After Mom and the girls left last Saturday (we had a lovely visit, though much too short – they still had a three hour drive home), Dave and I got started on the floor in his studio.

Of all the people who’ve been working on this home (namely, Dad, Mom, Dave and I). I am the youngest (at a positively youthful 41 going on 42), and most spry. I’m also the one with the best knees. So that meant I would be the one actually laying it.

Not long after we took possession of the house, Dave found an amazing deal on Kijiji. Nine hundred sq. ft of laminate flooring for just $200. There was a catch… it was used, but we decided to take a look and see if it was worth it. It was. Apparently it was only about a year old. The guy we were buying from had just bought the house a few months earlier, and his wife didn’t like the floor, so they took it out and put in something she did like. And he did an excellent job of removing it. We could see very little damage on it (and for that price, if we had to throw away a third of it, we’d still be ahead).

We loaded up Dory (well overloaded her actually. FYI – laminate flooring is very heavy. Don’t put more than one room’s worth in your old, beat-up SUV… I got a good scolding from Dad when he saw the pictures) and were on our way. We stuffed it in the garage and there it has sat, just waiting for us.

Since the flooring was used, we had to be a little more strategic, and use already cut pieces wherever we could. Since Dave couldn’t help me down on the floor (even if he was physically able to, that part is a one-man job), he cleaned and sorted the boards so they were ready for me to install. He also cut boards when the needed cutting, which is not something I’d be able to do – he bought this neat little cutter that works somewhat like a guillotine, though you need more muscle than I have to get all the way through the planks.

We ended up with a pretty efficient system. We don’t normally work well on projects together, but other than a little sniping back and forth at the start, we made a pretty good team.

About halfway through, the snoopervisor took up his position to make sure my seams were nice and tight. Unlike the other two cats, he wasn’t particularly disturbed by the mallet I used to tap the boards in. He also spent some time making sure Dave was getting the boards cleaned, and that his cuts were nice and straight.

And speaking of cuts… you might notice a certain ruler in the picture above. I started out with a tape measure, until I had an epiphany.

My big quilting ruler (6″ x24″) was just perfect for measuring the size needed to fill in the ends. Not only could I see through it, but I could use the full end to draw my line (instead of having to line up ticks), and I could use the other lines on it to make sure my line was square and not angled slightly! I feel like a genius!

It took pretty much all day, but the floor got done!

I’ll be honest, it’s darker than I wanted, but again that price was too good to pass up. Dave loves dark floors (he would have gone even darker if he could) so he’s quite pleased with it. I’m really just happy to see a floor in there. We still need baseboards, crown trim, a new sliding glass door and window, and trim for both of those… and they won’t come for a while due to budget restraints… but still, putting in the floor really makes it feel like a usable room!

Now that its done. my attention goes back to drywall – we have all the materials to finished the living room drywall, so I’ll work on that while we save up some more money to finish this room.