Day 1274: The big game

Big game 7 tonight vs the Bruins .. I'll be up at 12am to watch it.

Go Leafs Go!!!!

Day 1258: Something old and something new-el

With the house empty and nobody to complain about me leaving tools and other dangerous things around the house, it was time to kick off the 2 weeks of DIY flooring. A lot of work to do but with about 8 solid weekend/holidays of time, I was hopeful that it all could be completed. 

Some obligatory before pictures of the flooring before I got started. 122 years of wear and tear on the floors have taken their toll. Not sure how many of these floorboards are original, but some clearly aren't and many I've already replaced. The others have been sliced and diced a few times over the years as electrical and pipes were installed. And now that all the key water, heating, electrical and gas works have been finished, I could finally cover everything up.

The first major task was to install a new newel post base on the stair case. This would hold the newel insert that we'd chose at a later date. I was specifically told not to choose one without consulting Care, so I obliged and got a multi-part newel. We have about 60 different posts to pick from now - hopefully that will give her enough options.

The first step was clearing everything out. Seems like we keep everything except for 10 year old wizards under our stairs. All this had to be moved and the paneling ripped out. 

I ordered a 90cm base as I wasn't sure how long I would actually need. The idea was to mount the post between the first "starter step" and the second step to give us a bit more space in the hallway around the bend. I also ordered a bullnose or rounded step for the same purpose. I also really like the look of this setup on some of the Pinterest photos I've seen on similar houses.

The old newel base was cut off at the step level and as far as I could see, not fixed to anything. Ideally the post should be fixed to a floor joist to provide adequate support. This was what I planned to do. The other complication was the stair string (the notched part that holds the treads) needed to be cut to allow for the recessed newel. And yes, stair parts all have very strange and confusing names - see here for an explanation. 

As I was cutting the base, I needed to make sure the stairs were properly supported before the newel was installed. A 2x4 was fastened to the joist to hold things in place. 

With the temporary support in place and the first step removed, I could now cut the string to accommodate the newel base. Again comes the magical floating saw.

My suspicions were correct and the old newel base was only held onto the floorboards with a couple of nails. 

Now the fun part came - notching and cutting the newel to fit in place. This took several attempts to get right - lots of action with the saw and wood chisel here. It didn't help that the joist wasn't true on multiple planes.

I picked up some pretty meaty 8.0 x 100 mm coach screws to fasten it all together. These were some solid fasteners, perfect for what I wanted.

Everything was fastened using the coach screws - to the joist, to the string, on both sides, on multiple planes to increase the shear strength. Believe me, this thing is now very solid. It took the better part of the weekend but I wanted to make sure I got everything right on this one.

Finally the new newel is installed. Everything is solid and some extra work for my quads as I'll need to skip a step for the next couple of weeks until the new step is installed.

And here is the first weekend's carnage in our garden. 

Day 1257: DIY-athon

Starting the monumental task of putting down more floor in the ground floor. But not before starting off with a builders breakkie!

Care and the kids a back in Canada for a long visit so I've been given my task list .. and it's BIG.

But at least I'll have an empty house to work in.

Day 1250: Sort of DIY cabinets

Alcoves are the areas around the fireplace a.k.a. nooks. They are actually pretty useless space most of the time but work well with little inbuilt cabinets. 

I had great intentions of building my own custom cabinets out of MDF. But seeing as I don't have a proper wood shop .. yet .. I decided to buy them. As you can imagine, getting custom built cabinets typically cost an arm, a leg, and maybe some fingers and toes. I managed to find a hybrid called DIY Alcove Cabinets which cuts the cabinet to measure and flat pack ships them. It's DIY but in reality, it's just like Ikea flat packs with a bit of extra steps. 

Anyway, photos of the assembly below. 

So just like Ikea furniture, I got a bunch of flat panels and a box of random kit. Instructions were online .. I would have like to see it in the box too. Minor gripe. 

Putting things together was pretty simple - screws and dowels

Caitlin and Ashley were very entertained by the assembly (in my head at least) .. In reality, they were more like, "what are you doing with our TV?!!"

My second grip (and I only had 2) was that the cabinets were not built high enough to accommodate the skirting underneath. My goal was to make this seamless with the rest of the room. I gave them the details/height for the skirting but evidently it was missed.

Not letting that get in my way, I made a couple of 36mm shims by screwing together a couple bits of floorboard. Care this is why I don't throw away scrap wood. 

With my shims in place, the cabinets were put into position and very importantly, leveled. Next the fillers at the side were installed and the doors test fit.

Finally, the top was cut to the shape of the alcove.

Test fitting the skirting to make sure I got the correct height.

So that was the left one .. easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Next came the cabinet on the right. This one was a bit harder because of all the cable-ey thingies.

I also had to finish off the network cabling. This was on my very long to-do list but figured this would be much easier before the cabinet went in place. So some quick networking was in order.

The skirting behind wasn't at all necessary but hey, for all that was involved I put it in anyway.

Now the fun part of cutting out the back to provide access to the cable-ey stuff.

First try .. and almost

Second try with a little more cut out. 

The other fun part was cutting a hole in the top to let the cables exit for the TV. I bought one of those ring things to make it look neat, but I still needed to cut out a 50mm hole. This wasn't as easy as I would have though as it had to go through about 50mm of MDF. I thought my hole saw was going to start a fire it was working so hard to get that hole cut. 

And finally, the kids got their TV back. And I got a, "oh that's nice, now get out of the way!"from the kids.... with this discerning audience, you take what you can get I guess

Left side with skirting (sans doors)

So there you go, sort of DIY cabinets. I had to use tools at least to put them together so I guess that counts.

Day 1188: A new floor needs a new door, for sure

With a shiny new floor installed, next was time for a new door. 

Things all need to go in a certain order of course. No point doing the door when the floor would change height by about 25mm. And I can't really do the skirting until the door architrave is in place so the door needed to be next. 

I also used the old door as a stencil as, you guessed it, old house does not equal plumb doorways.

The timber screwed into the door at the right points makes a helpful guide for the circular saw.

To be exact, I used a new-ish toy, my laser measure. I'm a techie geek at heart and when it becomes a techie-toolie thing, wow then I really get excited. So the laser measure with it's smartphone interface is perfect. 

Some mm's here and some mm's there. 

"Perfection requires precision" - S. Hare, 2019

With the door cut and several iterations of hanging it and getting it just right, it was finally on and good enough. Next and - sorry no photos - came the door handle and latch. I used more smarter drilling this time and less chiseling (see guidance video here from Tommy's Trade Secrets - or not so secret I guess since it's on YouTube)

Finally, it was a couple of coats of wood primer and in the frame - final coat will come but I'll wait for the summer when the paint can dry outside a bit quicker (and not get rained on, unlike the poor builder)

New door, new floor, blog post o'er

Day 1088: The results are in

After tallying thousands on top of thousands of votes from our followers across the globe, the results are finally in .... and the winner is (drum roll)

Natural Calico

Basically 1/3 viewers thought this colour would look great. And they were probably right. We kinda liked Lemon Sorbet and went with that one on one of the walls. The colour was great .. it just didn't look good in the kitchen. 

So the result so far is that we didn't do anything really. But I'm leaning more towards the advice of our loyal readers and go with the Calico. 

So thanks everyone for your comments and votes - I think it shows that you know colours better than we do. I'll post when we eventually get around to painting. 

Day 1068: High pressure flooring

Finally it's flooring time. 

Joan and Rene arrive in a couple of weeks so the pressure is now on. 

Normally this is a one weekend job .. except I always like to make things incredibly difficult for myself.

One way of putting flooring down is to put down an overlay and let the weight of the floor hold it in place - called a floating floor. This has the benefit of being easy and relatively quick.

A more comprehensive way to do this is to glue down the floor. Much more messy and takes about 3x as long. However as everything is attached, it's also much more solid. It feels better underfoot as there is no floating involved. 

The first step was to let all the boards acclimatise in the room. This is because wood being a natural product expands and contracts. Better to have this all done before installing the floor so you don't end up with any unpleasant surprises. And I've already had enough of those. The benefit of taking so £$%^!!! long to get everything else done is that the flooring has had plenty of acclimatising time in our house. 

One of the tricky spots was the fireplace. I wanted a single board to wrap around the hearth to keep things neat and tidy and also look relatively square. Being an older house, there wasn't going to be much that was square in the room. But the secret is keeping things square where it is noticeable. The fireplace is a key feature in the room so this one was important. The other key point when planning flooring is to make sure you don't end up with silly cuts .. like a sliver of boards at the end. So lots of measuring and planning before even the first board went down. 

And there goes the first cut. I did this one by hand so that I could make sure there wasn't any oops moments. This could now slot under the hearth which we got installed slightly raised to allow everything to tuck underneath an give a nice finished look.

And the first 3 rows test fitted in place. Notice the stops made out of off-cuts to hold the row in place. 

Next came the adhesive. Special flooring adhesive - in non-Englush.

This was spread using a 5mm v-notched trowel. Nothing on the instructions told me this. I had to call up the place and ask. But £10 and a day later via Amazon - I was ready to go.

Lot's of good instruction videos on YouTube on how to put down flooring adhesive. My favourite was MrDoItYourself - his Englush isn't great, but he actually takes the time to explain the steps involved and good practice. As opposed to most of YouTube done in the usual Bob Villa, "take the wood and the hammer and magically everything fits together in 5 seconds" style. Another good video here although this fits more into the Bob Villa camp.

I managed to get about 6 rows done - 3 at a time - and clamped it all together overnight to dry. I used stops on both sides to hold everything in place. People use painters tape but I think this is a more reliable method. Notice the numbers on the individual floor pieces to make sure everything went back in order and there wasn't any overlapping joints.

Special learning from all this. Using gloves protects the hands pretty well but you lose feel for the glue. This means in my case that I smudged it all over the flooring. The problem with this glue is that it gets everywhere. A splash on the knee pads means it's suddenly all over the floor. Pretty easy to clean before it dries using mineral spirits. Apparently next to impossible when it dries so make sure you get it all off. It is also terribly messy stuff - thick and gooey when it starts off and a solid rubber when it dries. I had this stuck to my hands for several days afterwards. 

Rad pipes present another problem. Usually difficult but when matched with a angled corner, this become even tougher. The key here is to get the angles right first on the piece and then cutting out the hole an then then finally the wedge to put it back - see here for a video on this. 

Next was the final bits which included undercutting the doorway. This of course required me to get a new tool again. The FatMax multi-tool - perfect for the task.

What this involved was getting some off-cuts for both the plywood underlay and the finished flooring and using this to mark the bits that needed to be cut from the doorway. The undercut hides the ends of the boards and allows for the necessary expansion gaps. It gives a nice finished look to the entire install. 

Don't mind the chipped paint. This needed a re-coat anyway.

And the last row. As I mentioned earlier, through planning in advance I didn't need to cut too much off the final row when installing. 

My circular saw with a cutting guide was perfect for this task. A table saw would have been more perfect, but unfortunately I don't have one of these (yet). If any spouses are considering birthday/Xmas presents however ???

Blocks were put in to hold everything in place while it dried. I even used a screwdriver for this task. Hey whatever works right?

I'd show the finished floor but it's covered with all the extra flooring while I do the other rooms.

Anyway, a couple of weekends to do the whole thing and even a weeknight. Which by the way was about 2 days before Joan and Rene arrived. I got it all done in time .. but just. Whew!