Sarah has been working on Aaron to install a laminate floor in her kitchen, hall, pantry and bathroom all summer. The landlord had purchased the materials and they have been taking up space in the basement ever since the Wells moved in. Aaron has been a little reluctant to tackle it, since he has never done one before and he wasn't quite sure about all of the details.
They asked Bubby and I to come up on Labor Day weekend and assist in the process. I explained that while Bubby would be wonderful and corraling the children, not only did I know nothing about laminate floors, I still can't crawl around on my knees. I can get down, but it takes a major effort to get back up. Aaron said he mainly wanted moral support for the project, so we drove up on Friday afternoon. All of the adults had a lovely Thai dinner at Thai Siam in SLC Friday night, including Daniel and Rosalyn.
On Saturday morning, we started early. In the photo above, we have moved the refrigerator out and Aaron is taking off the last of the base boards so we can put down the floor. At the suggestion of Auntie Nell, I reviewed the process on YouTube, so I had some idea what we were doing. Aaron figured it out very quickly, and he did the hard work while I measured, cut, and ran errands for him.
The first thing I did was talk Babsy out of doing the bathroom. Everything I have read doesn't recommend laminate in water prone areas. That was a strong argument. Of course, I didn't want to take up and reinstall the toilet, mainly because the wall shut off behind a toilet tends to build up calcium deposits and leak when it hasn't been shut off in a long time. I could see us with a leak in the bathroom and no plumber available on a Saturday afternoon.
Ever her Daddy's girl, Katie got really interested in the process. It wasn't long until she had her own hammer and was imitating what we were doing in the kitchen. Fortunately, the power saw made so much noise that none of the kids was even remotely interested in it.
Here is pretty Kate working along. She dragged scrap pieces in from outside and put them along the wall in the cracks to be covered up by the base boards.
We were on the home stretch in this photo. We still had the pantry to do, but we had just covered the kitchen and were moving fast. Sarah was right in the middle of it, showing far more agility than I did and bending very well at the middle for a women who is nearly 8 months pregnant.
Daniel and family arrived in the afternoon, while we were finishing the pantry. Daniel got involved in nailing back base boards. Sarah and I put wood and metal thresholds in to give a clean line where the flooring type changes. I showed Bean the wonder of quarter-round, and Bubby and I left SLC at about 6:00 PM. I had to teach Sunday School, so we couldn't hang out after the work was done. I know that Sarah is very happy with the efforts, and I am sure she will enjoy her new floor. Lucky landlord, he got free labor!
Bubby and I had a lovely, quiet Sunday. She was feeling her tonsils, so we just hibernated. On Monday, she had a Labor Day list to accomplish. Realizing that if I didn't do something, I would be involved in her list, I worked my own. I washed both cars, swept out the garage, mowed and edged, then got called in. One of Bubby's projects was to organize our food storage (we call it Smith's) in the basement. When she got down there, she discovered that some of the cardboard boxes had gotten wet, hatched a pest, and were in total disintegration. It took she and I nearly two hours to clean up the mess the pest left. I went back to my list, but Bubby wrenched her back soon after and that was the end. You should see the mess in the basement. She can't do anything about it right now. It has to be killing her.
She could barely make it up the stairs after pulling the muscle in her back, and I found her immobile on the living room floor. She eventually made it to bed. I put some Ben Gay on her and it helped. Today, she stayed home from work, but seems better. She is over at Daniel's now, keeping an eye on Drewfy and Sister. I don't think she could pick Evelyn up in her current state, so I hope all goes well.
Buboppy
No comments:
Post a Comment