05/27/05

(7am) Awoke with a start, thinking I had over slept. Coffee and email for morning retreat. No beach...

(8am) Shuffling boxes of flooring that I use for weights, off of yesterdays work.

(8:15) Remove painter's masking tape from yesterdays work. The blue tape is my only clamp until the glue sets. I use it every 10 to 12 inches.

(8:30) Start removing glue spots from yesterdays work. Trying out a new product that "J" got at HD. They're "Handy Wipes" saturated with the glue solvent. Lot easier than a rag and a jug. However, they leave an oily residue that will require a cleaning with a special cleaner.

(9am) Precut remain pieces to finish flooring in front of cabinets in kitchen. Find that 3 work perfect. Spread glue and turn corner at end of cabinets, headed for dining room door. Stop a foot short of the door to allow room for trimming the bottoms of door casings with a special offset saw, made specifically for this job. Have yet to do this though.

(10am) "J" has been busy removing furniture from the living room. Not the whole room, just half. From the foyer to the fire place. He still managed watching TV this evening. I began cutting carpet from the area, into strips manageable for "J" to load into my truck and haul to the dump. Also got to deal with that lovely invention that magically holds your carpet, called "tackless" carpet strip. They have like a million tacks, so how is it tackless?

(11am) Cleaning and vacuuming done to area. Also removed a floor receptacle from it's box in preparation for the flooring. "J" and I had fun play flip the breakers to find this one. Materials are shifted into position and layout marks are made. Ready with the glue!

(12 noon) Laying going smoothly. Nearing ten new rows across the living room, from the bookcases to the breakfast bar. The width of my glue trowel determines that I can lay 5 rows of the strip flooring with one glue swipe from the trowel. However, if you only go across the field of work with one sideways swipe, excess glue rolls around the end of the trowel and leaves too much of a glue bed. Somewhere I saw a pattern showing gluing in the instructions, so I started trying to recreate that technique of spreading the glue.  By making opposite swirls, between 2 parallel lines (one being the edge of the latest work and the other is one I make with a pencil and a "preacher," which is simply a piece of flooring scrap, cut to the wide of 5 strips, that I use like a divider to draw a straight line. They call it a preacher cause it keeps you straight. Here's the pattern I create...

(1:30pm) While taping rows 6 thru 10, I discover a hollow spot in the floor where the wood flooring is not touch the concrete. I press it down by hand, but it pops right back up. I #%@&*# some unknown concrete finisher with a power planer and stacked 3 buckets of glue on the spot. Figuring it was break time anyway, I jumped into "The Big Red Truck," as "J" calls it and headed for the beach. Being only 3 blocks or so away, I was there, had a smoke standing knee deep in the surf, and was back here before anyone missed me. The Atlantic Ocean is still pretty cool and so was I after that.

(2pm) Laying going smoothly again. Good song on the radio. Turn it up and work faster. Bugs "J!"

(4ish pm) Laying still going smooth. Time for coffee and smoke. "P" is back from her job at the church. She has fresh collard greens and begins washin' and a lookin'. I have a raw leaf as a snack.

(5pm) "P" & "J" help me chalk a second line across the living room and into the dining room. We determine that YES the floor coming through the kitchen will come into the dining room and meet with that which I am laying across the living room!

(6pm) Finishing tape clamps on rows 16 thru 20. Clean tools and hands and knees and feet and elbows and ankles. GEEEEZ! "P" has whipped up a pone of corn bread to go with the greens. With the left over creamed chicken... MmmMmm!!!

(7pm) Aaaaaaaaaaaaa! Shave and a shower!

(8pm) Short and I do mean short, walk on the beach. Drive to Bi Lo for coffee, sugar, and wine coolers. Find nice straw sun hat that I purchase.

(9pm) Nice chat with Honey back home!

(10pm) After not checking email all day, I am horrified to find 90 messages in my inbox. Go have a wine cooler and look at stars instead. Jupiter is the brightest. He's passing through Virgo, who's brightest star is Spica. Also visible are Libra, Scorpio, Hercules, Corona Borealis..............

Night!