Flooring + Flooding = Frustration

Our big goal for this week was to finish the kitchen floor so that it will be ready for the cabinet installation next weekend. We also wanted to finish all the sanding with the big sander so that we could return it Monday. I’m definitely ready to be done with the sanding!


During the week we continued the floor work – Chris worked on the sub-floor and patches and I sanded most of the floor. On Friday, we were piecing in the boards in the master bedroom and started having some major problems. The walls in the room are square but the original flooring was not straight. When we were installing the new floorboards, the gaps between the new pieces started getting bigger and bigger. We decided to completely remove and re-install the floor at a later date – we’d much rather take the time to do it right than live with it as it is now. Besides, unfinished oak is much easier to sand than the fifty-year-old stuff!


Saturday, we continued with the sanding and replacing floor boards. Midday, Chris went to the basement and found some major flooding. Our gutters were removed a month and a half ago in preparation for the roof work. Apparently the rain we had over the weekend (on top of all the snow melt) was more than the ground could hold. So instead of finishing the floor work, we spent about an hour vacuuming up water. Chris was using the 16 gallon wet/dry vac and I was using the 4 gallon one – we both were emptying them every 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Over lunch we bought a good dehumidifier and fan. Fortunately, by Saturday night, the basement was dry. Below are a couple of the pictures that make it easy to see the water intrusion. The pictures I took of the deep water didn’t turn out very well.



My birthday, Sunday, we were able to make progress in the kitchen. We started by priming the walls and ceiling so that we won’t have to paint near the new cabinets. We continued the sanding in the other rooms to be able to return the big sander. In the evening we cleaned up all the debris and started staining the kitchen floor. The staining took more effort than we ever imagined. At first, the stain was too light. Then, we left the stain on the floor for too long. It was pretty slow going and we didn’t get back home until after 2:00 a.m. By the end, we were quite pleased with the way it looked and the couple bad spots will be covered with the cabinets.


In other news, we are starting to grow the seeds to start our garden. The window in my office gets a lot of sunlight which makes it the perfect place to grow plants. One of my co-workers started calling me “Farmer Kristy” and another one comes in four times a day to see the “garden.” We’re really looking forward to having a big garden this year – it’ll be much better than having a tiny concrete patio!