…that we just can’t, right now. The bathroom has to go ahead, because we have no lights, no cabinets, and you shower with a billowing lot of plastic wrap…But it will be beautiful.
The kitchen floor I fear is not going to settle too much more: it’s just going to look like hell. Sigh. But neither of us can take any more time off, and first we thought, well, we can just get the flooring while it’s on sale, leave it in boxes, and install it when we have time—
But the more we read customer reviews of various types, the more we realized we need to physically inspect every piece of flooring on receipt, because the edging strips on the pieces tend to crack and shatter if, say, someone lets a forklifted pallet down too hard. You can open a perfectly intact box and discover major damage in the edges of many pieces. And if your flooring isn’t all part of the same ‘run’ from the manufacturer, you can have dye-lot issues, especially on cheaper brands. So if you don’t open it for a year, you could be way out of luck.
The secret to how some companies manage super-cheap laminate? They bundle ‘lots’ together: some may have scratches; some may have broken edges; some may have other small flaws; and there you are: if you don’t inspect, you could open up boxes full of problems—and of course since they’re just repackaging, trying to get a warranty actually honored is impossible: the seller merely refers you to the packager, who may offer a 50 year warranty—but that’s, like the pirate maxim, more like a guideline. Try to find any satisfaction for it and you’re hosed.
So……I think we’re going to add the French payment to the floor fund and just shop for flooring when we actually have time and strength left. We’ve almost got a bathroom: Jane’s plaster job where we removed tile is SO smooth we now have to worry how to match the texture of the previously painted smooth wall. She’s good. But she always is. We have a fan, vented to the outside; we have a functioning storm window; we will have a new countertop, new medicine cabinets (with two women using the same bathroom, and cabinet, it was like Fibber Magee’s closet: you open it and bottles might fall out) and our pretty sink and new faucet, plus pretty shower curtains. It’ll be real pretty. The kitchen—well, it’s just going to be a lumpy floor, but it’s a floor. We have that pretty well dried out with fans. And we have our Oreck air purifier units which do a pretty good job protecting us from pollen and mold.
The good news is that the minute we admitted we shouldn’t get that flooring yet, my brain came back on line and I got that scene I’ve been struggling with and I have the end of my book in sight. Writers are one part insane, you know, but it has to be a carefully coddled insanity, carefully focussed.
Do you have enough time to purchase flooring for your project, open and inspect each box, then bounce the ones that aren’t up to spec for replacement? I’d suggest bundling all the ‘bad’ ones in one-? box, while retaining the ‘good’ ones, since you may get several rejects per box. This is assuming that you have storage space for the flooring until you and Jane have time to install it.
We installed laminate flooring from Costco in DH’s shop, after a flood soaked everything within 6″ of the floor: carpeting, machines, power bars, desks… It comes out nice if you have patience and some skill, which you and Jane have already demonstrated.
Getting *one* place in the house done does wonders for morale. I approached my house in a spotty fashion – albeit partly dictated by the emergency of the moment – and I could never get unstressed. I finally bit the bullet and concentrated on one area, and it just felt so good when other bits started itching at me to contemplate one place that was *finished*.
Even though by the time I got to the end of the initial list there was repainting to be done……….
I have my “HoneyDo List” of things I want to tackle, from replacing the aging shower plumbing to enclosing the lanai. DH looks at my list and cringes, or winces when I get out the power tools because for a while life will be inconvenient, but is usually happy with the finished product.
Yay! I love your ‘insanity’, CJ! It is highly cherished. 🙂 And congrats on getting the French ‘connection’!!
It sounds like your bathroom is really come together, too (previous blog entry). I imagine how utterly satisfying that must be! When I moved in with my sweetie, the french doors opened up on the wreckage of what used to be a nice deck.
The man he’d hired apparently died mid project (my guess), and left it an unusable mess. Lance, my sweetie, was very bummed about it and just left it sit.
Since I love sitting outside drinking my morning coffee (and feeding neighborhood cats and raccoons), I kept hinting–ok, maybe not that subtle!—that we should restore it. Finally this past summer, we got out there and replaced it. Yah, he did most of the work, but I helped with the painting and passing tools and such. 🙂
Now, every day, when I look out there at that lovely deck (too rainy/cold to sit on right now), I’m just so pleased and happy. So I can totally relate!
If the floor is toast-you’re going to can it- you can remove the buckling by cutting a saw kerf the depth of the flooring, taking care not to get into the subfloor. The kerf will allow the floor to settle and while it won’t look great it won’t be buckled any more.
Also, if the floor isn’t floating you can screw it from underneath. I’ve taken knife kerfs in oak flors and screwed it from underneath to solve buckling. Works but it’s a lot of work.
Phil Brown
My own personal buggaboo with flooring right now is the subflooring actually warped (grumblegrumblePARTICALBOARDgrumblegrumble-what brainiac came up with that plan?) so my kitchen is rather …. well, warped. Hopefully you’ve got plywood under there!
I had a major leak in the kitchen a couple years ago but before I found it, it had gotten into the subfloor and a good amount of it just rotted away. Yeah, that’s fun. I was without a kitchen sink for a couple years until Russ replaced it this last trip. We have some wood over the bad flooring, but it basically needs replaced from bottom to top.
My current problem? I’ve blown two more fuses in 24 hours and tracked it down (as I feared) to one of my heaters gone bad. Of course it had to do this right before the high temps are supposed to drop 30 degrees between today and tomorrow.
This, I think, is just not going to be a good year.
My plan is to throw myself into writing and ignore the world until spring. I like this plan.
Glad to hear the ‘writer’s block’ cleared out. Maybe you were just overwhelmed. Here’s hoping you can find a convenient resting spot and triage the 15 projects you perpetually seem to have simmering!
It sounds like a wise decision. I’m happy that you have the air-purifier, and hope that with that and the floor dried out you won’t be bothered with mold-spores and allergies any more.
Just enjoy your beautiful bathroom (once it’s finished) for a while before you start the next project, and let the writerly creativity flow.
Laminate goes on sale quite regularly, so buying it shortly before you’re going to need it makes it less likely to get damaged in the interim. And as long as the floor just has a bit of a bounce when you step on it, but no mold and no curled-up edges to trip over, it’s not too bad. My hallway had that for almost three years after the bathroom shower leaked, before I could replace the boards, and I found I could get used to it.
If it’s worse than that, I could send you some of my savings so you could hire it done: I don’t think it’s a good idea if you try to do it yourselves now, with all the overload you’ve had this past year; but falling over a curled-up board and breaking or spraining something is not a good idea either, with your income dependent on finishing the next book. And if it’s moldy underneath, your allergies would probably get so irritating you’d never get anything written. Besides, we all eagerly anticipate reading it, so it’s in our own interests to keep you writing instead of DIY-ing, even if I mightily admire your and Jane’s prowess in that direction.
Sorry if I’m a bit incoherent, I have a bad cold and can definitely sympathise with your allergies at the moment.
You all are so sweet—I appreciate the advice and the offered help more than I can say: we have the most wonderful readers in the world! You inspire us.
I think we will be fine. We’ve got everything to a stable point to leave it, and Jane says she thinks the kitchen floor is still drying, so there is hope it will go down to minor…
Costco is selling those foot-friendly kitchen floor mats again. If the buckling is limited to the immediate area of the sink, a floor mat might solve your appearance, safety and ergonomic issues over the mid-term as well as fending off incidental splashes and spills.
Thanks for that idea!
To my way of thinking, the bathroom is the worst room in the house to have to “put up with” so your decision to concentrate on getting your bathroom up to speed is very understandable. You need to have a shower you can use without having to fend off the importunate advances of plastic sheeting! I think the idea of getting a mat for in front of the sink is a good one, even after you get the floor replaced. I’ve got one of those dense foam ones and it’s great. I hope finishing the bathroom goes without a hitch and that things settle down for you for a while. (touch wood!)