Phase 1

**Spoiler alert! My Vet should stop reading now.**

 You can see in my image that there will be
1 long seem, instead of staggered seams.

I love DIY projects. I love the adrenaline of trying something new, I love the feeling of accomplishment when it is finished, and mostly I love being able to enjoy my home without going into debt.

My Vet  hates, detests, abhors, despises unfinished projects. He wants to walk in the door to a finished space. Even if it's ugly, he likes it if it's done. So when My Vet goes on guy weekends, I get to work. The project I've been planning next is a big one, requiring 2 weekends to complete. This past weekend he went salmon fishing and I got started on phase 1.

I pulled back the carpet exposing the original hardwood floors. Some areas in the original flooring had been ripped out and replaced by cheapo pine one by's. I removed the old boards, and cleaned out the caulk installed by a previous owner. I then cut my replacement tongue and groove flooring boards to size with a compound miter saw. Originally, I was going to try to feather it in, but decided that since the area would be mostly covered by furniture, I wasn't going to get in over my head, and left it at a patch job. I am hoping that it is less obvious after sanding and sealing at a future date.

Giant, super scary, tank of death.

After cutting all the pieces to size, and dry fitting them. I rented a floor nailer for a few hours to finish the job. Thankfully, I have seen them used on TV. I was confident in my ability to handle it, until I brought it home and opened the case. I wasn't thinking clearly, and hadn't counted on it needing an air compressor to operate. Have I ever mentioned how super scary I think air compressors are? They are giant tanks of pressurized air just waiting to explode and fatally wound me. A floor nailer is a serious tool, and can't be run on the slightly less scary smaller compressor, it needed the big dog to operate correctly. **gulp** Of course the hose wasn't long enough to reach from it's storage spot in the garage to the living room, so I had to move it outside. Being careful to keep it in the shade, as I vaguely remember hearing that direct sunlight could increase pressure in the tank and kill me. Since I am a girl, I sat down with the instructions to familiarize myself before proceeding. It took me about 1 hour to nail in all those small pieces. I then cleaned up my tools, carefully wheeling the tank of death back into the garage. Laid the padding and carpet back down, vacuumed and moved the furniture back into place.

View of a different patch area.

My Vet returned home the next day, and still is blissfully unaware of the chaos he is living amidst. (Until now that is. Darn my need to blog) For those of you keeping tabs. I consider this flooring project as part of the fireplace project. The new hearth on the fireplace requires attention to the flooring in that area. This project will eliminate that phase of the fireplace completion. I really need to get to the drywall portion of it though.

Do I have any volunteers?