We will miss the patchwork pine...
![Picture](/uploads/3/5/6/4/3564406/7548892.jpg?412)
Oh, the floor. Bumpy. Lumpy. Slanty. And the big patch of hardy-backer board in the middle. The cabin came with very scratched-up, face-nailed pine plank flooring with big gaps between the planks. Refinishing would mean counter-sinking all the nail heads, plus trying to "match" the spot with the big hole.
To hell with all that.
We decided to keep the slate tile over by the wood stove for two reasons: one, it functions as a terrific heat sink in the winter. Two, it's really, really hard to take up thin-set. David and I took up the two rows under the stairs.
Then we had to remove the pine planks. The Bohland Family saved the day: John Bohland chiseled up the thinset and David and Julian tore out most of the wood. David and I finished the job (and chopped up the planks) on another weekend trip.
Good measurements told me that I only needed about 280 feet of material, so I decided that I was going to go all-out. Hand-scraped fancy-ass hardwood flooring. Who cares if it's expensive? I don't need very much. I did tons of research through Lowe's and Lumber Liquidators. But I was worried about the wood. The maple flooring in my kitchen looks dreadful under Foster's water dish. Wood and water don't mix well. And we track in A LOT of snow.
I was shocked when not one but TWO flooring folks at Lowe's steered me away from the fancy-ass stuff. Wood will warp. Laminate will warp. Both, on a less than perfectly level floor, will be noisy. Tile would work, but the floor is so far from level and I can't install it. "You should go vinyl."
Um, vinyl? Excuse me? (I'm remembering those God-awful peel and stick floor tiles from the 1970's. The ones that curled and looked grimy in the seams.) They laughed. Come and take a look.
David and I decided that "Gunstock Oak" matched the knots in the knotty pine the best. The stuff was on sale for 88 cents a square foot. (Plus my 5% discount at Lowe's.) The flooring ended up costing me a grand total of $260. Heck, yeah!
The "click-lock" planks got very mixed reviews in terms of ease of installation, but everyone was raving about the Armstrong peel-and-stick stuff. So we got it. And I bought my dad a screw gun for Father's Day.
We went up the weekend after 4th of July and met my folks up there. We bought 10 sheets of particle board for the subfloor and spent Saturday afternoon shimming up the floor (we used asphalt roofing shingles - they're waterproof, do not compress, and worked like a charm.) Although we didn't get the floor level, we got it smooth and raised up some of the worst dips and valleys.)
Sunday morning we got going: Dad was measuring and cutting, Carlie peeled the paper backing from the adhesive strips, and David and I would each take a row. I couldn't believe how easy the stuff was to install, and I'm thrilled with how well it turned out.
Next project: ditching the stairs and installing a ship's ladder!
To hell with all that.
We decided to keep the slate tile over by the wood stove for two reasons: one, it functions as a terrific heat sink in the winter. Two, it's really, really hard to take up thin-set. David and I took up the two rows under the stairs.
Then we had to remove the pine planks. The Bohland Family saved the day: John Bohland chiseled up the thinset and David and Julian tore out most of the wood. David and I finished the job (and chopped up the planks) on another weekend trip.
Good measurements told me that I only needed about 280 feet of material, so I decided that I was going to go all-out. Hand-scraped fancy-ass hardwood flooring. Who cares if it's expensive? I don't need very much. I did tons of research through Lowe's and Lumber Liquidators. But I was worried about the wood. The maple flooring in my kitchen looks dreadful under Foster's water dish. Wood and water don't mix well. And we track in A LOT of snow.
I was shocked when not one but TWO flooring folks at Lowe's steered me away from the fancy-ass stuff. Wood will warp. Laminate will warp. Both, on a less than perfectly level floor, will be noisy. Tile would work, but the floor is so far from level and I can't install it. "You should go vinyl."
Um, vinyl? Excuse me? (I'm remembering those God-awful peel and stick floor tiles from the 1970's. The ones that curled and looked grimy in the seams.) They laughed. Come and take a look.
David and I decided that "Gunstock Oak" matched the knots in the knotty pine the best. The stuff was on sale for 88 cents a square foot. (Plus my 5% discount at Lowe's.) The flooring ended up costing me a grand total of $260. Heck, yeah!
The "click-lock" planks got very mixed reviews in terms of ease of installation, but everyone was raving about the Armstrong peel-and-stick stuff. So we got it. And I bought my dad a screw gun for Father's Day.
We went up the weekend after 4th of July and met my folks up there. We bought 10 sheets of particle board for the subfloor and spent Saturday afternoon shimming up the floor (we used asphalt roofing shingles - they're waterproof, do not compress, and worked like a charm.) Although we didn't get the floor level, we got it smooth and raised up some of the worst dips and valleys.)
Sunday morning we got going: Dad was measuring and cutting, Carlie peeled the paper backing from the adhesive strips, and David and I would each take a row. I couldn't believe how easy the stuff was to install, and I'm thrilled with how well it turned out.
Next project: ditching the stairs and installing a ship's ladder!