Tag Archives: Wood Flooring

Christmas is coming

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas … it is. Actually it did before Thankgiving, depending on where you were, but now that Thanksgiving is in the past, it’s “OK” to have Christmas things out. :)

We actually got a Christmas tree (at Costco, first time) this year, on “Black Friday” which is never very black for us. Usually little black to use. Very red, very, very red.

The Christmas tree is in the vehicle, we don’t have a place to put it up in the house yet. Still installing the dratted floor! It’s such a pain, it’s lovely that we have the wood and stuff to finally get the real wood as flooring that I’ve wanted for ages and ages. It is not so very straightforward to install in the living area though. It’s a fairly custom job, more-so than our bedroom floor install of 2007 went. I was very pregnant (6-7 months along) when I was fitting in pieces and drilling & nailing by hand (hammer) with my then 11-year-old son helping nail (hammer) some as well as setting most of the nails (hammer & nail set). That was fun. I guess it was more fun since I was so pregnant and therefore limber swinging the hammer, sitting on the floor, all the different positions one needs to get into when putting in a custom floor. (My hubby did start THAT floor with a floor nailer thing, but it jammed so much, we got sick of it. Wood split too. So we started pre-drilling and hand nailing and it was so much nicer, slower, but better overall.)

This current floor install is a pain, I have to do the cutting and fitting mostly. I have to make decisions and there is my husband who hasn’t been involved much and doing very little without me, and then I go and say “that has to come out and we have to find better pieces for that row” and so the work stops, takes three steps back … one step forward, slowly.

It will be lovely, someday. Life intervenes though. Not much work gets done when my helper goes running off to check the scores. I’m a football widow. I hate football. Especially since there are so many teams he wants to watch. It’s not like it’s one team for college, it’s ALL the games that are on. Similarly NFL is overly watched and followed. I know he’ll not stop, it’s just that, in regard to TIME there is this day, then tomorrow, and the next, and the next … you can’t regain time. That floor won’t get put all in by me, nor by itself. If you are here, not “at work” on the phone, then be working, be in the living room, get that floor in!

Then just maybe that Christmas tree can come inside and lower her branches for decorations.

Uh Oh. We have two cats that weren’t around before Christmas 2009 (born in March ’10.) This will be their first Christmas tree. In the past we have had kittens that were bad, some that were good. It will be interesting to see what’s in their stockings on Christmas morn.

Forward Progress

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In my scrapbook space I have both lighting fixtures up and running now. Both Home Depot fixtures came with halogen bulbs, one had 4, one had 3. Each fixture’s group of light bulbs had one dead. One was DOA, one died less than a minute after turning on the fixture. Subsequent bulbs replacing them have worked thus far (quite a few days.)

With light in the space now I can see to do things. It’s quite amazing. I’ve done embellishment work, also shared the space with my 11 year old daughter doing things together. What I mean by “embellishment work” is making little things to put on pages.

Stamping, Powder Embossing, cutting, Sticker-afying (Xyron Create-a-Sticker 150), Glitter Gel Pen-afying, Metallic Gel Pen-afying, Glaze Pen-afying, Liquid Embossing, etc.

Not making anything on purpose, just what appeals to me at the moment looking through my box of clear stamps (which I have a nice kit to put together to make THAT job easier, something I should do now, but want to do when I have things in better order and cleaned up more than everything is now.)

I can’t spend much time online, or crafting right now though because we are ripping out the old livingroom floor and will be installing Heart Pine 5″ wide flooring soon. It’s a job that is tough, and takes a lot of sheer will power, not even thinking of physical energy. Hubby is gone for a few more days, and that makes it easier to do this, as well as harder at the same time. So it’s mostly me and my 14 year old son doing the demolition, and trying to get the other three to not make a mess anywhere, clean up and do regular chores and help when we ask for it, something that they can do. It’s harder to get them helping than anything, and also it’s hard to force anyone to spend a huge time tearing out flooring, without long breaks.

I didn’t sleep well for a couple of nights in a row, then finally last night I got a good nights sleep. Maybe I’ll be better equipped to get the rest of the floor out today, it’s the worst part, any furniture there now has to move, it’s about half or more of the room. Piano & all the new wood are on one side, audio/video equipment connected to wall hanging LCD flat screen. So I’ll have to disconnect everything and move it and then figure out where to put anything else, coffee table, chair, thing, things. I already have some other stuff lined up on one side of the kitchen. It’s just a big fat mess. That piano is going to be a big …