New Floors - Day 3

I feel like this post needs a soundtrack.

So before you start reading, get something big on your speakers.  Something bold and powerful and amazing.  Something like Massive Attack or Eye of the Tiger or the Star Wars Theme.

Yeah, baby.

It started today.

It being the it.  The demo and install of new floors.  The big project.  The "most likely once in a lifetime" type big job.

We already prepped everything for this portion of the job.  Everything is pulled away from the project area and mentally prepared, as much as possible.

This cabinet and the area rug it's on were the next to go.  One to the side of the room, one to the patio.  This tile, though - the ugly 1970's brown tile - can feel the shift in the wind and it's starting to shiver.

It was an 8:30 start time.

Which got pushed back due to really bad traffic.  So, there's that.  It's funny, when you expect the big job to start and it doesn't, you get nervous.  There is a lot of anxiety already built up, but then you start looking at your calendar and wondering if you wrote something down wrong.  And finally you realize, too late, that your phone was on silent and there were three accidents on the way from Temecula to your house.

Ah.

But once our delightful flooring guy got here, he got started.

He made quick work of the area where the new tile is going to go.  Unfortunately he found that the installers had used a TON of mortar and mud to build up a pretty significant decline in the wood. 

Ok.

No worries, he assured me as he cleaned the rest of it out.  A little extra hardiebacker and we'd be fine.  He was so exceptionally nice and professional that I really didn't think anything of it.  And there was no need to.  After a quick trip to Home Depot, he returned with his extra supplies and continued the job.  (He was also smart and professional enough to call the other flooring installers - long story, I'll tell you later - to be sure that the new tile would be at the right height.  So now I'm super happy about that and more confident about the next stage of the floor install project.  (Days 4-???.)

And he was so clean.  :)

A cleanliness that made me realize just how filthy our carpet has become.  I have, and use, a steam cleaner, but it still has just built up so much crud.  You can see the perfect outline of our area rug.  Yikes.  So glad we are doing this project!

So then he measured out the carpet that we wanted to replace with the new tile.  It's such a pretty tile that we want it to be a focal point for the room, so it's coming further out than is required by code just for the fireplace.

New hardiebacker installed!  You can't see it that well from this angle, but that's a level he's using.  So that the floor will be level.  And no longer drop off.  Seems like the original installers would have wanted that, too, but I guess you never know!

 Heeheheheheheheheeeheheheheheheheeeheheheheheheheeeee!!!

Isn't it beautiful!  Okay, okay, I realize that this tiny bit of finished floor (yes, finished) isn't maybe what you were expecting that the start of this post, but something has been completed.  Finito.  Doneso.  I'm still playing Mezzanine in my head and dancing around happily.  It's soooooo pretty.  And, for you Rocky fans, the tile is actually called Tiger Wood, so Eye of the Tiger was a good musical choice, as well.