Two More Rooms Floored

This is our third weekend in a row at the Payson place and a special one as my mother is joining us this weekend.  This is her second time to the house.  Her first time was last November when we had an early snow.  She was supposed to join us over the Memorial Day weekend, but had injured her back just before the trip and was not able to make it.

In order to give us some playtime on Saturday, we decided to lay the vinyl flooring in the guest bedroom on Friday night, which will save us from setting up the bed for just one night and then take it down again to lay the flooring.  The first thing I had to do that I did not do in the pantry was cut away a small strip at the bottom of the door jamb to allow the vinyl to go under it. This was not as easy as I thought, but using a flexible two-sided hand saw, I got the job done.  Our hope in laying the vinyl was to keep it all one piece instead of cutting a separate section for the closet and splicing the floor together.  We started in the far back corner of the room and worked our way to the door.  Having Lowe's cut the vinyl to a piece big enough for the room made it a lot easier to move the flooring and get it started in the room.  In order to make the trimming easier this time, we found that one of the large paint stirrers (for a 5 gallon pail) that we got from Neumann's Paint had just the right thickness for the cut we needed.  Plus it had a good length to it where we did not have to constantly move it.  Cutting around the walls went smoothly and quickly with the new cutting method.  Then it got tricky around the door and closet, but our plan worked and the floor fit under the door jamb and we were able to maintain one full piece into the closet.  The whole process only took about 1.5 hours.  Now we could set the room up with the bed and dresser for mom to use this weekend.

Finding the right angle to cut the jamb

Starting on the back wall

Working into the closet

Getting the vinyl under the drywall

Making the cut to fit the vinyl under the door jamb

This will need to be trimmed before the carpet goes in

Almost forgot to cut around the floor vent

The finished room before furniture

The room for our guest(s) (look at the fancy headboard)

As we hoped, the work Friday night gave us some time on Saturday to take mom up to Pine for breakfast and to walk through another craft fair and the thrift store.  This craft fair was quite a bit busier than the one we went to at the same location over Memorial Day weekend.  This time however, I even found some good stuff to buy though it was canned pickles and beets for our 4th of July dinner.  We wanted to take mom to one of these fairs as she hand-makes a lot of different items and we are thinking she may be able to sell them at one of these fairs.  This gave her a good idea of what other people were selling and if her stuff would fit in.

In the afternoon, we stopped by Home Depot to see Tammy to order our carpet.  We received the quote information after the measurement last weekend and needed to finalize the actual carpet we would want and pay for it so it could be ordered.  We had a couple of carpets in mind, but with Tammy's help we found one that we think will work well in the house and blend with the vinyl and tile.  The carpet should arrive at the installers within two weeks and they will call us to schedule an installation date.  We hope they can do the install on Saturday, 6/30, or no later than Monday, 7/2.

After returning home, we were just relaxing when I broke one of the chairs Matt made for us.  The front cross support split lengthwise into two pieces.  I went back to Home Depot to get a new piece of wood to fix it and also bought some hardware for the hall bath.  After I got back, it was too late to lay the vinyl in the den, so we opted for dinner instead at the 260 Cafe.  We had a great meal as always and a good visit with one of the owners.  This was our first time taking mom there and she really enjoyed it.

Sunday morning I decided to get busy with some odd jobs that needed to be done around the house.  I replaced the broken support on the chair and installed the toilet paper holder in the hall bath.  I then attempted to install a towel hook that used to be an over-the-door hanger, but Laurie wanted to mount to the wall.  I used the Dremel to cut off the door hangers so it would mount flush. After locating the right spot to place it, I tried to install the first wall anchor in the drywall.  We never replaced the drywall in the bathrooms and this part of the wall still had paneling under it, which does not work well with plastic wall anchors.  So off to Home Depot I went to hopefully find a better anchor to use and that would help cover the larger hole I had created working with the plastic anchor.  I found a couple and the first one I tried worked perfectly and covered just as I hoped it would.  The next item to added to the bathroom was the mirror we bought that matches the vanity.  I already put the medicine cabinet back in place, though I did not secure it since it will need to come out again and it fits snug enough, so I could match up the mirror to it.  First I mounted the brackets that came with the mirror and with Laurie's help, got the hangers in the right place on the wall.  It looks very nice and is mostly level.

New 2x2 to replace the one that split (still needs staining)

Our new toilet paper holder

The new mirror and medicine cabinet in place

Our towel bar (hooks)

Special decorative washer to hide screw and real washer

Laurie wants one more towel bar above the toilet, but we could not find anything that would work at Home Depot.  We did find a shelf and bar combo through Amazon and ordered it using Laurie's netbook.  We will bring it up next time and install it.

After all this work (and some frustrations involved), I was not sure I would be up to laying the vinyl in the den, but thought I we could do it.  So we decided to attempt it.  This room was a little more difficult as there was no real corner where we could start.  The best we could do was the closet.  Once the one closet corner was complete, we worked down the south wall to the east wall and to the door.  Then we went back to the closet and did the north side of the room.  It took both Laurie and mom to hold up the excess vinyl while I made the cuts on this side of the room.  We had so much excess due to the small nook area that used to be the room entrance.  Again, we were able to make the whole room one complete piece of vinyl with no splices.  With all the construction stuff out of the room, we could now put in the office furniture that was in the guest bedroom.

Had to start in the closet

Working the other side of the closet

Completed closet

Finishing the north wall towards the door

Last but not least, cutting out the nook

Our finished floor

The nook corner

Looking towards the double doors

Now complete with office setup and doors

After moving all the furniture, we had some time to sit and relax before making the trip home.  The next time we come up, we have to clear out the master bedroom, add nails to the sub-floor and then lay down the vinyl.  Then we will be ready for the carpet.  Before we left, we unrolled the last piece of vinyl so it would be ready the next time we come up.

It was wonderful having mom up there with us and we even put her to work (though she also had plenty of downtime for solitaire).  She helped with meals, dishes, cleaning, keeping Zena out of our way, photography and even helped with the laying of the vinyl.  She enjoyed the trip to Pine and the shopping, though she did not find any real good deals at the thrift store as she did last time.

Mom slaving away in the kitchen

Stats: 3 Home Depot trips; 2 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 6/4/12-6/10/12: $1,612
Remodeling expense to date: $43,403

New Shelves And No More Squeaks

This is our second weekend in a row at the Payson house as we attempt to complete as much work as possible before the 4th of July week.  We plan to have our MR KLUD friends up for the day (and possibly night(s)) and want to have all our flooring in, as well as complete the guest bathroom.

While renovating the house, there have been a few subjects Laurie and I have discussed and re-discussed many a time.  One of those subjects was the flooring and we think we came to a very reasonable solution until we move into the house full-time, plus we love the new vinyl floor.  Another topic you would not think would require the same level of discussion, but did, is shelving for the pantry.  We have gone back and forth from home-made, to pre-fab, to wire-racks, to standard storage shelves and back again (and again and again...you get the point).  We had actually made a final decision on a wire-rack from Sam's club until we got there and Laurie decided to get the cheaper standard storage racks.  It would be a temporary solution to see how much space we really would have and later on, we would move these to the garage and setup the pantry with a permanent solution.  So we bought two six-shelf racks measuring 48" W x 18" D x 84" H.

We also decided to lay the same vinyl we used in the kitchen in the two bedrooms and den.  We found that only one Lowe's store carried the same pattern we had and bought what we needed there.  We had them cut the flooring into lengths for each room since carrying that large roll for the kitchen was so difficult.  In order to transport the vinyl and shelving up to the house, we borrowed my sister's truck just as we did when we brought the kitchen flooring up.  The gas for the truck is cheaper than the Lowe's delivery and we were able to get a few other larger items up to the house.

On Saturday we installed the new shelves in the pantry and they fit very well.  To protect the vinyl flooring, we placed the legs of the shelves on some small pieces of leftover trim board.  It took a couple of iterations to get the shelves spaced properly and then get the racks into the room, but after the first one the second went a lot smoother.  Because of the spacing of the shelves, I found it was a little difficult getting the shelf boards in place, but was able to pass them through a larger space and get them to lower shelves.  Laurie was surprised at how much room we had with just two shelves and how well the 18" shelf worked (she originally wanted a 24" depth).  This will make a future design easier.

Trying to fit the shelf panels into the shelf brackets

Had to take off the top and drop some down

Everything loaded from the wood pantries . . .

. . . and there is still plenty of room

After we finished with the pantry shelves, a rep from Home Depot came by to do our carpet measurement.  I was impressed with the recording tools he used.  He had a tablet computer where he could enter all his measurements (using a laser measuring tape - I want one of those!) and before he left, was able to show us a scale drawing of the area to be carpeted.  I remember when we first bought the house and Matt did a floor layout for us and it took him many hours to measure and draw out a floor plan on the computer.  He should have seen this.  The rep told us we should get a response back by Sunday or Monday as to the final quote based on our carpet choice.

The rest of our work for the weekend was to move items out of the great room and then the den and guest bedroom so that I could put the ring-shanked nails into the sub-floor prior to installing any more flooring.  The movement of items from the rooms turned into more of a re-org of the extra rooms, our storage sheds and the workshop.  We decided to put as many tools and house stuff into the workshop as possible, but to do so required us to pull out the washer/dryer and install them in the laundry room.  It was easy moving the dryer with the two of us, but the washer was a lot heavier.  Laurie had the great idea of using the small dolly I bought from Harbor Freight.  The problem was rolling it across our gravel/dirt yard.  I decided we could use some leftover plywood to make a path across the yard and up the porch stairs and it worked like a charm.  We only hooked up the dryer vent for now as it is the more difficult of the connections to make and the others can be made without moving the units.

Washer and dryer fit perfectly - Thanks Sis!

We were able to move quite a bit of stuff that we do not need to keep in the house to the workshop and sheds, but it took us until the late afternoon to finish.  We had plans to go out and celebrate our 33rd anniversary this night and decide to stop working for the day.

The metal shed after the re-org - cabinets will be used in workshop

There is much more space without washer/dryer

I had found an extra can of door and window spray foam while cleaning out the rooms Saturday.  Since it will be awhile before we will install the door trim and baseboards, I decided that for the comfort of our future guests I would use the foam to fill in the gaps between the door frame and the walls in the den, both bedrooms and the hall bath.  Some of the openings were big enough to make a person uncomfortable if they were changing, showering or using the bathroom.  Later in the day after the foam dried, I was able to trim off the excess.

Excess foam protrudes from hall bathroom door gap

Now that the rooms were all cleared,  we began nailing all the sub-floor except for the master bedroom.  I did the nailing as Laurie followed behind me with a hammer to drive in older nails that had popped up.  When we got to the guest bedroom, I realized that we could not leave the old peel & stick flooring as originally planned.  There were too many nail heads coming up through the sheets and I could not tell where to put new nails, which would have to go through the tiles.  So we took about two hours to scrape up all the tiles in the room.  Once we were done, I could put the final nails into the floor.  The final task was to sweep up all the debris in each room.  The new nails made quite a difference as we no longer hear any floor squeaks, though there are still a few joist creaks.

Ring-shanked nails in sub-floor completed in great room

Everything left from rooms moved to one corner

Den sub-floor is nailed and swept

Could not leave old tile, it had to come up

Laurie worked the back of the room while I was up front

I finished up while Laurie picked up the mess

A clean, but very sticky floor

Before leaving on Sunday, we rolled out the flooring for the den and guest bedroom to allow it to adjust to the temperatures before we install it next week.  It was quite a busy day, but at least we are staying on schedule to meet our July 4 deadline.

The vinyl spread out to get ready for install

Stats: 0 Home Depot trips; 0 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 5/29/12-6/3/12: $876
Remodeling expense to date: $41,791