New Floor - Weekend 2

Last weekend, we nailed down most of the floorboards. During the week, we put in the last six courses. Seems like we went thru an entire box of nails. Between the two heater vents and a bunch of network cabling, it took forever.



Saturday morning we hit the Home Depot bright and early to get the drum sander. It was a ton of work, but nothing like the nailer. GP had fun running it. We sanded down the entry way, too - it was full of scratches and dings.

After four hours of drum sanding, we got the ginormous 4-headed random-orbit edge sander. It was easy enough to operate, but it did not have a bag. (!!!) Without the bag, it just made dust (very quickly) and then blew it out the exhaust where a bag would normally attach. Imagine creating ten pounds of super-fine sawdust and distributing the sixty-billion particles in every nook and cranny. It was JP's nightmare!

The bare oak was so clean and fresh looking compared to the existing floor. We hated to alter it with a stain. We went with "Natural Oak" colored stain - it was a better match than "Golden Oak". The kitchen matched nearly perfectly; the dining room is faded from the sun and is a completely different color. The refinished entryway boards (same as the dining room) match the new boards.

We will try to get three coats of polyurethane on it Sunday. It's looking like a nice day to spend outside in the fresh air.

New Floor - Day 2

Day two ended with a trip to the Home Depot to return the nailer and compressor. We were only a few hours late on the return.



We were able to get all but the last six courses complete before the nailer ran out of space.

 

New Floor - Day One

Our project for this weekend is to lay a new floor in the living room. We're going old-school with 3/4" red oak to match the rest of the house. Step one is to get it down, step two will be to sand and finish it.



The last time I did this, I used a manual nailer. This time we're using a pneumatic one. It's much easier on the hands not having to pound with a heavy mallet, but it's killer on the back having to be stooped over all day.

On our first day, we put down 135 of the required 380 square feet. We averaged 22 square feet per hour. I'm not looking forward to day two.

 

Speaker of the House

CP went to speech/drama camp at the high school. It was a week of long 8:00 to 5:45 days of speech and drama fun. He put together an act where he played seven different characters and acted out a story. For his final presentation, he had to dress up and look presentable. JP had to go out and get him some new clothes; with his latest growth spurt, his old ones don't fit any more. I'm starting to feel like my dad: short.

 

Blue Wall

The wall in the living room has been the same color for too long. JP decided to paint it the same blue (officially a shade of grey) as our bedroom.



We put all the furniture from the living room in the dining room. The sofas are standing on end - no better place for a cat lookout perch.

The boys enjoyed ripping out the carpet to prepare for a new hardwood floor. I was so happy to see the carpet go away. With boys and animals, carpet is not an option.

 

Independence Day 2013

I made it back from Wisconsin the afternoon of July 3rd. There's no way I was going to miss out on the 4th; it's my favorite holiday in Nebraska! MN drove out and spent the long weekend with us.



This year, the 4th fell on a Thursday, which made for a 4-day weekend. The neighbors all came over and we had a fun time keeping cool in the pool. Check out our neighbor's awesome video: http://vimeo.com/69859862

One of the huge benefits of living in Nebraska is being able to set off fireworks.

 

Summer in Sheboygan

I had to spend a few days at Kohler the first week in July. I usually stay at the hotel on the Kohler campus, but the rates jumped up due to it being nice weather and summer, so I stayed on the river in Sheboygan. It doesn't have the ambiance of Kohler, but it's on the waterfront, and there are some great restaurants within walking distance.

 

My trip was on short enough notice (12 hours) that tickets to Green Bay were the same price as Milwaukee. Both destinations are the same distance from Kohler. The Milwaukee airport requires driving thru all of Milwaukee and its construction. Green Bay to Kohler is thru farmland the whole way. No trip thru Green Bay would be complete without checking in at Lambeau.

My favorite airport for a layover is MSP. It has a place called Ike's that has awesome food and a bloody mary "The Weekender" that doubles as a meal: lime, sport pepper, green olive, black olive, pearl onion, jalabeano, celery, sausage, cheese, and a monster jumbo shrimp with a beer chaser.

Lap Dogs

JP volunteered to babysit our neighbors' dogs for two weeks. They are true lap dogs. Every time I see them, they are sitting in someone's lap. Over the 4th, we had five dogs in the house: these two, one from IL, one from across the street, and our own. The cats hate them all.



Every other day, the little girl next door would come over and ask if she could walk one of the dogs. They enjoyed stretching their legs around the block.

They don't mind cats, but the cats mind them.

 

Shopping for Fireworks

We made our annual pilgrimage down to Hickman to see Kracklin' Kirk's to stock up on Independence Day supplies. They have the best deals on fireworks anywhere. As usual, we spent 3x more than we planned. JP said "No problem! I budgeted for it." Cool.