January 8, 2012 - Time Flies

Nooooooooooooooo!!! It hasn't been eight days since my last blog, has it?

I've been busy, busy, busy. The new flooring is done, but there are still some baseboards and molding to be cut, painted/stained and installed. I still have four doors to paint, and each one requires at least an entire day to remove, sand, prime and paint two or three coats of enamel. They were dark walnut stained doors that are being painted white. Just two of the six hall doors have been finished and rehung.

It seems as though every time I redo something, it requires something else to be done. In this case, we had forgotten the floor under all the vinyl had been overlayed with plywood when the kitchen was redone the last time. That meant the thickness of that underlay, plus the thickness of the laminate flooring, made quite a drop off into the laundry room and bathroom. It's not so noticeable going into the bedrooms and Mr. Granny's man cave, as the carpets conceal the actual height of the drop off. Now the two rooms that have vinyl flooring will eventually (soon) have to have new floor coverings, and they will need to have the floors raised up to match the hall. Sigh.....I really didn't want to do all of that, as those floors are in great shape. In the meantime, I think I'll install some 1/2" quarter round, stained to match the hall floor, just next to the laminate transition strip. It might keep Mr. Granny from tripping over the edge!

The gap between the vinyl and the transition strip is large enough to insert the end of a toothbrush.

I can't seem to get a decent picture of this flooring. I guess it's the sheen that changes the color when the flash hits it. It's the color of the closeup in the first picture, yet it looks yellow, red or silver in the other photos.


I'm getting quite used to living with tools and toolboxes in my living room. I will miss them when they're gone (NOT!)

I really do like the flooring, but if I had it to do over, I'd pick laminate that didn't have knot holes in the pattern. When you're looking at one sample board, it's not so noticeable. When they're in every board on the floor it looks like the pups came in with muddy paws! Really, one of the (repeating) knots looks a lot like a paw print. Another drawback of new flooring is how shabby it makes existing furniture look. Now I won't rest easy until that old bookcase in the kitchen is replaced, and a new solid oak one will put me back about $200. Gotta have it though, it's the only handy spot for my recipe books and my kitchen TV, and narrow enough to not block entry to the hallway.

There's not much gardening going on yet. I've received a few more catalogs, but with all the seeds that were gifted to me by Robin, and Ed being more generous than Santa Clause himself, I've only had place one order so far. I can't let a year go by without buying more sweet pepper seeds from Ohio Heirloom Seeds. I always find someone to share them with, and I'm adding a yellow variety to the two red ones this year. If I find a few moments to spare, I'd like to at least find the grow light and a container and start a pot of lettuce on the windowsill.