unflooring the floor

so as you read in my previous post about the check valve, we finally figured out the problem with my plumbing! however, in order to do this we had to pull up my hardwood floors. and because they were installed tongue & groove, we had to remove entire strips of them (and hope not to break too many since we were having absolutely no luck finding matching hardwood -- originally i bought them from building materials outlet). such a hassle.

dad came up with the brilliant idea of labeling each plank as we took it out, so that it would be easier to put them all back in again.

we had to literally remove half of my floor. see all those rows with boards removed? yep, we had to take out those entire rows.

and then of course we had to put it all back in. we repainted with more killz odor hiding paint, wait for it to dry, then re-measure, re-snap the chalk lines, lay the mat, re-snap the chalk lines on the mat, lay the hardwood and secure it in. it took a few days.

thank goodness we labeled all the planks, made it go much much faster. my dad is a genius :)

garden state in my garden level

i had bought a giant roll of vinyl laminate flooring from menards a while ago. it looks like a cobblestone path, and it's dark shades of gray. i can't imagine many people would use it in their dining room or kitchen area, but i have never wanted to do what everyone else does.

we went over to the condo for what was supposed to be "just an hour" according to dad. four hours later, we made our way home, feeling accomplished. we finished fitting the last strip of flooring in my dining room/kitchen area and used the seamer and double-sided tape on the four seams.

along the way matthew thought it would be funny if i made a shirt out of my flooring, and then take a picture of me standing there awkwardly, as seen in "garden state." this was my make-shift dress:

and this was matthew's version of the photo...looks more like a happy chalk line to me.

snapping the chalk line

more than a week since i've been to the condo. it felt like forever! but my dad has been there working (on stuff i'm not strong enough to help him with). i guess i'll have to start lifting soup cans and eating spinach.

none the less, it felt good to be back today. that same familiar cat smell in the air. at least the living room and bedroom are smelling fresh and clean!

so we did a little putty work and then broke out the ol' tape measure and starting creating a grid to find "center" in my giant living room. after more mental math than i thought i would ever need to do again, and marking tiny pencil dashes on the walls, we got to do the fun part: snapping the chalk lines!

to finish prepping the floors for laying the final planks tomorrow, we rolled out, trimmed-to-fit, and taped down the padding for under the wood planks. by the end, i had the urge to do somersaults and cartwheels across the soft padding...