Life in America - I made the move.

[woody1]

Nice....and any click clack when you walk on it ?
What does the doggies think of the slip n slide 

[Fudmucker]

Your zoom-zoom... does it work like the oscillating saws that they use to cut of Plaster of Paris casts around broken limbs?
(It goes side to side nor round and round.)

We put some of that flooring into our guest room. 
Very easy to maintain and keep clean.

[big oil]

I like the wood tone, you just added much value to your home with, iirc, free flooring?

[Tom van Brits]

Neat work Gary!! 

[Mr Zog]

I like the wood tone, you just added much value to your home with, iirc, free flooring?

Half true. The floor boards were free, I still had to buy the underlayment, the transitions, some hardware (Tapcons for the transitions) and do all the labor. 

Yes, the wood tone is very beautiful, because we have the Bahama shutters over all the windows that keep the direct sunlight out during the day the house can feel quite dark. The light color of the wood definitely brightens up the house. 

Neat work Gary!! 

Thanks Tom! It was back-breaking, knee wrecking work. But I took my time and did it to the best of my ability, not cutting any corners. I am very happy with the result. 

[Mr Zog]

So the flooring is now 99% done.

This morning I did a quick clean-up of my workshop, put away all the tools and threw out all the little bits of offcut. Then I went off to the Home Depot and bought the transitions and a box of special screws for screwing the transitions down into the concrete floor.

I got a cheapo section for the 9-foot long section between the lounge and the green floor tiles of the dining room. But I looked at the prices and for a $3 difference I decided to get the real wood transitions for the 3 bedrooms. They just look so much better than the cheapo alloy ones. 

I cleaned up the skirting boards and reattached them, and yes, I know, the skirtings and the walls definitely need painting. They did when we bought the house, but priorities have that still a long ways off.

Then I fitted the transitions, custom cutting each one so that it fitted just right. Drilling down into the concrete floor wasn't too big an issue, I used my Milwaukee battery powered hammer drill, and the battery lasted until about 2 holes from the end. Not an issue as I did have a couple of spares. I'll have to get 3 or 4 slightly longer Tapcons too, some of them didn't go in deep enough and just chipped out the top 1/2" of concrete. So now I'll just have to drill down a bit deeper and fit longer screws so that they can bite properly 

Sammy says that he likes the new floor, although he says that traction is a big issue   

Mrs Zog is dead happy, and that's all that matters 

[Fudmucker]

 

[Oubones]

Looking good!
Another job done well.

[OomD]

Well done, Mr. Z! It looks stunning!

[Splash]

The floors are beautiful. Good job.

[woody1]

Pragtig 

[BMWPE]

Looking good!
Another job done well.

 

[Ri]

Good score is worthless if you don't make something of it.

Beautifully done, work to be proud of, looks GREAT

[Mrs. Zog]

Nice....and any click clack when you walk on it ?
What does the doggies think of the slip n slide 

The click clack is there, but no worse than it is on the kitchen tiles, really. We just ignore it (both for us and the doggie nails).

As predicted, Sammy has zero traction. It's an ice rink for him. Maggie (smartie that she is) has it figured out already. She moved slowly and carefully and doesn't slide too much. Sammy was trying to get up from lying down yesterday, in a hurry, and could not get up. His feet would not stay under him. He eventually sort of made a caterpillar-like crawling movement over to the kitchen tiles where he was able to get up. Shame on me, I did laugh out loud. I think his self-esteem has bottomed out now. 

I closed my eyes, grabbed my credit card, and bit the bullet: I ordered a non-slip area rug for the lounge, for under the coffee table, that will give Sammy some traction in the spot where he normally lies. (It will also look amazing). I'll post a pic when it's here.

So in summary: Yes, the floor planks were a free "score", but we paid in quite a bit. Plus the area rug I ordered, but we all agreed (humans and canines) that we need it. So... worth it overall, with some minor financial setback. It had to be done eventually anyway.

[Welsh]

Nice....and any click clack when you walk on it ?
What does the doggies think of the slip n slide 

The click clack is there, but no worse than it is on the kitchen tiles, really. We just ignore it (both for us and the doggie nails).

As predicted, Sammy has zero traction. It's an ice rink for him. Maggie (smartie that she is) has it figured out already. She moved slowly and carefully and doesn't slide too much. Sammy was trying to get up from lying down yesterday, in a hurry, and could not get up. His feet would not stay under him. He eventually sort of made a caterpillar-like crawling movement over to the kitchen tiles where he was able to get up. Shame on me, I did laugh out loud. I think his self-esteem has bottomed out now. 

I closed my eyes, grabbed my credit card, and bit the bullet: I ordered a non-slip area rug for the lounge, for under the coffee table, that will give Sammy some traction in the spot where he normally lies. (It will also look amazing). I'll post a pic when it's here.

So in summary: Yes, the floor planks were a free "score", but we paid in quite a bit. Plus the area rug I ordered, but we all agreed (humans and canines) that we need it. So... worth it overall, with some minor financial setback. It had to be done eventually anyway.

Thought about it for a few years, not going to try it until my Great Danes have gone, too much risk of floor and dog damage. 

[Mrs. Zog]

Saturday our neighbor Laura came over for a chat and told us that she had killed what she thought was a baby rattlesnake in her garden. We were immediately anxious because Maggie likes to kill snakes, and usually where there's one, there are more. We have several extremely venomous snakes in this part of Florida, among them diamondback rattlesnakes. I was very worried.

Laura just called me and said that a snake expert she contacted has identified it (from a photo she took of the dead snake) as a harmless corn snake. They have a pattern that is very similar to that of a rattlesnake. She feels terrible about killing it now, but she also has a dog she lets out into the garden, and better safe than sorry. Very relieved that it wasn't a rattlesnake.

[Tom van Brits]

Saturday our neighbor Laura came over for a chat and told us that she had killed what she thought was a baby rattlesnake in her garden. We were immediately anxious because Maggie likes to kill snakes, and usually where there's one, there are more. We have several extremely venomous snakes in this part of Florida, among them diamondback rattlesnakes. I was very worried.

Laura just called me and said that a snake expert she contacted has identified it (from a photo she took of the dead snake) as a harmless corn snake. They have a pattern that is very similar to that of a rattlesnake. She feels terrible about killing it now, but she also has a dog she lets out into the garden, and better safe than sorry. Very relieved that it wasn't a rattlesnake.

Glad it was not a rattle snake Mrs Z because the farmers told us here that when or where you see one there are normally a lot in the direct vicinity.
This rattle snake was rather large, and I did see a number of them around. The doggies will just try to protect you in taking them on and like you said; you don't want that! 

[big oil]

Flooring looks koooooool

Well done, Zog, you're a champion.

[Mrs. Zog]

Aaaannnd the next thing comes along.

Looks like the fridge is on its last legs. It came with the house and is extremely old (1984 vintage?) and held together with duct tape on the inside (I'm not joking - really). We were hoping to get a couple more years out of it though. Remember a few weeks ago it had issues with temperature? That seems ok for now (mostly - the top shelf is still near freezing and the bottom shelf is so-so), but now the ice maker and water dispenser crapped out last night.

But it managed to make one ice cube for me today (since last night), so I'm enjoying that one in my lemon water 

Mr. Zog will have a look. Let's hope we can make it limp along for a little bit longer. For now, I've been keeping crucial things either in the chest freezer in the garage or in the teeny tiny bar fridge on the porch.

[Mr Zog]

I got home in pouring rain and took another look at the icemaker in the fridge.

I took it apart, found that the "off" lever wasn't going all the way down to the "on" position, frozen (literally    ) in the off position. I got it thawed out, put it all back together, and put it back into the freezer. Fingers crossed....   and an hour later I heard the clunking sound of a tray of ice falling into the ice bin 

It's lekker when u r cleva hey