Here is a picture of Maria jumping for the ball as Shaun and Danny look on.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Wolleyball
We joined Mike's wolleyball team this winter and are having a lot of fun.
Here is a picture of Maria jumping for the ball as Shaun and Danny look on.
Here is a picture of Maria jumping for the ball as Shaun and Danny look on.
Hardwood Floors X
The project is nearly finished now; only the closet and the steps remain. After that, the trim and quarter-round will follow.
I finished the floor up to the closet on Saturday but have not had time to post any photos so I post them now.
As you can see, the transition is seamless.
Sweeping is so much easier now than it was before and will be even easier when I install a dust pan that will connect to my central vacuum. I think that this will have a tremendous psychological impact on my behaviour and that I will henceforth sweep quite often, much to Maria's delight. When I sweep, I believe that roughly 80% of my time is actually spent trying to get the dust into the dust pan, which is enough to discourage me from sweeping.
Here is my entire project in one picture. Sigh, I wish that I had discovered this incredible angle before I removed the carpet.
Now there remains the problem of the stairs. Fortunately for me, we went to an open house on Sunday and I was able to see the solution to my problem in person. Below is a picture of a hardwood floor ending in a step.
As you can see, the skirtboards end below the floor here as well, just like my own stairs. The only difference is that I have the added complication of a sharp angle instead of this flush set of stairs. Notice how the quarter-round simply ends into the nosing? This is what I had planned on doing; I am happy to see that it is the correct solution. What I had not thought of is that I could cover the skirtboards in veneer, like they did in this house. This will be 1000 times nicer than our current white-coloured pine skirtboards.
How lucky for me to have been able to study this in person!
I finished the floor up to the closet on Saturday but have not had time to post any photos so I post them now.
As you can see, the transition is seamless.
Sweeping is so much easier now than it was before and will be even easier when I install a dust pan that will connect to my central vacuum. I think that this will have a tremendous psychological impact on my behaviour and that I will henceforth sweep quite often, much to Maria's delight. When I sweep, I believe that roughly 80% of my time is actually spent trying to get the dust into the dust pan, which is enough to discourage me from sweeping.
Here is my entire project in one picture. Sigh, I wish that I had discovered this incredible angle before I removed the carpet.
Now there remains the problem of the stairs. Fortunately for me, we went to an open house on Sunday and I was able to see the solution to my problem in person. Below is a picture of a hardwood floor ending in a step.
As you can see, the skirtboards end below the floor here as well, just like my own stairs. The only difference is that I have the added complication of a sharp angle instead of this flush set of stairs. Notice how the quarter-round simply ends into the nosing? This is what I had planned on doing; I am happy to see that it is the correct solution. What I had not thought of is that I could cover the skirtboards in veneer, like they did in this house. This will be 1000 times nicer than our current white-coloured pine skirtboards.
How lucky for me to have been able to study this in person!
Friday, February 05, 2010
Hardwood Floors IX
I am almost done my project and am happy to say that today was a productive day. I had a day off from work, you see, and did not spend it browsing the Internet—I spent some of it browsing the Internet—but spent it running errands and working on the hardwood floors.
This first picture is where I was with this project before I began at the crack of eleven. (Hey, I had to go buy a new pneumatic nail gun at the other end of town after driving Maria to work.)
The first step was to rack the hardwood—this means that I laid out all of the wood that I would use into place. Racking is important because hardwood often comes in slightly different colours and this becomes obvious if you install it box after box without mixing them up beforehand. It also allows you to pick pieces that fit just right so that you can minimize the amount of wood that is wasted.
Here, you can see that I lined up all of the spare pieces according to size; I had done this with all of the hardwood before I began. This lengthy process was definitely worthwhile because it saved me a considerable amount of time later on when I was searching for a piece of wood of an exact size. It also mixed up the colours really well.
In the above photo, I have finished the hardwood on the right of the stairs but have only racked the hardwood on the left.
Some compressors come with two outputs. This is often seen as a useless feature that does not really add any value to your compressor. I beg to differ; I love the dual output! When one is nailing floors, there are often two tools that are necessary: the floor nailer and the nail gun. Both of these are used on and off and it is a pain to constantly change the tool that is attached to the hose.
Since my compressor had two outputs, I decided to buy a second hose. This allowed me to use both the floor stapler and the nail gun interchangeably without having to unplug them every time.
I love this feature and would recommend it to anybody who is going to buy a compressor to do hardwood floors.
On the subject of nail guns, my new nail gun is fantastic; it is much smaller than my first nail gun and allows me to properly nail the hardwood that is close to the wall.
The above picture is of the basement where the magic happens. I have a table saw, a mitre saw, a jig saw, and a circular saw, all of which were used for this project. I hope that one day I will have a shop where I can do all of my work without making a big mess in the finished basement.
Here are some pictures after having cleaned up; it looks much nicer than when the tools were everywhere.
Cutting around the stairs was not that difficult and the result is fantastic. I am really proud of it; I wish that all of the edges looked like this.
Below is a view of the nearly-finished hall.
Cutting around that door, on the left, was incredibly difficult; I do not wish to do that again.
This first picture is where I was with this project before I began at the crack of eleven. (Hey, I had to go buy a new pneumatic nail gun at the other end of town after driving Maria to work.)
The first step was to rack the hardwood—this means that I laid out all of the wood that I would use into place. Racking is important because hardwood often comes in slightly different colours and this becomes obvious if you install it box after box without mixing them up beforehand. It also allows you to pick pieces that fit just right so that you can minimize the amount of wood that is wasted.
Here, you can see that I lined up all of the spare pieces according to size; I had done this with all of the hardwood before I began. This lengthy process was definitely worthwhile because it saved me a considerable amount of time later on when I was searching for a piece of wood of an exact size. It also mixed up the colours really well.
In the above photo, I have finished the hardwood on the right of the stairs but have only racked the hardwood on the left.
Some compressors come with two outputs. This is often seen as a useless feature that does not really add any value to your compressor. I beg to differ; I love the dual output! When one is nailing floors, there are often two tools that are necessary: the floor nailer and the nail gun. Both of these are used on and off and it is a pain to constantly change the tool that is attached to the hose.
Since my compressor had two outputs, I decided to buy a second hose. This allowed me to use both the floor stapler and the nail gun interchangeably without having to unplug them every time.
I love this feature and would recommend it to anybody who is going to buy a compressor to do hardwood floors.
On the subject of nail guns, my new nail gun is fantastic; it is much smaller than my first nail gun and allows me to properly nail the hardwood that is close to the wall.
The above picture is of the basement where the magic happens. I have a table saw, a mitre saw, a jig saw, and a circular saw, all of which were used for this project. I hope that one day I will have a shop where I can do all of my work without making a big mess in the finished basement.
Here are some pictures after having cleaned up; it looks much nicer than when the tools were everywhere.
Cutting around the stairs was not that difficult and the result is fantastic. I am really proud of it; I wish that all of the edges looked like this.
Below is a view of the nearly-finished hall.
Cutting around that door, on the left, was incredibly difficult; I do not wish to do that again.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Hardwood Floors VIII
I do not like to use power tools during the week because they make too much noise and nobody wants to come home from work to the grinding scream of a table saw or the loud rumble of a compressor.
I decided, instead, to fix a little squeak that I had.
In this picture, you can see a joint in the second row. I could not fit the floor nailer in there because of the stairs. Instead, I was planning on using the nail gun. Unfortunately, the nail gun is too big and did not fit—I plan on getting a better, smaller nail gun—so I did not nail down the hardwood in some important places, as displayed below with red Xs.
I then proceeded to nail down the next row, forgetting that this one was missing important nails. After I was finished, I walked on the floor and noticed a terrible squeak exactly where I forgot to nail down the hardwood. I know that I will never forgive myself if I continue this project and ignore the problem; that squeak will drive me crazy.
Instead of ripping out that last row and properly stapling the second row, I realized that I could solve this problem from below.
I used a template on the floor that I copied onto the ceiling below so that I would know where the problem was. Lucky for me, it was not over the joist.
I added many screws through the floor into the hardwood and tightened them as hard as I could. I went back upstairs and walked on it thoroughly and I am pleased to say that it worked; the squeak is barely noticeable now. I can now sleep at night.
Those who know me know that my favourite tool is the Robertson screwdriver. What I especially like about it is that screws rarely fall to the ground when you are inserting them into a surface; the square head keeps the screw nicely on the screwdriver. I have often taken photos of a Robertson screwdriver being held into place by nothing but the screw but today, I managed to keep a Robertson screwdriver in place upside-down.
This is incredible! Not as incredible as the entire power drill though:
This is not a trick; the drill is really holding on by the Robertson screw. I must admit that this was a new drill bit; older drill bits cannot accomplish this.
I decided, instead, to fix a little squeak that I had.
In this picture, you can see a joint in the second row. I could not fit the floor nailer in there because of the stairs. Instead, I was planning on using the nail gun. Unfortunately, the nail gun is too big and did not fit—I plan on getting a better, smaller nail gun—so I did not nail down the hardwood in some important places, as displayed below with red Xs.
I then proceeded to nail down the next row, forgetting that this one was missing important nails. After I was finished, I walked on the floor and noticed a terrible squeak exactly where I forgot to nail down the hardwood. I know that I will never forgive myself if I continue this project and ignore the problem; that squeak will drive me crazy.
Instead of ripping out that last row and properly stapling the second row, I realized that I could solve this problem from below.
I used a template on the floor that I copied onto the ceiling below so that I would know where the problem was. Lucky for me, it was not over the joist.
I added many screws through the floor into the hardwood and tightened them as hard as I could. I went back upstairs and walked on it thoroughly and I am pleased to say that it worked; the squeak is barely noticeable now. I can now sleep at night.
Those who know me know that my favourite tool is the Robertson screwdriver. What I especially like about it is that screws rarely fall to the ground when you are inserting them into a surface; the square head keeps the screw nicely on the screwdriver. I have often taken photos of a Robertson screwdriver being held into place by nothing but the screw but today, I managed to keep a Robertson screwdriver in place upside-down.
This is incredible! Not as incredible as the entire power drill though:
This is not a trick; the drill is really holding on by the Robertson screw. I must admit that this was a new drill bit; older drill bits cannot accomplish this.
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