Hardwood Flooring - Selection & Underlayment

While the main part of the house has old hardwood floors that were previously refinished, the side wing of my home was an old neighborhood grocery store and had tile underfoot. When I first bought the house in 2007 I had other things to address (like evicting the raccoons living the living room wall and getting electrical outlets on the second floor) so even though I knew that I wanted hardwood eventually I decided to replace the carpet that was over the tile for the time being.

The carpet had to be replaced because the previous owners were heavy smokers and beside being stained, replacing the carpet was the only way to get rid of the smell. Getting the side wing liveable was pretty important since that was the part of the house I was living in while the main part was gutted to the studs. I remember meeting with the carpet installer to go over the estimate and then asking him how soon he could get in to install the carpet. He asked me what difference did it make since I obviously wasn't living in the house with it all torn apart. I laughed and told him that yes I was actually crazy enough to be living in the house. He was quite surprised and made sure to get my carpet in pretty quick.

Fast forward almost six years and my dreams of hardwood flooring in the side wing are finally coming true. I had done a lot of research and decided I wanted to get my flooring at Chelsea Plank Flooring. They make all of their flooring from hardwood trees in the Northern Midwest so it has a tight grain that would be similar to the old floors in the rest of my house. On top of that it is made locally and the factory store is only half an hour away from Ann Arbor.

The factory store had a small showroom with several samples of the hardwood flooring on display on the walls and floor. The main part of the house has 2-1/4" oak that has a honey color to it. I wanted something that would look nice with it, but not try to match it since it would always be off and look strange. I was set on getting something with a 2-1/4" width otherwise known as strip flooring. The sales lady patiently looked up which types of hardwood they had in stock in strip flooring and then Frank and I mulled them all over.

We decided to go with the Northern White Ash with Oxford stain. Ash has a grain similar to oak so it would work well with my existing floors and it has a Janka hardness of 1320 so it should wear well. We liked the dark Oxford stain since it wouldn't look like we were intentionally trying to match the floors.

Just to check we put a few sample pieces of the Oxford Ash against some flooring at the store that looked close to what is in the main part of the house and it looked great.

The Oxford Ash strip flooring was also on overstock special so the price was marked down from the already low factory pricing. The next thing I knew we were buying 26 boxes (546 sq. ft.) of flooring, enough for all three bedrooms in the side wing plus the hallway. The bathroom and laundry/mudroom in the side wing are going to have tile, but that is a story for another day.

The flooring has been sitting in our house for a while and now that it has acclimated we decided that the first room that would get the new hardwood would be Frank's man cave. After Frank had pulled up the carpet and pad and I removed all of the tack strips and nails the floor was ready for underlayment. Underlayment is important because it can help with squeaking of your hardwood rubbing against the subfloor plus it can make it easier to slide your boards together.

I ended up putting down the underlayment on Saturday while I was waiting for the wall paint to dry before painting the stripes. Luckily the floor was already pretty flat so I didn't need to do any leveling. Because there were a few spots where the tiles were chipped or missing I decided to use 30 lb. roofing felt which is a little thicker than the 15 lb. felt. The tiles are super thin so once the felt was over the missing spots you couldn't tell where the missing spots were.

I started by rolling out the felt against the long wall in the room.

I then used my stapler to tack down the felt.

I cut my strips of felt long and then creased them at the wall. I then used an X-Acto knife to trim the excess off. 

For 15 lb. felt you overlap the strips of felt but because the 30 lb. is thick you just butt the edges together. It all went pretty quickly until I had to deal with the closet but eventually I got the whole floor covered.

At this point on Saturday evening I couldn't wait to get the started on laying the hardwood but it seemed wiser to finish painting first so Frank and I started it on Sunday. I'll share about that later this week.

Picture of the Day: Longhorn at the Fort Worth Stockyards

Fort Worth, Texas
8.31.2012 

Michigan Racing Stripes For the Man Cave

After getting the plywood up on the ceiling and carpet pulled up from the floor in the man cave it was time to do something about the walls. Frank is a huge Michigan Football fan so there was no question that the room was going to be Michigan themed in Maize and Blue (the University's colors).

I thought that all Maize or all Blue walls might be a little overpowering so I suggesting to Frank that painting the walls white and having Maize and Blue racing stripes encircle the room would be cool. Frank thought it was a great idea so we went with it.

Here is what the room looked like before we painted:

The walls were pretty filthy so the first step was to wash it down with TSP followed by two coats of Benjamin Moore's Spanish White.

While waiting for the second coat to dry I laid down the roofing felt underlayment for the hardwood floor. I'll go into more detail about the hardwood later this week.

Once the paint was dry Frank and I taped off the stripes in the room. We made the top stripe 5" and the bottom 13" tall.

In order to get the stripes crisp and sharp we used a credit card to rub across the painter's tape to make sure it was really well adhered to the wall.

The next step was to paint Spanish White over the tape along the edges where the stripes would get painted. This is critical for getting a perfect line because any bleed through under the tape is in Spanish White which matches the wall. 

Next it was time to paint the stripes. I bought Benjamin Moore's Glimmer and Polo Blue which I thought matched Frank's Michigan football helmet pretty well.

I started with the top stripe using a 6" roller to paint it Glimmer. Two coats gave it good coverage. 

As soon as I finished the Glimmer I pulled off the top strip of tape. If you leave the tape on after it dries you risk pulling up some of your paint. I then rolled two coats of Polo Blue on the bottom strip.

I peeled off the tape and was pretty happy with the result. Most importantly, Frank loves it. I think it is going to turn out to be a really cool room once we are done. Next up hardwood flooring!

Picture of the Day: Lemons For Sale in Palermo

Palermo, Italy
3.23.2012 

Meanwhile In the Man Cave

When I last left off I had pulled down two layers of ceiling tiles in the room that will become Frank's man cave back in February. I had left up the last of the furring strips to stabilize the crumbling plaster and it looked like this:

Life got in the way and while the project was on hold for so long huge chunks of plaster came down so the ceiling looked like this:

It seemed like the best thing to do was to scrape the rest of the plaster off the lathe before we put up the plywood for the tin ceiling. While I was taping, mudding and sanding in the hallway Frank pulled down the rest of the plaster and furring strips. It was a huge mess but the ceiling was now ready to put up the plywood substrate.

Next, while I was painting the hallway, Frank tackled pulling up the nasty carpet and carpet pad. We knew we were going to get rid of it for hardwood so it was pretty gross from ceiling debris by this time. 

At the end of Saturday the room looked like this:

This whole side wing on the house has green floor tiles from when it was a small neighborhood grocery store. They are pretty stained and damaged but it is neat to see the evidence of the house's past.

With the ceiling plaster and carpet gone it was time to get the plywood up on the ceiling. The tin ceiling we ordered is a traditional nail up type so we need the plywood to act as a substrate to nail into. We rented a drywall lift from Home Depot on Sunday for the job. Our local store didn't have one available so we had to go to one a little farther away but it was worth it.

We cut the plywood so that the ends would meet on ceiling joists and used the drywall lift to maneuver the plywood into place. Since Frank is tall and can reach the ceiling without a step ladder he was in charge of screwing the plywood into the joists.

While Frank was doing that I was down on the floor pulling out all of the carpet tack strips as well as the billion or so staples that secured the carpet pad to the floor. 

At the end of the day on Sunday the room looked like this:

We still have a good bit to do like paint the walls, install the tin ceiling and lay the hardwood but it seems like we are getting somewhere. As Frank said the room looks like it has gone from someplace that should be condemned to a room that is under construction.

Paint For the Hallway (Finally!)

On Saturday I finished what I started on the hallway last weekend and finally got some paint up on the walls. First, I had to do a final sanding of the drywall compound on the section that I had drywalled. It can be easy to miss spots when you are only using your eyes so I always rub my hands over everything to make sure I have everything perfectly smooth before I prime the walls.

Here is everything before primer. I really hate doing corners but after a lot of mudding and sanding this one came out pretty well, I think.

The raw drywall had to be primed, but I decided to also prime the rest since the dark orangey red was going to be a bit tough to cover.

One trick that I learned to get really smooth walls is to lightly sand a wall that was raw drywall after you prime it. The reason is that the sanded drywall compound is really smooth, but the drywall around it that has been sanded gets a little fuzzy. Below is a picture showing that before I primed. Once you prime the wall if you give it a light sanding it knocks down the rough texture from the fuzzy drywall and makes everything very smooth.

The final step was two coats of paint on the wall. I love the grey color with blue undertones of the Nimbus Gray walls. There is no natural light in the hallway so I kept the lights on to take the photos, but that makes it hard to get good pictures. I am going to have to do some experimenting to get better shots in the hallway.

Next up in here is to add crown and put down some hardwood flooring. Longer term I plan to replace the door molding to match the rest of the house (that's why I wasn't too careful with my cutting in) and add beadboard wainscoting. For now I am just happy that I have finished walls with paint!

We Have Grass!

We have grass! The backyard has been graded and sod has been laid. Having the grass in really makes a difference in finishing the yard but there is still more left to do. Once the treated wood finishes drying out I'm excited to stain the pergola. Here are a few detail pictures of it. I just love the design on the end of the rafters.

Frank and I are now starting to shop for furniture for the patio. We found this cuddle set at Costco and loved the large comfortable size and shape. Even though the set is enormous (each chair is about the size of a love seat) it looks pretty small on the large patio. The pillows are from Home Depot that I bought on end of clearance.

Because it is fun to look back, here is what the backyard looked like at the start of the summer. There is still more to do, but I am so happy with how things are shaping up.

Let There Be (Hallway) Light

I didn't feel like sanding in my hallway last night so instead I attacked a little electrical. The hallway light fixture that I removed when pulling down the not one but two drop ceilings looked like this:

The shade that went over the fluorescent bulbs was long gone before I bought the house and the fixture was definitely past its prime. If it was in better shape it would have been cool in a Mid-Century Modern home but it was definitely an ill fit for my 130+ year old house. 

Since the hallway has no natural light I wanted to keep things as open as possible so when I found these clear glass shades at Schoolhouse Electric. I love classic shape and the fact that they are hand blown from antique molds.

Next I needed to find fixtures to go with the shades. I've been hunting around but haven't found anything that I am completely sold on. After getting the beadboard ceiling up and then painted I was was anxious to get working lights back in the hallway so I decided to use two inexpensive fixtures that I found for less than $4 each at Lowe's. Please excuse the primer on my hands; I spray painted these on Sunday after priming the ceiling.

The white was a no go for me so I quickly fixed that by taping up the bulb sockets and wiring and then giving the fixtures two light coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint.

To spray the heads of the shade screws I poked them through a piece of cardboard so that I wouldn't get paint on the threads.

Last night with the fixtures done drying I put them up in the hallway. I love how the glass shades look and to be honest, my cheap fixtures don't look so bad for now.

While I had the power off I also swapped out the hallway electrical outlet. The old one was very dirty and had been a casualty of some previous bad paint job. It is amazing to me how something simple like replacing old outlets with new white ones can really freshen things up.  

Picture of the Day: View Out to Lake Michigan

Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan
7.20.2013 

Progress on the Hallway

This was a busy weekend working around the house. I submitted my building permit to the City of Ann Arbor for the bathroom on Friday so while waiting to get it approved I did some work in the hallway. 

The east wall of my hallway was super crazy. Because the hallway was part of the house where it got expanded when the neighborhood grocery was added the wall had four jogs in it and looked crazy. I had pulled the old drywall off of the section with the different surfaces a while back but decided to attack putting it back together this weekend.

Having one bump out was unavoidable due to the existing framing in that section of the hallway. On Saturday I made a plan to sister the existing studs with 2x4s adjusted to make the wall even with the old 8"x8" post in the wall that was the farthest protruding.

I aligned the 2x4s and held them in place while Frank screwed them in and then we hung the drywall together. I like to hang my sheets horizontally since it is easier to sand a horizontal seam at waist level than a vertical seam. With the drywall hung I taped and mudded the seams, corners and screw holes and then let it all dry overnight. On Sunday I sanded everything and then put another layer of drywall compound on the wall. Here are pictures of the hallway and me after the first sanding:

Yeah, I know that I am not very good at mudding, so I use too much and have to do way too much sanding. In the end all that matters is that it is eventually smooth!

I was at a bit of a standstill at this point since it would not be dry for me to sand again until the next day so once all of the dust had settled I decided to work on the ceiling. First, I added more beadboard to the ceiling in the little nook at the top of the basement stairs in the same way that I put up the rest of the hallway beadboard.

Next I moved on to paint. My plan is for the ceiling to be Benjamin Moore's Gray Sky with Nimbus Gray on the walls and Simply White for the crown molding and door trim. Sorry for all of the primer on my hands but this is how things are when I am in project mode.

It is hard to see in this picture (you have to love lighting with work lights!) but the left side of the beadboard in this photo is Gray Sky and the right side is primed white. I love that the Gray Sky will add a little color to the ceiling and set it apart from the white trim.

Two coats of primer and a coat of paint on the ceiling and the hallway looked like this:

The hallway still looks like a hot mess but it is undeniable progress. I can't wait to get the hallway finished and painted! If only drywall compound would dry a little faster. Or, if only I was better at mudding so that the process would go faster...