The Chronicles of Flooria Part 2

Man, oh man, did the troubles continue.

We had to work around a stair entrance, then the wider living area.  Apparently things weren’t quite aligned properly, either on our floor-installation end or when the house was built.  In any case, the boards were at a slight angle and wouldn’t pop in, and once we supposedly solved that, the boards were too tight and I couldn’t fit new ones in.  One thing to be somewhat proud of is that every time we had a seemingly insurmountable problem, after a few moments of wiping my forehead and sitting dejectedly on the partial floor mumbling swear words, hands clenching in preparation to yanking out my remaining hair (mostly gone after previous home projects), my massive intellect kicked in and I somehow figured out a way to make it work.  I’m still not sure how.  It’s all kind of hazy.

Not that it’s all perfect, by any means.  We’ve got places where the laminate peeled off, places where the boards smashed too tightly into each other and aren’t level, and one weird place where the floor is slightly off the ground and feels funny when you walk on it.  I think it’s due to the issues I mentioned earlier.  Plus we keep having to shuffle the furniture around as we fill in new spots.

We’re almost done now, though.  At last.  I do have a tricky bit around the angled fireplace, but I’ll burn that bridge when I find one suitable to replace it.

The Chronicles of Flooria Part 1

So,it has begun.  And so have the Pokes.

Below is the first and usually most fun stage:  demolition.  It’s a little less fun than we hoped, though, as the carpet strip all along the edges is nailed directly into the cement foundation.  It takes some work to pry it up, especially when one doesn’t have all the tools recommended for the job.  But it’s coming along.

Now you can see that we’ve begun placing the boards.  As I tap them in, some slide back out, leaving a gap by the front door.  That’s why we stacked all the cases of flooring there, so the weight will help hold things in place.

When we’re done, the entire living and dining area will be covered.  Overall, it hasn’t been so bad, but I’m coming up to the part when I need to cut the boards length-wise to fit on the side.  Considering I’ve only got a hand circular saw, I’m not looking forward to it.

Wood you like a new floor? Aw, jeez, that’s a terrible pun.

So, if you may recall from previous posts (1, 2, 3 and 4), home improvement jobs are something I enjoy until I actually start doing them.  That didn’t keep us from starting a new project:  installing a new wood laminate floor.

Yesterday, after being dazzled by a sparkly flyer from Lowe’s, we decided to make the plunge and buy it.  We’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but never quite wanted to spend the money.  Damn you, you persuasive flyer!  We each had something we liked that the other didn’t (for assorted reasons, some financial, some purely aesthetic), but found a compromise we can both live with.  Looking at it in the store, it seemed fine, but it’s hard to say what it will look like in a real house environment.  Well, we snapped together a few boards in the living room just to see and it’s definitely going to be nice.  Amazingly, the wife and I are both off over the Thanksgiving holiday and following weekend, so that’s what we’ll be doing.

I’ll try to do like last time and show the progression.  I’ll also keep a lookout for Cookie Monster.

Lucy, you got some c’mplaining to do!

If you’ll forgive a couple of generalizations, here’s a couple of things I’ve noticed since I moved here, things that really bother me:

1.  People here like to spit.  Considering how dry the air is here, you’d think that people would want to hoard whatever moisture they’ve got.  You’d be wrong.  Instead, you can hardly walk down the street without hearing sptoo and seeing a disgusting orb of unwanted saliva flying past your peripheral vision.  At least one guy had the decency to turn the other way when he was about to spit, since at the time he was aimed squarely at my feet.  It makes me want to swear at these people, which leads to the next thing.

2.  People here like to swear.  Now, I don’t really care what sort of language people use, whether it’s Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, ancient Mayan, or foul. However, there’s a time and a place for it.  In your car yelling at the idiots who slow down abruptly to 45 to take an exit while you’re traveling 75 right behind them?  Fine.  Watching TV by yourself, screaming at the guy who can’t solve the puzzle even with all those letters?  Great.  After stubbing your toe while feeling around in the dark trying to find the door to the bathroom at 2:30 in the morning?  Wonderful, as long as you’re quiet.  But on the commuter train, with dozens of people all around, sometimes including small children, literally a foot or two away?  Shameful.  It makes me want to spit on them.

I don’t consider this a treat

So I’m a geek, right?  I like to read, I like science, I like computers, I like video games.  That’s me.  Proud of it.  I even have a shirt from ThinkGeek that says “GEEK”.  So when it came time to decide what to be for Halloween, I thought it would be fun for the kids to play characters from my favorite game, World of Warcraft.  They don’t play (I don’t allow it), but they watch sometimes and know a few things and sometimes play their own imaginary version of the game.  So, for my little girl, it was a gnome mage engineer (with some pretty sweet goggles made by a wonderful writer whose words you are reading right now).  For my son, it was a druid.  His costume was a bit of a dud, since we didn’t quite get enough fabric and worst of all, I couldn’t find anything for him to use as a staff.  A druid without a staff… well, what’s the point?  But hers wasn’t bad, and as I mentioned, the goggles were so cool.

Only a few people even asked what they were, and the few who did had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.  World of Warcraft has more than 10 million subscribers.  Apparently I’m the only one in the entire town.  I know I’m a geek, but I was hoping someone would see those goggles and say, “Sweet!  She’s a mage engineer!”  Speaking of, I bet I can fit those goggles myself.  I wonder if I could wear them to work…