shorter the board the less noticeable it is. Some of these boards are 18 feet long.

Here is the progress so far. The old floor was 7/8-inch think and these boards are ¾-inch thick. I had to put down some 1/8-inch thick mahogany plywood so it would look right under the plinth blocks. Also, I think I may not have ordered enough. The room is very odd shaped and I measured 285 sq ft, but it looks like it is going to take close to 10 sheets of plywood for underlayment. Each sheet is 8X4, which is 32 sq ft. If it takes 10 sheets then the room is more like 320 sq ft. Oops!



To get it to go that last little bit I have to screw a block of wood to the floor and then pry it into place. This is not easy with one person. I have to sit on the floor and pry with my feet while I try and bang nails in. Not easy and it sucks when you miss with the hammer because then you get dings. Grrr!



Oh, speaking of doing things by myself, I mentioned to a friend that I’m always asking woman for advice of color selection and I feel kind like a pathetic bachelor when I do this. He said there are woman down on 3rd street that perform services for single men and charge a reasonable hourly rate. I told him I’m done with contractors because I’ve had nothing but bad luck with them. He said if I go do there on a Friday night he guaranteed me I would “get lucky”. I’m not sure what this is all about, but you can bet the next time I need help picking out paint colors I’m going go to check it out. Wish me luck!