The vinyl flooring in our kitchen was replaced when we had the house remodeled in 1985. It's old enough now that when either of us drops something (especially a knife!) a piece chips off. A month or three ago we bought a bunch of laminate flooring when it went on sale at Costco. It took the purchase and imminent delivery of a new refrigerator to provide the impetus to begin the reflooring project.
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| Flange at the base of the brass pole |
5 Sep, Wed - I ran into Issaquah to buy a transition kit at Home Depot. Even though they didn't have the right pattern, I bought one anyway just to see how it worked. I spent the rest of the day building a box to enclose the flange at the base of the brass pole that supports one of the ceiling beams. Meanwhile, I had moved the old fridge into the living room using a hand truck and some plywood sheets, moved everything out of the pantry to the front room, and took the counter and the sliding table out of the kitchen. I also removed all the baseboard/quarter-round trim and cut the bottom half-inch off the door trim.
6 Sep, Thu - After carefully cleaning the old floor, I started laying the new laminate planks in front of the cabinets. I had to make a block to tap the pieces together since the kit I ordered online did not have one. The process went reasonably quickly until I began running into places where the planks needed to be cut to fit. The Shopsmith table saw was a big help and having moved it into the garage I had more room to work.
7 Sep, Fri - The range had to be disconnected and moved into the
living room, but making the cutout to fit around the gas pipe and electric box was not as difficult as expected. By the end of the day I had completed the laying of the laminate from wall to wall and around the fireplace hearth. Next would be filling the gaps around the periphery with caulk. But first we had a weekend ahead of us at the Baldy Butte Fly-in. Oh, and the new refrigerator was delivered around 2 p.m. and that took some time since the 29-in. wide fridge would not go through our 30-in. doorway even with the door taken off the hinges. So it had to come in the front door then get past the cabinets and the stove (good thing I hadn't fixed it in place yet). All the time the two delivery guys were moving the refrigerator around the kitchen floor I was waiting for a scratch or crack or something but the laminate held up just fine.8 Sep, Sat - We did not take our trailer to Baldy since the camping was in a new place at the north end of the field this year. We were there early enough to wander around and talk to people; conditions did not look so good that we felt we had to rush to the top. When Chris and Patricia arrived, we threw in with them and went to the top. Very few people soared and only Pam Nichols went XC as far as The Bowl. I never got my wing out of the car and C.J. never took hers out of the pack. We drove back down with Patricia. The potluck dinner was good and the campfire was comfortable but as things wound down we decided to head home since the next day was looking like rain. Peter and Naomi invited us to spend the night with them and that worked out well. During the evening there was a lot of lightning and we were not surprised the next day to see smoke rising from several fires [which later became the large Table Mountain Complex fire].
9 Sep, Sun - After an omelet made with fresh eggs from Peter and Naomi's "lap chickens", I picked a
nearby hike from the guidebook Desert Hikes. Westberg Memorial on Manastash Ridge was only a couple of miles and a couple of thousand feet up but it gave a great view over the Kittitas Valley. Besides the memorial to wrestling coach Westberg there were several other memorials. C.J. and I took a different trail down which had actual switchbacks. We were surprised that Peter and Naomi weren't back at the cars since they were moving much faster down than we were. Apparently they took the old trail down and waited for us until they figured out that we weren't coming down that trail. Finally together back at the trailhead, we took our leave and returned home over Snoqualmie Pass.10 Sep, Mon - I started caulking around the floor.
11 Sep, Tues - Caulking turned out to be a bigger job than I expected and I went back to Ace Hardware for another three tubes of clear siliconized acrylic caulk. I knocked off early enough so we could go to the first KT Squares plus-dance of the season.
12 Sep, Wed - C.J. and I took the day off to go to the Pacific Science Center for the King Tut exhibit. We also took in an IMAX movie, "Mysteries of Egypt", which was pretty good introduction to ancient Egypt. We had Greek food for lunch at Athena at the base of Queen Anne hill. We returned home in time to rest and prepare dinner before going to the opening night of the Village Theater's production of "Big River", a musical version of Huckleberry Finn.
13 Sep, Thu - C.J. painted the toekick under the cabinets. I started reinstalling the extra countertop and slide-out table after cutting off the thickness of the flooring from the legs of each. I put some of the baseboard/quarter-round back in place. The stove was finally fixed in place and the trim replaced around the rear of it.
14 Sep, Fri - I made a couple of new baseboard pieces to fit the corner north of the refrigerator, stained and varathaned. The transition pieces had arrived from the laminate supplier so I put in a threshold between the kitchen and living room. It really made the installation look much more finished.
15 Sep, Sat - Eric Thorstensen's Benefit Fly-in at Dog
16 Sep, Sun - Camp at White River CG near Sunrise, Mt. Rainier NP. Hike to a bit beyond Glacier Basin Camp along the White river, about 3.5 mi one-way.
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| Looking up Emmons Glacier toward Little Tahoma; smoky sky from the fires in E. WA |
17 Sep, Mon - We got back from Dog and Mt Rainier early enough that I could refasten the quarter-round in the pantry and in front of the cabinets using the air compressor and brad nailer. I moved all the cabinets and the bookcase back into the pantry and began measuring and cutting quarter-round for the places where there had been no trim before (behind the stove, around the hearth).
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| Wooden box covering flange at the base of the pole |
19 Sep, Wed - Most of the day was taken up with a dental exam followed by lunch at Costco, swapping a new but non-operating drill press for a new one at Harbor Freight, and returning some transition floor trim at Home Depot. Later I cut some finicky pieces of quarter-round for short runs.
20 Sep, Thu - C.J. and I drove in to Issaquah to pick up some stuff at Costco and Freddies. I replaced my black ink cartridge and C.J. convinced REI that her 3-yr-old boots were wearing out too fast. REI continues to honor their money-back guarantee and let C.J. pick out a new pair of boots. Back at home I tackled the bathroom threshold by cutting down the door by 1/4 of an inch (in two tries) and installed the transition kit for another really nice-looking doorway. I have one more doorway to do and then some more tiny pieces of quarter-round to fit around door trim. Getting close!
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| Threshold to front room - after |
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| Threshold to front room - before |
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| Gap around hearth |
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| Trim applied to hearth |
22 Sep, Sat - There are still a few really small and oddly-shaped pieces to construct, stain and place but otherwise I'm finished. I used a piece of the threshold to fill a 4-inch gap next to the hearth today.
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| Hearth gap filled w/threshold |
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| Gap near hearth - before |
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