House projects!

I've been a little busy these days with multiple jobs and a home renovation project. I thought I'd share some of my misadventures with a flooring install!
Here's some pics, before and after. Also a pic of the type of crap (literally) I've had to deal with in this nasty house. That's several pounds of mouse shit that I removed from the upstairs kitchen... eww.
The living room floor in the upstairs apartment was covered with thick-pile harvest gold pee stained shag, over broken asbestos done in 2 stages with 2 different tile designs and adhesives, over 1/2" beaverboard. I got the wall-to-wall out very soon after buying the place since it was SO smelly, and threw a rug over the asbestos. But that was so nasty too, and I wanted to FINALLY finish that room and have at least ONE room that isn't a total nightmare, so I finally broke down and dropped a few hundred on some tongue-and-groove solid bamboo flooring at a discount store. I had planned to lay it right over the asbestos, but that was in such bad shape and so dirty that I decided to do it correctly, and chipped that crap up with a wrecking bar- OW my hands are so swollen but it's gone now, and the floor is half done.
I don't have access to a nailer and ended up doing it old-school style, setting each board in place with a wedge driven agaisnt a block nailed to the subflooring, and drilling pilot holes at 45' angles into the tongue of each board so the nails wouldn't split them, and setting them with a punch. I even conned my dad into coming out and whacking some nails for the afternoon! (And then we went out for BBQ, which was the best part)
I am SO excited with the results! I've just been sitting in the corner there by the window rubbing the floor! I know it sounds so stupid but I've lived here more than 4 years and that floor has been a thorn in my side since day one, so I wanted to share it with you guys!

1- Chaos
2- Chaos
3- Technique
4- The building inspector

I brought home all the rib-bones from the BBQ for Patsy the Inspector and she changed her mind fast. She's not above a little bribery. Then again, she's kinda short- she's not above a little ANYTHING.

I, like, TOTALLY fucked up my manicure. They are gonna KILL me at the nail salon this evening... :( They keep asking what I do for work and why my nails get so bad so fast, even with the UV cured epoxy gel... the stuff is like freaking kevlar and I STILL manage to wreck it!

Seriously my hamstrings are on fire from the bending over. Fuck the gym. I should make a new fad exercise video and call it 'Bang n Burn with Stinky' or something. Soundtrack by AC/DC, liquid refreshment sponsorship by Milwaukee's finest... Sweet.

ahhhh, crap ! ... now, I know why I get invites up there :wtf: ... don't take my 'will work for fuel' sign seriously :jointsmile:

Hahaha! Dammit, am I THAT transparent? :jointsmile:

well at least, once this is over a bowl will feel soooooooo goood to smoke in there :D

but those pics look nasty... good thing u r doing the right thing and scew them nosy ladies at nail shop... they asked me why my unibrow would grow so fast everytime i would go there for waxing (yes i dropped the ball as a hairy mid-eastern i gotta take care of myself, ladies pay up their neck to be sexy and thanks to the god given deal that we have, we gotta take some extra steps comapred to average Caucasian male;), but now i do all this crap myself, and No it has nothing to do with gays! this is totally a different issue! anyways)

post us some pics once its all done n clean

since i spaced my smoking when i was cutting down to quit... everytime i wanted to smoke ,i wanted to take care of all my shit b4 i toke so i would toke in a neat clean room that smells like its just been licked all over by some febreeze and not to worry about all the shirts i gotta iron or the mess i gotta clean or all the laundry or worse the restroom... so in this way that kind of smoking was sooooo useful to me :D

I'm moving in very few days, and i really hope i aint gonna have to this kinda shit as man of the house myself! the floors in the new place look rather neat despite the age of the building... its been remodeled just recently so yeah..

anyhow, hope u finish it quicker so u can get to enjoy it:rastasmoke:

Yeah man, I hear ya- I hate smoking in unfinished rooms because I get that I NEED TO FIX THIS urge and can't relax.
The building is over a hundred years old and they really fucked up on a couple earlier renovations, including a bad Harry Homeowner 2-family conversion which I am partially un-doing. Ideally the place will be flexible and useable as a single or 2; mostly I'm unhappy with the materials they used and the shoddy install on a lot of stuff.

More pics!
1- Nailing and setting boards. The building inspector is now breathing down my neck. She made me rip up the whole thing and start over- said it wasn't to code (meaning she can't get traction on it and slides all over the place)
2- My average dinner is eaten standing up in the middle of a project these days. Mmmmmm braised beef shank with winter vegetables...

I had to move from my country house, into an apartment in town. No growing for me, in the for see-able future....:(

I lost my place to forclosure...(not the mortgage company, it was paid for, in full, cash.....I lost it to the divorce court)

....anyways...moving stuff out, I had cobwebs falling on me, like tree limbs....:thumbsup:

Shit. That looks like it was a real peaceful piece of property.
Remind me never to get married. I'd be so bitter if I lost my home to an ex. :mad:

Yeah...it looks peaceful...but, I think it's cursed.

A couple from New York state bought it sight unseen in July. (who would buy property sight unseen, anyways?)

...six days before closing, the dude is killed in an automoble accident.

I may have moved out for nothing.

Looks like good times stinks! Cant wait to be able to get a lil 88000 dollar fixer upper up north. It is so much more rewarding when you diy...to me at least...thanks for sharing!
whiskeytango

your doing a great job their stinky:thumbsup:but was thinking that if you removed the skirting board and started the floor against the wall you probally wouldnt have to nail the boards, as the t&g locks it in place and the skirting put back holds all the edges down, in the u.k we call it a floating floor, but looks like you doing a great job there, the way your doing it.
is that a white boxer with a black eye?:D

She's half Boxer and half Olde English Bulldogge.
I had planned to remove the skirting board (this side of the Pond we call it 'base-board') but it's a 2- piece trim that has a bunch of wire-mold attached to it from a recent electrical upgrade, as well as being glued to the original horsehair plaster from c. 1900, and if I remove it the walls will crumble in those spots and require a lot of repair. I decided to leave them, butt the new floor up tight, and then lay a small piece of cove-molding along the joint to hide and protect it and fix the floorboards in place. I also decided to nail them down because a friend who has done a lot of construction warned me to think of the future, when sand and grit works between them and causes wear on the tongues, and lets the floor get loose over time. I think if the boards were thicker and longer I'd be able to get away with fewer nails through them, but they are only 1/2" and 38" long.
Thanks! I'm glad it's coming out right at least!

i know what you mean,i took of all the base board of my daughters room and being the old style sand and lime plaster ended up haveing to replaster the whole room.
love the dog reminds me of my last boxer,that was white with a black eye:D

It looks great! I'm planning to do a similar project in the next year. Most of our floor through out the house is covered in nasty wall-to-wall that was nasty when we moved in 8 years ago! I'm planning to nail down as well. I've got enough square footage that I might buy, borrow or rent the nailer.

woow right on gal. the wood floor looks great really great.

damm I wanna meet a chick that likes growing green and doing house projects. then I would be set with my 3 fav things bout me dreamgal. :D gro,smoke,home projects.
:thumbsup:

Just saw your pics Ms Attic, please tell me you didn't cover those lovely old flagstones.

NCM

Did anyone else clock the broomstick in pic 1 post 2 LOL

NCM

No wonder her crops are so damned good :)

Yeah that's right, I feed them snakes n snails n puppydog tails... correctly composted and treated with MycoStim, of course! :rolleyes:

Nah that's not flagstones- that's composite subflooring with the remains of grime and adhesive in a grid pattern where I popped up the asbestos tiles that had been glued to it. No flagstones in my house... YET. The next re-flooring project is cutting out an inch-thick layer of assorted sheet linoleum and tile products off the downstairs kitchen and hall, and laying slate flagstone in its place. That will be epic.

I got in a minor dispute at the nail salon on Wednesday, actually, when I went in for a fill with my nails looking as if I'd been clawing at bricks, and had a complex exchange with the nail tech over why I flat out REFUSED to have the old set removed and replaced with pink gel ("but it look more pretty!") instead of the untinted epoxy. I had to explain repeatedly that I don't like pink, and finally the last word was that I don't get fake nails to be pretty, I get them because they are more strong! She harrumphed at me and grumpily put on the untinted epoxy. Maybe next time I will go pink... naaaah! ;)

I must say that the grime and adhesive does a good impression of flagstones, it would have been a whipping offence to have covered them up, that crime ranks along with covering natural old wood with paint.
Anyway good luck with the project as I think I mentioned before we live in a 308 year old farmhouse so I know what major projects are like.
Hope your nails and bank balance survive.

Cheers

NCM