We spent this weekend putting in the floors at the new house. Or, I should say, ripping up the carpeting and putting down laminate instead.
Stuart spent the end of last week prepping the house. He put in the new keyless locks (which I think are cool.) He ripped up the carpet and pulled staples out of the sub-floor. He drove to Red Deer to pay Gerry for the laminate and accepted delivery of two skids worth. On Friday night, we went to Michelle's for dinner - thanks Michelle. We went to the IKEA sale, where of course, nothing we actually planned to get was on sale. Then I swept and vaccumed floors and dragged Stuart off for some sleep.
On Saturday, we got there bright and early, puttering around until Geoff arrived a little late. He got Stuart off to a good start and they got the upper level finished by late afternoon. I took Ursa for a walk in our new off leash area and then scraped down the underlay glue that was left on the concrete in the rec room. Then I did a lunch run and got the boys to stop long enough to eat.
Michelle arrived around 1pm and we went to Rona to buy new shingles for the shed, since they were having a sale. Then we came back and went to town on the bar in the rec room. I'm glad she was there to help, since the thing turned out to be hugely over-engineered. Stuart compared it to an air raid shelter, but I say it could support a table dancing elephant (if there were headroom, of course!) We actually had to pull out 6 bolts drilled through the base of the bar into the concrete! Just under the bar top, we found a message, "Lots and lots of beer were consumed during the construction of this bar (plus 1 keg)!" which explains a lot. We also stripped the sheathing off of the telepost, which was fun. Michelle just put her arm into the hammer on the drink ledge and it shattered explosively. Pieces ended up across the room and I'm still cursing myself for not thinking to get it on video.
After Geoff left, Stuart was determined to get the living room floor down that night. I was having trouble with my eye, so we left him at it and Michelle took me to the urgent care center. They froze my eye and swabbed a chunk of construction debris out from under my top right eyelid. Fortunately, the abrasion on my cornea was long, but not deep. Amazingly, we were only there for about 2 hours and Michelle kindly waited. We picked up some pizza and all ate on the lawn, enjoying the brief interlude of summer.
Stuart scarfed and went back to work, while I ended up at the neighbours' yard party. Mike and Laura had been helpful all day - lending tools, sending their sons over to move boxes of laminate, introducing Ursa to their black Standard Poodle, Jake. At the party, I met more neighbours, four more black dogs and the guy we bought the house from! Ursa charmed everyone by drinking out of the pond fountain and not trying to catch the koi. Stuart finished around 11pm and it was finally time to head to bed.
We had a later start on Sunday (didn't get to the house until 9am!) Stuart and Geoff piled all the garbage into the trailer and made a run to the dump. They also swung by Rona for more saw blades and a pre-made octagonal sheath to go around the telepost. A little more expensive than building it from scratch, but so much easier, neater and thinner! I did some more floor clean-up in the basement and then took Ursa for a walk.
The boys got started on the rec room floor, and since I didn't have an allan key to change the Dremel blade, I started stripping wall paper in the upstairs bathroom instead. I'd just gotten started when Heidi arrived -with food! She started helping me in the bathroom and we switched out wielding the wet towel and the scraper for a while. She kindly ended up finishing that while I ran to Michelle's for an allan key and started close cutting the subfloor around the remaining bar. Geoff had left early afternoon and Stuart was making the solo push to get all the laminate down (we had to return Geoff's tools that night.) Heidi came down when she finished the bathroom and helped get more glue off the floor. It doesn't sound like that much, until you realize that she still has one arm in a cast!!!
Stuart finished the floor at about 8:30 and we spent some time tidying, sorting everyone's tools and loading up everything that had to go back. We dropped off the borrowed tools and went home to sleep.
Overall, I'm incredibly happy. The floors got done, despite both Geoff and Gerry thinking it would take longer. I still think it looks good, spread on the floor, rather than in the box. The neighbours turned out to be incredibly kind and generous. We were definitely tired and worn by Sunday night, but we were both a bit disappointed with Geoff's contribution/attitude. After some sleep, I realized that although Meg and I can get along now, there's a reason that we were bitter enemies for so long, and that essential difference in personalities remains. She and Geoff have a different approach to things and if I keep expecting them to act like me, I'm just going to keep being disappointed. So, be grateful for the help that we got, that wasn't small, after all and adjust accordingly for the future.
Last night, I washed the stinky dishes in my sink, did laundry (yeah clean clothes!) and packed up some more of the kitchen. I hit the "packing sucks" wall, which always seems to happen before I've finished packing. C'est la vie!
Last night, I had a dream that Cleo (my snake) was acting weird. When I woke up -in my dream- she'd hatched out hundreds of little snakes. So many that the bottom half of her tank was solid with them and bulging out. The babies were climbing their way up and out through the wire top and Ursa was happily eating them as they slithered out. 50 points and a gold star if you can explain what that was all about!
I called today and the truck I was hoping to rent from Driving Force had broken down. I never had this much trouble renting trucks in the past - it must be Stuart's karma. So, it's not ideal, but we have a half-ton arranged through Discount. At least we won't have to carry it all by hand. I have a feeling we'll be putting plants and small boxes in all our friends' cars. LOL
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