It's All About The Floor

It's been a year now, since we started redoing the floors and replacing the fireplace. 

Jim doesn't have time in the summer to spend on in-house projects, there is too much to do outside. 

During the fall he spent a little time in the evenings chiseling the bark off the slab we plan to use for the mantel. After sanding and experimenting with different colors of stains, he installed the metal plate he will hung the mantel on. It is called a floating bracket.

Look closely at the 4th picture down. 

I sure thought I took a picture after it was installed, but I can't find it so I took one today. 

Over the summer, while we enjoyed our new plank flooring in the kitchen and dining room and not enjoying the worn out and dirty carpet in the living room, we thought about replacing the carpet. 

Eventually, we decided that we liked the plank flooring so much, that we would continue into the living room and forget carpet altogether. 

Because this is an add-on project, rather than a continuation, Jim had to take the planking out of the closet and entry way.  The way the planking fits together, makes this a necessity. Each piece connects to the previous one very tightly to made a watertight, no gap seal, so you just can't insert a piece in the middle. It all has to be worked one way. Jim marked the entry way pieces so he could put them back in the same way without cutting new ones. Some worked, some didn't and he could use some of the other pieces elsewhere. 

Another nail-biting issue was if the house was square and Jim's work was square so the planking would meet up to the planking in the entry. It did, to a half-inch, which was wiggled around and hidden under the trim. I have no idea what we would have done if it didn't match up. 

Getting ready to start

Matching up

Progress

Nearly Done