Meanwhile, Back in the Dining Room...

The castles in the air about the land and green building have been sharing time and space with the real job of the weekend: Finishing the floor in the dining room.

On Friday, Bruce took a vacation day and laid the floor for the 3rd fourth of the dining room floor. That's the part that is taped in the picture. It was glued down on Saturday evening.
Bruce and N. were late-night warriors--doing the gluing between 8 and 11 PM.
Yesterday, Bruce laid out the pieces for the last fourth of the dining room. He is working very carefully, using his spread sheets (don''t laugh, he's an engineer!) and cutting the correct pieces. In this way, he figures that he is closer to 1% waste, rather than the 5% that Bella Wood suggests planning for. In the picture above, the last fourth is mostly laid out. Bruce is not in the picture because he was cutting the remaining pieces to fit.


The guys were planning to do another late-night gluing last night, but after dinner and clean-up, they were just too tired! It seemed sensible to do it this morning.

They spread the glue for 4-6 rows at a time, then place the boards, and then tape them so that they do not move until the glue dries. Here they are, taping down the first set they glued this morning.

I was cleaning the bathrooms, running laundry and doing the other countless little chores necessary to starting the week tomorrow. But I did stop to take a few pictures.





Here are the guys, wresting the last board into place. It required a bit of force because it needed a notch cut into it to fit around the back doorframe.
The piece was slightly bowed, but the guys were pretty sure that, due to the notch, and their expert taping job, they could get it to lay right. And they did! They were feeling fairly triumphant about that, since they are determined to be the Bella Wood Waste Prevention record holders.






Here is N. sitting in the corner, having gotten the last piece in place. I guess some of the last row required a crowbar to get aligned just right! I heard the guys groaning as they used the crowbar to tighten the rows back against each other. Who knew that getting the pieces to fit tightly was so physical.

And they're done!

Tomorrow the tape can come off. Then we can put the baseboards back on. They will hide the quarter inch "give" space at the edges of the floor. T-molding will be placed where the floor meets the tile at the boundary of the kitchen, and at the hallway to the pantries, laundry room, and garage.

Then the pellet stove can be put back in place, and connected to the stovepipe. And none too soon. We can feel the fall in the air in the mornings and evenings.

After that, the china cabinet and dining room table can be brought back in--and viola!--I will have my dining room back--new and improved! It has been a long process. We started sometime around July 4th and finished around Labor Day. It took us the whole second half of the summer! Of course we had time off for California, but otherwise, the work has gone on every weekend.

But we are not done! Later this week, we will clear the living room. Bruce wants to lay wood down in there starting next weekend.

No rest for the chaos-weary!