Floors and Mr. Marvelous' Health

Mr. Marvelous has chronic sinus problems.  He struggles to completely recover from one infection before coming down with another.  It has been this way for years.  He has had surgery by one of the top ENTs in the country.  He has seen some wonderful doctors here in Alabama (and a few stinkers, I might add).  He has been evaluated by ENTs, Pulmonologists, and Allergy/Immunologists.  They struggle to figure him out.  He is very compliant with the suggestions the doctors make. 

Now step over here a minute and let me tell you about another track of the story.  When we bought our house, the lady who lived here before us had several dogs, some large and some small.  The dogs lived in the house.  We were not able to re-do the carpet when we moved in, and as she was on the verge of a foreclosure, she certainly was not able to do anything about it.  They were ugly.  They were not nice.  We shampooed (and shampooed, and shampooed) but still....

While Mr. Marvelous' sinus problems pre-dated our home, they seemed to be getting worse.  It was almost as bad as when we lived in a little house that was plagued with mold.  I fretted about the floors in this house, but I could never quite find the money in the budget to do anything about it.  It seemed that every time I would make any progress in that envelope, something would happen and we would have to add that money to the emergency fund to cover an emergency.

This past winter, Mr. Marvelous got motivated (multiple bouts of sinusitis will do that).  We started saving our pennies more diligently.  We had some unexpected income that we added to the envelope.  We scrimped.  We talked about the possibility of just pulling up the carpet and doing something quirky with the subfloor.  Pinterest has some terrific ideas for that if you are interested.  We talked about sanding and painting and then sealing the subfloors.  We started surfing the 'net.  I started a new Pinterest board.  Then we started thinking a little more.  In addition to the sinus problems, Mr. Marvelous has some serious knee problems.  We thought about being on hands and knees and sanding the floor.  We thought about the dust from the sanding getting into everything.   Including this.

We started cringing every time we talked about the painted subfloor.  I loved the idea ~ I still do! ~ but we began to wonder if it were really practical?

So we counted the money in the floor envelope and realized we had enough to re-do the living room and the hall way.  Mr. Marvelous was able to get a couple of days off and we got started.  Mr. Marvelous took off Friday and Monday.  He figured we would be done by Saturday noon and could do some other home improvements that needed doing (or play in the garden!) until going back to work.  Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!  I figured it would take us until Monday.  Guess who would have won that bet??

We pulled up carpet.

I pulled up tacks, hammered down nails, and lightly sanded the floors before spraying them down with a very strong vinegar solution.

We put down the underlayment and started laying laminate.  And tried to remember to take pictures for you along the way.  In the middle of the pulling, pounding, sanding, and being the weight to hold down one strip while Mr. Marvelous pounded in another....I sometimes forgot about the pictures.



I would like to inform you that you should purchase the thickest laminate you can afford.  If you can't afford very thick laminate, you might want to seriously consider waiting until you can.  I would also like to inform you that the first three rows of laminate you put down are the hardest.  The process is enough to make a saint swear sweat.  This Public Service Announcement brought to you by the Achin' Akins. 

Half-done

Finished

Or not really.

I am of the persuasion that the job is not done until it is DONE.  I had heard rumors that our trash service allowed their customers to bring one truck-load of whatever to the dump at certain intervals.  So I called our trash service.  Turns out they allow you to bring a load quarterly.  Hurrah!  BUT you have to have a voucher to do that.  Boo!  But they were mailing vouchers that week.  Hurrah!!  BUT I would not get the voucher until later in the week.  Boo!!  I really did not want that stuff on my porch for that long.  The dump is not open on the weekends, and we needed to make that run before Mr. Marvelous went back to work.  I begged.  I told the nice lady on the phone that we had ripped up carpet and needed to get it gone.  I explained that we had been customers for over a year and had never gotten any vouchers, nor brought any loads to the dump.  I promised that if she would let us bring this load this time I would bring the voucher to her as soon as it came.  Bless that dear lady, she completely understood (I found out later that she was getting ready to do her floors). 

So we loaded up the truck and we went to Beverly...

No, wait a minute, wrong story.  Actually we loaded up the truck and we went to the dump.  We had a couple of adventures along the way, but the most memorable one was about the "item" that flew off the truck along the way.  I driving the car following Mr. Marvelous who was driving Little Redneck Truck (it has been worked on and he wanted to make sure he had a ride if it broke down).  We got down off our little road and onto the main road.  Suddenly I saw something fly out of the carpet roll on the back of the truck onto the road.  I thought it might have been one of his work gloves, so I slowed down (thinking I could retrieve it and be a heroine for him).  Nope.  Not a glove.  I did not take a picture, but it looked something like this.

I'm still trying to figure out if it was toxic fumes from the carpet that killed the poor thing.  I knew that stuff was bad....!  And how in the world he got into the roll of carpet to begin with?!

With that torture, I will leave you alone.  Until we can get to work on the rest of the floors.