Creating Our Home Library: Part 2
We’ve got the room painted, a new light fixture hung, and our hardwood floors selected. You can read all about part 1 here and selecting our flooring here. The next step to creating our home library was installing the flooring upstairs.
We purchased a pneumatic floor nailer from Harbor Freight and a small, portable compressor to avoid hauling our large, heavy compressor up the stairs. Before we could install the Bruce hardwood flooring upstairs, we needed to remove the dark green carpet and get it prepped for installation.
The boyfriend was booked up on jobs out of town for the majority of the week, so demo was left up to me. Fortunately, I often enjoy cranking up the tunes and getting my hands dirty to relieve stress.
I got a carpet knife and got to work. I found that ripping the carpet into strips made it easier to maneuver and carry it out the stairs.
I thought that below the hideous green carpet would be plywood, and we would be able to rock and roll on installing the hardwood floors. I’ve been wrong many times and I was definitely wrong on this one.
I was ironically listening to Electric Light Orchestra, when I discovered the ‘70s bright orange vinyl tiles below the dark green carpet. I imagined John Travolta dancing on this stuff in Saturday Night Fever. While I do welcome a change of pace, this flooring was just a bit much.
I was dreading removing the vinyl tile because I figured it would be difficult to remove, but it just popped right up revealing the plywood subfloor. One section had slight water damage due to a leaky skylight, but it was still pretty solid.
After a day of prep, we were finally ready to start installing the flooring. I splurged and purchased Pergo Gold Premium Flooring Underlayment, which provides moisture protection, sound insulation and a more stable floor. While the price was at a premium, I knew this product would be better than the cheap underlayment in the long run.
The boyfriend made it home a day early to take over while I went to work. He said the most difficult part was getting started. Nothing in this 1945 cottage is square, so getting the first couple pieces installed took some time.
He later got called to go back to work, and the thought was that I would pick up where he left off after I got home from work. I may or may not have had a mental breakdown when the floor nail gun kept jamming and staples weren’t going completely into the wood. After a couple trips to Lowe’s, I decided it was best to wait until the boyfriend got home to work on it together.
A couple days later, we both happened to be home at the same time to work on it. He patiently showed me what I was doing wrong to cause the jams, and I was able to lay down some flooring. We hit a rhythm and laid most of the floor down before I went to back to work, but he was able to finish up while I was gone.
I’m obsessed with the new hardwood floors! I originally planned to sand the floor and re-stain it, but these look wonderful as is. I cannot wait to continue the hardwood floors in our bedroom, but that is a project for a later time. We will need to add the trim and build our bookshelves, but this is already starting to become a cozy library.
Your Friend,
Laci