Floors DONE!

Well, almost, anyway. We're installing the base moldings this weekend. But Nick and I spent last weekend and the 4th laying the floor. After the months of prep work that went into getting the ceiling done and the subfloor repaired and level, it was actually really FUN putting the floor in. It just took time and careful measuring and many, many trips down to the garage/workshop to cut the planks down to size.

The most tedious thing about installation was actually FINDING someone who rented the floor stapler. Not a nailer ... a stapler. Not a "construction stapler," a FLOOR stapler. Since bamboo flooring is by nature an engineered plank, the cleat nails that you would use to nail down normal tongue and groove hardwood can be too thick for the bamboo. All of the installation instructions that I read, either from the manufacturer or from various websites (Google = DIYer's best friend), made it sound like every Joe Schmoe tool rental place would carry one of these. In fact, I KNEW that the most popular model, the Bostich stapler, actually needed an additional piece to even be able to use NAILS. Sooooooo ... what's the holdup here, folks?!

I had spent the week calling tool rental places, and ended up finding only one place relatively close to us that would rent them. I also found out that certain Home Depot stores would rent them (for half the price of that other place). Go figure that NO Home Depots within San Diego rent tools. But. The store in La Mesa (about half an hour SE of us in no traffic) does, and when I called they assured me that they rented floor staplers. Cool. So last Friday night, Nick and I headed out to the La Mesa HD, just to be told that they rent something called a "floor stapler," but it doesn't drive staples. ?!?!?!?!?! Okaaaaaay ... But he said the Lemon Grove HD (about another 10 min farther East) had what we were looking for. Not believing that this guy actually knew what he was talking about, but quickly running out of options, we headed over.

Nope. No one in tool rental had even HEARD of a floor "uh, stapler?" They had a row of floor nailers ... and one at the end kept catching my eye. It was bright orange, which is the color of all Stanley and Bostich tools. And I know Bostich makes the thing we need. But hey, I'm just the DIY Google-educated novice. They are telling me they don't have it, so they must not. Right? The woman behind the desk starts calling every home improvement store in San Diego to find out if ANYONE has this thing, and at the same time, one by one, every single customer service or tool department employee in the store starts filing through and every single one tells us that they've never heard of such a tool. And then. 45 minutes after getting there, a guy comes on shift in Tool Rental ... walks in ... is asked if he's ever heard of this crazy contraption these obscenely tall people are asking for and won't leave until they find ... and says "yeah, it's right there." Where does he point?! Ahhhh, yes, that bright orange floor STAPLER (imagine me screaming this word) that was sitting there the entire time.

My fists begin to unclench. My jaw stops twitching. He starts to ring up the rental contract. And then I notice that it has the plate on it meant for 1/2 inch flooring. Ours is 5/8 inch. Hmmm. I knew, from my extensive studies at Google University, that this was not okay. So I asked if he could change the plate. "Sure, no problem, just need to find it. It was right here two days ago ..." says he. Can you see where I'm going with this? Another 45 minutes later, with the Tool Rental department turned upside-down, with many employees searching every cabinet, corner, and shelf, a very dusty and disheveled HD employee stuck that 5/8 inch plate on that damn stapler and we were FINALLY out the door. Good GOD.

But the floors are now in and look great. They look so good, in fact, that they make the tile entryway look less good than it did before ... and when I brought this fact to Nick's attention, he looked as though I had just asked him to go to the quarry and mine the stone himself. So I guess that's going to have to wait. Oh well.

All in all, we managed to get it done in less than 2 months, and that even includes the three weeks that I was totally out of commission with a sprained foot. Hopefully we get the moldings painted and installed quickly and then our house can be back to normal. As normal as we get, anyway.

I'll post some pictures soon.