Flooring Preparation

Posted on August 2, 2018 by TJ

Tuesday night EJ and I had planned to rip out the old carpet in the living room. However, EJ didn’t get home until 10:30 p.m. It was a very long day for him since he left the house at 7 a.m. At his previous job downstate, he regularly worked 12-16 hour shifts for weeks or months at a time without a day off. Once he even worked three shifts in a row! The grueling hours really wore him down. I’m glad that at his current job here in Northern Michigan, he gets every weekend off. I think he’s worked only two Saturdays in the three years we’ve been here, and he has never had to work a Sunday.

Because they worked so many hours on Tuesday and got a lot done, EJ’s boss told him to leave work at noon on Wednesday for a half day off. When he got home, he rested for a bit while I fixed lunch and after we ate he began to tear out the carpet. I finished my chores–washed dishes, cleaned the litter box, gathered chicken and duck eggs–and then I helped EJ in the living room. I helped him roll up the pad underneath, and then I swept the living room floor while he took the padding out to the suburban to throw in the dumpster at work. His company allows employees to use the dumpsters for free.

We are glad to get rid of the old carpet which was very threadbare and stained. Some of the stains had leaked down to the bare flooring underneath. The floor was also covered with sand. I don’t know if the sand was carried in on feet or was the padding breaking down. Yuck! Seeing what was under the carpet made me want to rip out the carpeting in all the bedrooms as well, but those rooms will have to wait until we can afford it.

My childhood home was very old. During one home improvement project, my Dad found very old newspapers in the walls–from the 1870s, if I remember correctly. The house had wooden floors. I thought it was very luxurious when we first got carpeting in the living room. Now, as an adult, I just think carpeting is very unsanitary with all the dirt tracked in, and children getting sick, and pet accidents, and stuff spilling. A person can vacuum and clean carpets, but still not get all the nastiness out of them. I much prefer uncarpeted floors that are easier to clean up. Wood floors are too expensive so we are getting vinyl planks, which are the next best choice.

I spent this morning removing staples that had been pulled up when EJ removed the carpet. They aren’t pleasant to walk on with bare feet, and they have to be removed before the new flooring is laid down. When I first began working this morning, Hannah seemed surprised that I was sitting on the floor. She came right up to me and kept trying to lick my face. It was very difficult to work when she was in my face and blocking my tools, but she is so cute. She likes to be involved in everything. After awhile, she went and sat on the couch to watch me. With her out of the way, I got most of the staples pulled out. Most of the staples were short and easy to pull out, but a few were very long. Some of the long ones broke off so close to the floor that I wasn’t able to grab them with the pliers to pull them up. EJ said he will get those.

Early this afternoon the delivery guys drove up to drop off the flooring, which includes sheets of lauan, the vinyl planks, and all the trim. We took tonight night off from working in the living room but this weekend we will paint polyurethane over the stains to cover them. And then we will wait for the installation people to come out….We don’t yet have a date for them to do the work.

This week has been quite rainy. There were times when we had such heavy rain that it caused a little erosion down the driveway. Yesterday we had dark clouds and a lot of thunder growling through the day. Some of those storms dropped rain on us while others passed us by. I love the misty look to the far hills on rainy days. I also like the coziness of rainy days.

While I was doing dishes last night, I looked out the window and saw Mama Turkey with her babies. They came up close to the house to eat grasshoppers in the grass and berries from the bushes. Mama is very aware of her surroundings so she can warn her babies of threats so I quietly snuck into our library and took photos of them through the window. I love watching the turkeys! I think the colors and patterns in their feathers are beautiful, I enjoy hearing the soft putt-putt-putt call they make as they walk along–and the babies are adorable! It’s fun watching them grow throughout the summer as well as the way their Mama watches over them. I couldn’t decide which photo to share with you, so I shared them all in a slideshow.

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