Installing Hard Wood Floors = Self-Flagellation

 Good bye carpet. Hello weeks of second thoughts and sore knees.

Each one of these bundles is 20 square feet of "rustic" 

solid oak tongue and groove flooring. A total of 240 square feet. 

We ended up buying 60 square more to finish the project. 

About 25 percent of the boards were "junk" and could not be used. 

Remember, if you decide to put your own wood floor in, 

it's very important to let the wood sit in the room it will be 

installed in for at least a week. The wood needs to acclimate

 to its new environment before you nail it down.

We started against the wall where the majority of foot traffic will be so the

 floor would appear to be straight for the main walkway. I had to pour a

 leveling cement on the floor to raise it 1/8 of an inch before we laid the 

red "rosin" paper against the wall. The stacks on the left are ordered 

by the quality of the boards. The farthest stacks are the best boards 

which we used in the walkway and other highly visible areas, 

while the imperfect boards are used against the wall

 and other out of the way places.

Here is Dara fitting the boards in a row so as not to have any of the

 seams next to each other. You should have at least 3-4 inches in

 between the end of the board and the end of the board in the 

previous row. This can be a frustrating process but necessary 

so you have a tight, unmoving floor. 

This device is a manual nail-gun. This throws a 2 inch tapered nail 

at an angle through the tongue and into the floor when you smash the

 piston down with the rubber mallet. If you don't hit the piston just right

 the nail doesn't go in fully and needs to be pulled.

This is the last nail in the last row! I estimate I used at least 4,500 nails

 putting the floor in. It was very satisfying pounding this nail in.

I rented a belt sander to sand the majority of the room. I rented an 

edge sander for the spots the belt sander couldn't reach. All the spots

 in the image are dust particles that I am sure are still in my lungs. 

Wear a mask when you do this!

 Here is the stain we chose. I ended up putting two coats down. Once that

 dried I put down a polyurethane coat to seal the floor. 

And this is the finished project! Maybe in five years or so when my knees

 and back forget about this, I may consider doing another room.

P.S. If you really want to test your relationship install a hardwood

 floor together. If you make it through it, you were meant to be.

And... we're back!

Right so, now that we're all caught up on the last three seasons of Dexter we thought we ought to start posting again. Quick post though, we need to plant seeds tonight!! Amazing how fast things roll around.

Anyway, we started this Paleo thing. Awesome! I feel great. Never, ever eating wheat again. But supplements are recommended so I went to get a couple things from the vitamin store like fish oil, vit D, common things we don't get enough of. Well I also needed probiotics. The girl working, who was helpful about most everything, confused the hell out of me about the probiotics. They need to be live not freeze dried, well even the refrigerated kind are dried, and the liquid kind, these are more but they help you culture your own unique bacteria (am I not doing that already?). So I said to hell with this, I'm just going to ferment cabbage and make my own bacteria. Everyone should do this. It tastes good and it's good for you.

I put 2 TBS of sea salt (MUST be sea salt) and a cup of filtered water into a mason jar. You'll need to stir it until the salt has disolved completely and then add shredded cabbage (or whatever other veggie). I also added a celery stalk to mine. It works as a preservative, totally optional. Fill the mason jar up to the top with filtered water. Place it on a saucer to catch the overflow and stick a slightly tapered glass in the top. This allows air to touch the water but not the veggies. Don't let the veggies touch the air... at least not for very long. As the water evaporates (or as you eat cabbage) just pull the glass out and add more water. I liked it best after 3 days but we're still eating it after a couple weeks. YUM!