I'm Floored!

It has taken a long time, but this weekend we finally got the floor installed in the office. Ralph had three days off work with no scout campouts planned so our Thanksgiving break was the perfect opportunity to finish this project.

First, for a little background. Ralph once visited Jefferson's Monticello and fell in love with the parlor floor. It is a parquet floor made with beech and cherry that looks like large octogons with dark squares in the middle. He has since wanted to make a floor like that in a room in his own house. When we moved into this home we decided to remove the wall to wall carpeting and put in hardwood floors. We were also converting the formal dining room into an office. Ralph decided that this was a perfect opportunity to build the replica parquet floor and put it into his office. In January of 2009 we bought lumber, maple and cherry, that would eventually become the floor of the office.

The raw lumber was not beautiful but over time Ralph planed it, trimmed it, shaped it, and glued it into beautiful wooden tiles. By June 6, 2009 they were all ready. They were carefully stacked against a wall in the office to acclimate for a couple of weeks and await installation. But the tiles languished against the wall for a long time. It seemed like there was never time to get them installed. Scout campouts ate up weekends, family vacations took precedence and the tiles became a part of the scenery stacked against the wall. Months past. Finally a four day weekend loomed on the horizon. Thanksgiving weekend, and since it is a family oriented weekend, there was no camping trip planned. The time had come.

I got the room cleaned up and the computer moved temporarily to the family room. I finished stripping the wallpaper and washed the walls. Then the whole room got painted a new color so that it would be done before the floor went in. At that point, it went to Ralph. Thursday and Friday were prep days. The carpet was pulled out, staples were removed, and the subfloor inspected. We chalked in guidelines and laid out the tiles for a dry fit. Hmmm. At this point something wasn't right. We didn't have enough full sized tiles to cover the floor and the half sized tiles were useless. Ralph is an engineer and they just don't make these kinds of mistakes. A few moments of pondering and Ralph remembered that he hadn't designed it to be centered on the room but if he shifted the tiles a half length in one direction they all fit as planned. Whew! That is what happens when you leave 5 1/2 months between planning and installation and the plans are only to be found in the brain. We shifted our center and we were back on track.

Saturday was the day to glue it all in. Ralph had 5 pm deadline because BYU was playing UT and he wanted to catch one game live this year. He didn't quite make 5:00 but the first half of the game wasn't really worth watching anyway. At halftime he needed to get off his knees for a break anyway so he came downstairs to see BYU pull off a win in overtime. Then he was back to work to finish gluing the last quadrant.

And it is in! The glue needs to set up for a couple of days then we can have a professional in to sand it smooth. One more day to put on the finish and the floor will be ready to use.