WIP Wednesday #16 (aka 'Floored'...)

Hello everyone!  It's (W)ork (I)n (P)rogress Wednesday and ever since we got the keys to the house I've been a handy man possessed.  Who knew all those boring tasks you had to do for rental houses were so much fun when it is on your own house?   (I know this won't last but I'm enjoying it now anyway...)

Right off the bat I started organizing the home "improvements" that we had been thinking of as we were in the house.  I think the current list has some 60 tasks on it.  Some of them are high priority (i.e. has to be done before we move in), some are for the next year or so, and finally some are probably just pipe dreams.  For the last two weeks I've been focused entirely on the high priority list so we can get out of this apartment complex ASAP.

So, as you can imagine, there has been no knitting lately.  To be honest, I've had bits of time for it here or there, but I've been so exhausted when I sat down for a minute of an evening that I just didn't have the heart to take it out and do it.

But in the spirit of WIP Wednesday, I will kind of show and tell what we have been doing...

We used, and I'm not even kidding, 28 bags of mulch on the flower beds:

After that, we started tasks for the inside.  I replaced one of the refrigerator wheels.  Restored the Pergo flooring in the Sun Room.  Cleaned and liberated a stuck valve on the Whirlpool Tub in the master suite.  Replaced outlets and the thermostat. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned...

And then we came to the flooring.  Now, I don't know how many or who of you may have experience with Engineered Wood Flooring, but I have found it to be an atrocious pain in the rear.  The flooring may be beautiful but it was terribly installed.  In the Memphis area houses are built on a solid concrete slab -- that's the way it's done here because a wood sub-floor in this area would not wear very well -- too humid and too risky with termites.  But as we all know, concrete will crack.  And whoever installed this engineered wood floor didn't make sure that the floor was level enough to hold with adhesive.  This creates what they call "Pop" spots -- places where the concrete slants down just enough to take the adhesive with it and to allow the floor to move, or sink, down to the concrete when you step on it.  Over time, if this is left untreated, these spots get larger and larger as this movement releases boards from properly seated adhesive.  This is especially problematic for engineered flooring because it isn't as thick as solid hardwood -- usually by about half.

Now, we knew we wanted the floors to be sanded and refinished before we moved in because it's a mess and exceptionally painful when you are already living there.  But before we put two new coats of polyurethane on there, we wanted to take care of these "spots".  We decided to do this using a Repair Adhesive Injection Kit from Dri-Tac.  It does a wonderful job, but man alive does it take a lot of glue.  we worked our way through 2.5 gallons of the stuff using a small injection syringe that holds like 2 ounces.  It was a slow process let me tell you.  BUT, I think it was worth it.  Especially to get it done before the floors were worked so we wouldn't have to put a hole in our newly sealed flooring.

Yesterday, the first coat went on...

I think it looks pretty good!  And thanks to all the hard work Superwife and I put in, the floor doesn't pop when you walk on it anymore...

Next step, replace the locks and figure out how to "Master" key them and then get busy moving in!

Happy WIP Wednesday Everyone!  

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