- Lessons learned: When mixing thinset, start with water, and add a little powder at a time, stirring as you go. Doing it all it once makes for a hard time. Clean the thinset from the surface of the tiles and in the grout line - it's a bear to scrape off afterwards. Don't try scoring and snapping marble tile; it will break along some other fissure. Just head straight for the wet saw.
Now that I'm not an easy bike ride from work, we either need a second car, a carpool, or some other transportation. Second cars cost money, and 26 miles worth of gas every day is a major concern. Nobody in this office works 8-5 and lives in town, so carpools are out. Going to give the Bay Town Trolley a shot - it takes about twice as long as driving, buses only run once an hour, and the beach route goes the long way around the barn, but it's hard to beat unlimited rides for $15/month.
- Lesson learned: Check all the major appliances in the month before you move in, while you're still just making the place quasi-livable.
- Lessons learned: Take your time with the big sander, but don't stop moving for anything. Before it digs a hole in the floor, it will burn it nice and black. Burns are really hard to sand out; the more you work at it, the more it burns. Stretch before spending 10 straight hours pushing and pulling a 100-lb sander around.
- Lesson learned: 26' rental trucks don't seem to intimidate small, in-the-way cars when backing up to a gas pump. Don't quite know why not...
- Lesson learned: Liquid Nails drying in the tip is stronger than the trigger on a $1.97 caulk gun.
20Sep05 - More floors. Just two more rows to replace in the hallway, then a few little pieces here and there. Spent some time in Home Depot deciding what floor to put in the master bedroom. We've been watching some Do-It-Yourself videos from the library. They are timeless classics, evidence that styles and tastes never change over the years.
17Sep05 - Tried out the heat gun on the linoleum. Works great, the tiles come up in whole squares, instead of little pieces. And when we're done, I can blow-dry my hair at 750 degrees. Started replacing hardwood floor. The first two boards are obviously the work of an amateur, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Got to use my new table saw, which is the real reason I bought the house in the first place.
16Sep05 - Finished pulling out the damaged pieces of the hardwood floor. Claire measured the kitchen properly, so we can get a floor plan and start laying out cabinets.- Lesson learned: Rip as close to the groove side of a board as possible - the toe nailing in the tongue could extend halfway into the board.
14Sep05 - Assembled table saw, with help. Started removing linoleum from entry. Looks like there are two layers. The top layer is brittle and breaks into little pieces. 2 hours work and I only got about 9 square feet up. WD-40 seems to help loosen the adhesive, but it's a problem getting it to the adhesive when there is vinyl on top. Going to try a heat gun. The bottom layer is hard as a rock (I thought it was cement until I got enough of the top layer up to see the squares); I'll probably just leave it and put tile over the top. Also spent some time considering options for kitchen cabinets. It is prohibitively expensive to buy pre-made units. I'm willing to build them myself, but might not have time.
- Lesson learned: Scrapers work better if you install the blade with the sharp side out.
- Lesson learned: Sitting in a closet while Claire hammers nails into the framing on the other side is very loud.