Today made the fourth day of hardwood flooring installation: I've marked last Tuesday as an orientation day – and not just to make my daily productivity look better!
So far, I'm crawling at between 50% and 33% of the rate of an experienced installer. Greg Martin of Finmac Lumber says a good solo installer will rack (arrange the pieces) and nail 100 - 150 sq. ft. per day. After four days, I've installed about 220 sq. ft. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but 'zat is vot it iss.' Given that we decided to go with mill select (sometimes known as Country Grade) unfinished maple, the colour and grain variation is quite dramatic. Add to that random lengths between 9" and 84", the desirability of randomizing all variables, having every other spike hit a floor joist, generally having 6" of separation between adjacent end-joins... well, you get the picture of what is involved in creating 1,400 sq. ft. of abstract mosaic.
We bought a pneumatic MasterCraft floor nailer which was desperately lacking in useful "how to use this sucker" information. Unfortunately, the 1-800 number so prominently promoted on Canadian Tire's in-store brand provided no more help so, with some careful testing, I divined the inner workings of the nailer and it has delivered fine results.
Meanwhile, Ruth has been spending three-to-four weekend days painting.
And, everyday, the light outdoors continues to inspire as we labour and perspire in what will – some many months down the road – be our dream home.
Off to bed to dream about it (I hope). The waking thoughts of protracted timelines as I roused at 4:23 this morning were definitely not dream-like.
P.S. A few weeks ago I again took a huge trailer of trash to the dump. I noticed this stuffed horse abandoned in the pile next to where I was unloading and, knowing Sadie's of things plush, brought it home. Yesterday, after watching Sadie head downstairs several times a day to visit Horsey, Ruth finally brought it up, where Sadie immediately tried to nurse (we think) from it. Of course, it may just have been typical doggie butt-sniff behaviour.
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