Working on the floor this weekend. It was windy on Saturday, but we took a 10 mile ride in the morning before rain was supposed to set in. We biked around town looking at houses for sale just for fun and went through the town park. It was a sunny day, but very windy.
As I have mentioned before, we live in a very historical area. There are tons of little blue signs all around with markers of what happened. Here is one in the park:
Kind of like historical graffiti – “Washington wuz here ”
Then it was time to work on the floor!
This is a click-and-lock system. First you lay the underlayment down, then you put the boards down and lock them into place. No nails, no glue. Then tap them with a block to close the gap.
For the edges against the wall, there is a tapping bar, as you obviously can’t use the block
Love that ugly paneling. Our walls underneath are lathe and plaster and I think there was a reason why the paneling was put up. I don’t want to take it down and have to replaster or drywall all the walls. Nightmare! So it stays up and is painted.
Anyway, these are tools the come in The Kit (how original).
We had this kit from when we did our upstairs flooring. This time we bought the flooring at Lowes.
Pixie was helping…
We are doing a lot of things not quite like the directions state. Sometimes that happens with older houses that aren’t square and just because of the layout of the house and all of our stuff! We can’t just clear out the whole downstairs, which would be ideal, but not practical.
By Sunday evening, we are just about done with the dining room!
I need to paint the baseboards before they go back up as they are scuffed and dirty. The floor isn’t perfect, but I am really loving it so far!
Good news on the Mr. Casper Boo front. I think we have him a foster home through a rescue! He might actually be going to Vermont where there is foster care available until he is adopted out. Right now he is residing in our shop and seems quite happy there. He is getting friendlier and friendlier, too. Such a sweetie.
We brought him in the shop to keep him safe now that we have a plan for him to go somewhere. He’s eating and sleeping and purring 
Flooring… cool. Finding a home for the kitty… SUPER COOL!!!!!!
Ahh looks like some tongue and groove flooring? It already looks fabulous – are you just loving all these fun updates? Much more exciting when it’s for a house are are actually keeping. 🙂
It’s click and lock. Kind of like tongue and groove, but it doesn’t need glue (thank goodness).
I really want to re-do my living room floor. Just need enough energy 🙂
That’s such a sweet kitty, kudos for finding someone who will take him.
Pixie is definitely a princess!!
Oh, such good news on the kitty!
You make the flooring look so easy! But what about places it doesn’t fit, or like you said, isn’t square? How do you cut those pre-cut pieces so they fit?
They cut with a table saw. John does the cutting and I do most of the pounding. The only places the boards need cutting are around corners and staggering the rows so that the seams are not all right next to each other across the whole floor. Plus the last row needs cutting lengthwise because obviously the room is going to work out the be exactly a board width. They make flooring pretty easy for a do-it-yourselfer. We do have some areas that aren’t perfect, but no one would notice unless we pointed it out.
I WANT PIXIE’S JOB!
Looks great – and you guys make it look so simple! Love that shot of Pixie…”dis MY floor” 😉
Wonderful news about Mr. Casper. Good people abound!
Oh wow – that flooring looks so “doable”. Maybe I’ll give it a go – master closet sounds like a good training ground, perhaps! (The cutting will be my challenge – need to source a table saw)
So cool the pics of where you live! I had that at one time way back when I loved back east! 😉
SO sweet of you to take care of Boo & find a home – cool that a friendship is happening but may be hard to say bye..
Pixie LOVE!!!! And you two are too much with all that home stuff! 😉
New floor looks great Lori!
Great to hear you found a home for Caspar Boo.
It’s looking great, Lori! (And John, of course!) Were you dissatisfied with Lumber Liquidators? I was planning to stop by one on my way home on Friday, just to price/option compare.
Not dissatisfied at all with Lumber liquidators. It’s just farther away for one and now Lowes and HD stock more and more less expensive flooring. One of the main reasons was the flooring we purchased was made in the US, which was important to us.
I would love to have floors like that in my kitchen – so pretty! But then its the domino effect, I’d have nice floors and shitty everything else!
What a great looking floor and how cool is it that you can do this home project together. Clearly Pixie looks like she is in charge!