Lorenzo limped through the door at about 10:30 last night. His back is killing him because when he put the piano on the dollies, one end of it slipped off.  He managed to catch it, which left him somewhat injured and mangled. The old steel casters on the piano destroyed the floor that it fell on, so he had to tear up about fourteen planks to get to the damaged pieces which was a huge pain in the neck. Things like this always happen. So that would be the bad news. The GOOD NEWS is that he finished the whole main floor! He began by prepping the floor, filling in gaps, screwing down areas that were squeaky, etc...

He bought a floor-nailer at Home Depot but when he opened the box, a crucial component was missing and he was freaking out. By some miracle, the good folks at Home Hardware happened to have one sitting in a back room that someone had returned. So they gave him the cartridge he needed so that he could continue with the job. He was very annoyed about this, because he was up at 6am and ready to get going; by the time the nail-gun fiasco played out, he didn't start until about 11:30. I think this was Friday. In any case, he said he kind of learned as he went along and once he made a plumb line and got his first pieces nailed down, it went fairly smoothly...

This job was pretty hard on his back, and he's not exactly looking forward to doing the upstairs. Having said that, he's very pleased with how it looks. The west wall, with the black foyer tile gone, now seems twice as big - I love this wall...

Lorenzo really took his time choosing the pieces so that the different colours were well-placed; some were very blonde, some were red, and some were distressed, and he made sure they were fairly evenly distributed. I am really liking this floor!

You know, I have never understood why anyone would put laminate floors in their home. They are the shag carpet of the future; the avocado-coloured appliances that were once on the cutting edge of style. 

Laminate flooring is essentially a photograph - a piece of paper - covered in plastic. The substrate is a bunch of sawdust mixed with glue. Once laid out, it has no depth, no shine, no texture. It is fake flooring and it feels really strange to walk on because it's essentially a counter-top. Walk across a laminate counter in your socks, and that is what laminate flooring feels like. See the difference:

If laminate floors were dirt cheap, I could understand how economics might force someone into making the purchase. But there are laminate floors that cost as much as $5. a square foot. I have seen  hard-wood flooring that is cheaper than its plastic counterpart.

It is mind-boggling to me that people actually believe they're installing something more durable than wood. If anything, they are devaluing their home. The floors we found were $2.35/square foot. They are solid pre-finished hardwood, not to be confused with engineered flooring which I don't like. If you look around, the deals are out there. And consider this: there are abandoned farm houses which dot the American landscape from one end to the other - many are hundreds of years old. And those old floors are being salvaged and re-used. Can anyone really believe that plastic floors will stand the test of time? If we called them "plastic floors" instead of "laminate floors" I think people would view them differently. It's like Alzheimer's disease. Call it "impending madness" or "soon-to-be bat shit crazy" and you think about it differently. Wording is everything.

Anyway, the cheesy laminate did not complement the pebble tile at all. Now it really pops...

We cannot really believe that we're nearly finished. We thought this day would never come. The trim and doors are painted, and all that is left is the upstairs and the staircase.
The kid's spring break is March 18th, and there is a very good chance it will be done by then. It's now time to buy the kitchen cabinets. Lorenzo might teach me how to wire-in the light fixtures - I'd like to head over with some of the furniture we've got piled up in the basement. He says it's very easy, provided you don't electrocute yourself. 

*     *     *     *

Today was "Family Day" - a new statutory holiday for British Columbia, dreamed up by the Liberal Party which also gave us the HST and Smart Meters. For small business owners like us, "Family Day" is just a huge expenditure. And when you have teenagers, "Family Day" isn't exactly the same as when your children are little. It's not as though we sat around the kitchen table playing monopoly or doing arts & crafts. They took off with their friends and Lorenzo and I spent the afternoon getting groceries. The stores were open, the cashiers - many of whom have children - had to work all day. Gas stations were open, restaurants, retail stores, etc. Everything was business as usual for the vast majority of workers...who have families they couldn't spend the day with.