New floor! Closing the loop

As you know we have had a lot of heartache with our floor.  From the initial leak that ruined 60-75 square feet of upper floor that required all new floor, to the section of new tile that was applied with the wrong mastic to where we are today with a chopped up plywood floor awaiting the latest and LAST floor.  Jan and I have been looking at flooring to determine what type or kind of floor to install in our galley, hallway and toilet compartment.  Our present wood floor is a 3 1/2" random length hickory engineered flooring 1/2" thick, and no longer available, strike 1.  Since the new has to but up against the older floor we though maybe a cork or bamboo to get away from any grain lines that won't line up, but no, they don't make an engineered floor in cork, strike 2.  So finally we (mostly Jan, as it should be) decided on a 5" wide rustic hickory that would be run perpendicular to our present floor.  We had some trepidation about whether it would look "right" or not, but finally decided to go that route. Also we decided we would tile our toilet compartment, another project for Florida:-)

We also wanted to install it ourselves, and did some research into that.  We figured we'd have to rent several tools as I don't have quality power tools, read saws, anymore.  Then we figured the cost to rent them, the learning curve to actually do it, etc, and since we were in the Dallas area, wondered if Ernie Ekberg who installed our first wood floor might have an opening??  We talked to him and said we would do the demo, floor prep, buy the flooring and molding and would he be willing to install it?  He said sure and we arranged a time that fit in ours and his schedule.  Home run.  

As I previously reported we tore out the old plywood, cut out as much of the old OSB as we could, put down all new plywood subfloor, screwed the heck out of it to avoid squeaks, and Jan put down floor leveler to get ready.  We also picked out the wood, dealt with a 2 week lead time, picked it up along with the molding and hoped Ernie would find our prep adequate.

We left the existing T molding as it was for Ernie to remove as we were afraid we would mess up the existing wood trying to get it off, again with a lack of tools.

The old T molding

We were able to actually arrange arriving a few days ahead of our scheduled time which was wonderful for us, and Ernie started right in.  Jan can be proud that he didn't need to do anymore floor leveling and only had to scrape the floor here and there, so after removing the T molding he set to laying the wood.  And even better he said we didn't even have to remove the frig, he would go under it!

Removing the last of the molding and glue

A little necessary scraping

Ernie and I discussing dealing with the refrigerator

The first couple boards down, and off to lunch while they set up

After lunch he installed more wood mainly to set up a secure middle area so he could continue laying floor on either side the next day, and it also gave us somewhere to walk that evening.

So bright and early the next day with a good foundation he began laying floor in earnest.

The next morning

He knocked out almost all of it that day.  Just a small area left to go.

New T molding installed, almost done

Not everyone was happy about the new floor:-)

After just an hour or so the next morning, he was done and our floor complete, and we think it is beautiful! 

All done!

I should mention another small item, always another right?  Ernie mentioned the flooring was a bit thicker than the plywood we had laid, both are nominally 1/2", and the flooring was exact, but plywood is actually thinner even if they call it half inch.  I had to relevel the refrigerator, as the rear sits on plywood and the front is on the new floor.  It didn't completely sink in until we tried to move the slide in, and it wouldn't come in!

There are 2 rollers in the bottom of the cabinet that roll across the floor, unfortunately with the floor a bit thicker than the plywood they sit on, they wouldn't roll over the new lip caused by the thicker floor.  Not a huge deal, but something we would have to deal with before leaving, as we had to get the slide in.  Ernie was nice enough to let us stay, use his tools and stuff to take care of it.  We knew what had to be done, but not exactly how to do it, so we bid Ernie adieux, and Jan and I tackled the problem.

The offending roller is in this cabinet
everything had to be emptied out, and the
 floor of the cabinet removed

This is the adjustable roller in the base of the cabinet

We removed it so we could get below it to shim up the floor under it to be level with the new floor.  And when we did we also noticed the roller was quite rough from all the different flooring it had rolled over, 2 different tiles, and several iterations of plywood, and should be replaced at a later date.

Roller out, you can see the wear

Looking down into the hole for the roller,
you can see the thinner plywood it sits on
the new floor is to the right out of sight

We ended up putting a piece of floor shim and a piece of vinyl flooring that Ernie had given us into the hole and glued it down, and gave it a try.  Success, the slide rolled in!  We will have to modify it just a bit after we get new rollers, but we're good to get to Florida.  What's that, another project?!?

So with a couple extra days, we decided on a bit of a detour on the way back to Atlanta closing our original loop for this season.  When we were in Montana, we had several people ask us if we had ever fished or were familiar with the White River in Arkansas? In fact, almost everywhere we fished someone mentioned Arkansas. We weren't familiar, so  decided to take a quick look on our way back.  I should mention, unbeknownst to us that the record brown trout caught in America at over 40 lbs, was caught in the White River.  Also when we were at the Slide Inn talking to Kelly Galloup and one of his assistants this summer, they were telling us about a unique wonderful fishing location just off the White River called Dry Run Creek set up for young anglers.  It is a small stream chocked full of enormous trout, only fishable by kids under the age of 16, accompanied by an adult with a fishing license.  It is all catch and release, artificial lures, flies only, and it was where Kelly's assistant said his dad had taken him which started his obsession for fly fishing.  Well we wanted to see for ourselves.

We found a great campground right on the White River called Denton Ferry, and with the very cool weather neither of us took a picture, sad, huh?

We drove over to Dry Run Creek and found a very special and beautiful spot, which was filled with enormous trout!  Fantastic.

A walkway has been built along most of the shore

Just gorgeous!
We tried to get picture of the huge fish but
they didn't work out

A view of the White River,
and if you look close you can see a very hardy fisherman

So now we are in Tennessee and will be back to Atlanta shortly.  Dentist, doctors, and friends to see, then on to our winter digs in Venice, Florida.