We have been making a lot of progress with the house - getting trades in for things like the windows, kitchen, and toilet room, together with our efforts on the bits we can do, but the flooring is something that requires some intensity of focus and a good chunk of time in order to move forwards. And it affects nearly every room in the house. The plan of the previous owners was to lay the floor up to the skirting boards and then put a bead round to hide the gaps. This was not our plan.
We'd relaid the 3rd bedroom before Christmas, when John came home from hospital and chemotherapy had not yet started, but the thought of us doing the next 2 bedrooms without some help filled us both silently with dread. Each room is probably going to be 2 pretty full on days of work. We have not been able to get a tradesperson excited about taking on this job for us.
So, Liz gratefully accepted the super kind offer of help from a friend from 10 years back that she could rely on to have an eye for detail and be of real, practical assistance. So Richard arrived mid afternoon one Wednesday in late March and we set about the task the next morning, working on and off through to a Monday lunchtime finish.
The process is simple, but time consuming: lift the floor (each board screwed down), stack and label each one otherwise the relaying will pick up a poor pattern of the various lengths. The way to fix the problem of the gaps at the edges is to put in a 10mm piece of cork expansion strip at the edge and then shuffle the rows along to meet the cork. The skirting board will then sit on top of the cork and hide the edges of the boards when they are put back into place. Next step is to get a good first row in (straight) and lay progressively, row by row, checking each one is not becoming out of line either as a whole row or individual pieces. Any error will have a knock on effect for future rows. Although the wood we're using is very good (hard wood and dimensionally very consistent) it's very easy to start right but for each row to slightly deviate, and by the time you know it you have to undo work. We had a moment on the main bedroom that took an hour of head scratching, but recovered well and the result looks bloody good. However, because each row has been shuffled across it means that the final board in each row will be 20mm too short, so a new, longer board must be selected from our stash of spares, and cut to fit perfectly before being inserted in to complete each row. There's still finishing off to do (prepare and refit the skirting boards) but that is something John can do on his own.
It wasn't all work, work, work! Yoga was a lovely break on Friday morning, and we tried our first ever forest bathing, with a guide, at Benmore gardens - cold but on reflection the changes in weather made the experience very memorable. Colour is starting to come out in the gardens now with amazing, bright rhododendrons, which meant that Benmore looked beautiful. We stuck a couple of films on in the evenings and Liz enjoyed cooking proper food for Richard and herself for a few days, rather than eating John's junk diet. We had great chats over the kitchen sink/tea towel, with a lot to fill in from the last five (?) years, since we last saw Richard and his wife and kids at our garden party, and to reminisce about old motorcycle adventures with our big DSLRs, since we first met at a photography night class. Richard introduced us to kombucha - a slightly effervescent fermented tea which originated in China, and is delicious (sadly the similar sounding Japanese konbu-cha is made with kelp and does not sound nearly so delicious!)
Weather has been variable through March, but we were treated to a great day with no wind and blue skies so we hit the beach to show Richard one of the reasons we moved here, and from there we went onto Kames Hotel for tea - which, although not cheap, has given high quality food and good table availability to flex round our on-the-fly decisions.
It really is great to see friends in our new house (especially if they bring cake and do the washing up!). So many thanks to Richard, and you are always welcome anytime!
And if anyone else would like to come up North to see us, then by mid-May we should be recuperated and ready to welcome more guests - let us know!!
Comments