5.31.2018

 

Jim had to spend most of the morning doing errands - his least favorite thing!  He took my car and first went to the DMV to turn in plates on one 4Runner and switch them to the other one.  Next, he had to go to the plumbing supply store to pick up parts.  That turned into a long stop because they couldn't find the parts, then he was due a credit and had to go speak to people in the office.  Next stop was the welding gas company to exchange cylinders - but they had moved.  Jim knew where their business offices used to be so he stopped there - it wasn't affiliated with the company but the guy knew where it was and was able to direct Jim.  After all that, he had to come home, pick me up, and I dropped him off at the carriage house.  Of course, he then had to spend some time putting plates and registration stickers on the car, putting the battery back in, and getting it ready to drive.  He'll need to spend a little time working on it - last winter, he took parts from the newer car and put them on the older one for winter - now he'll have to reverse that project!

Since he only had an afternoon, he devoted it to flooring.  Unfortunately, he was pretty much left with the challenging pieces.  He attached the final piece in the closet but then it was time to make splines and work off our "keel" board to shift the tongue to the other side.  He got the process of making the splines down...first, he uses scrap pieces of the wood and cuts small strips on the bandsaw.

 

 

The splines are too wide so he next fits them into another scrap piece of wood and runs it through the planer that he has set to the perfect measurement.

 



 

Another challenge was the fact that the other side of the keel board has been nailed down which distorts the tongue a bit in that area.  So when Jim tries to put his splines in, it doesn't fit right.  He solved that problem by making the splines shorter lengths rather than the longer ones he originally started with.  This area next to the wall will have molding there so Jim just wanted enough pieces to hold the previous board in place - but this all was challenging and time consuming!

 

 

 

Hammering the splines in for the next piece (this was also something he couldn't do on the bedroom wall because there was no room!).

Putting the next piece down...

Finally can use the nailer again for a bit!

But the rest of this board in the bedroom has to be hand nailed...

The main bedroom is all done - just a little spot left near the door - looks so beautiful!

The living room is the next area so Jim had to extend our keel board down the hallway and past the living room entrance.

High 76/Low 64