Library

Jackie decided to move two small bookcases around for better flow and to turn them into bookcases instead of catch-alls.  Well, that led to her deciding to take one of the wood pattern stick n press tiles for her sewing area.  That led to expanding that with the tile we had.

Nope, no go, they won't stick.  Okay, off to Home Depot to find a pattern would could agree on.  We'll do this one section at a time.

We picked a pattern, moved bookcases and finished off the left side of the room.

Well, that made the center pathway look horrible....

Okay, Jackie scrubbed, I got the tile and we tiled up to the futon.

Well, that made us impatient and the room was feeling so much better.....

F8ck, we have 10 bookcases to move.

We moved a few, cleaned, put down tile.  Moved more book shelves - where the hell do we put all the books?  Did more tile.

We finished yesterday.

Today we're painting some additional shelves for the bookcases and then we get to put the books back in order.... <sigh>

The room looks fantastic, however! It feels so much cleaner and open now! We need to move furniture back, put the books back and knick knacks spread out...

Nice

 the press on tile in Jackie's sewing area

 We pulled this down from the bookcases yesterday which is Mom's birthday.  Inside the bear are some of Mom's ashes.  Love you, Mom

 Bookcases are for books once again.  This started the floor project to finish off the last bit of floor that was just plywood/pressboard flooring with paint covering it - very hard to keep clean.

 Major problem with laying floor tile - where do we put the books so we can move the bookcases?

 New floor pattern

 the sewing area and left corner of the room - note Oscar supervising on the shelving

 hard at work

 books everywhere!!! (and tools)

 Ma, your sewing table gets used a lot around here

 our main supervisor

 Got my sword up (we've only lived here since 2011

 One side of the library done

 4 book cases and one shelving unit

 doing the next section, the main pathway to the back porch

 He knows he's not supposed to be up there

 facing the next stage - moving 10 bookcases which means moving the books and knick knacks off the shelves, repair some of the shelves, redo the anchors and lay the tile down

 not bad, definitely feels better!

 We got pretty quick at laying the tile\

 We love this cart. This cart holds a lot more than the little red wagon.  This cart folds up and is lighter.  This cart holds more weight.  We love this cart.

the last half begins

 4 bookcases moved and section is clean, ready for tile

 Fuzz Bot approves, we think

 One corner done.  Only how many bookcases to move?

 Only four more tiles to go!

 Jackie figured out a better configuration of the bookcases.  Now we paint some additional shelves, redo the anchors and we'll work shims under the bottom of each shelf for additional stability.

 moving cases back

one of our irritation - an old gas fireplace connection.  We can remove it and it was a hassle placing bookcases around it.  One of our bookcases fits over it. Yay

Ta Da! Now to deal with the books

Just need to paint the trim - Flooring is done

Except for painting or staining the baseboards - my flooring project is done.  It's not perfect, it would be very hard to get it that way with uneven and bowing walls.

Much credit to my sister Jackie, she worked her tail off on this.

 selected flooring - pecan from Home Depot

 underlayer - with styrofoam balls to aid in air flow, insulation, moisture resistance and sound dampening. Higher end than we'd normally go but figure with the uneven floors we need something with a little more give than the cheaper stuff

Grades doesn't mind my bed being in the library

 Next phase - laying the planks

 the short ends against the wall help even out the bowing

half-way done

 floor is down

laying the addition to the baseboards

 done

need to paint baseboards and move rest of the furniture in

Minor Repair Turns into a Major Job

I got tired of the broken, paint splotched tile on my floor and trying to get ahead of the cat urine that won't go away because of the previous renters having untidy cats.

I chipped up the tiles (w/Jackie's help), revealing black glue that smelled horrible and damaged pressboard sheets.  Why couldn't they use plywood? It doesn't disintagrate as quickly.

Okay, fine. I bought a think of floor spackle and we set about trying to fix the holes, dings, and the worst of the waves.  Two days to apply that and another day to sand.  Then we painted the floor with sealer primer paint.

Next we'll spread sealer on that and then I'll lay press-on tile.  I thought the simple job of pulling up the old tile, press-on tile in place of that and it'd take a couple of days.  Nope, turned into a major project.

A couple of days in Nick's bed as turned into well over a week.

oy humbug

 old tiles up and wood repair done (and gouges in the wall have had a 1st coat of paint)

 you can tell by the amound of wood repair just how bad most spots were

 flat sealer primer paint

 finished floor paint

that's only 1/4 of the floor with a lot of sanding that we had to do