3 Months since my last blog!!! Where have I been....

It has been about 3 Months since the last time I updated this thing. If I remember correctly, I think I once said that I would try to at least update this monthly. So much for that thought. Well I bet you are asking, where have I been or better yet what the heck have you been up to?

First off I need to state that beginning at 12:01 AM on the second Saturday in October until the first week of April I am under the wonderfully magical spell of COLLEGE BASKETBALL. As my old college roommates can attest to, I simply cannot watch enough games to ever satisfy this lust I have for watching the games. I am so sorry house. The buzz from the table saw has been replaced by the roar of the crowds as a big shot is hit. The pounding of my hammer has been replace by my shouts at the TV when there is a bad play. Oh, but each season there is one week I dread because the game I so dearly love takes a break....Finals Week. This year I am filling that void with the saw and hammer going full boar. The hallowed hardwood from Assembly Hall is being set aside and my focus is on the hardwood that I am putting down in my "Study".

The story of this hardwood is that my Uncle owns an Auction House here in Indianapolis and they frequently get some materials that I can use in renovating my house. One such item is new hardwood flooring. I guess a company out of Michigan sells the remaining wood that they have left over from other projects at auction. They had a fairly good variety of woods ranging from cheaper laminates to engineered hardwoods to nicer prefinished thicker hardwoods in a variety of woods. They had about 700-2,000 square feet of each type that were set at a minimum bid of 70 cents to $2.00 per square foot depending on the type. I found that it was about half the price as what I was finding in hardware and flooring stores.

I decided that if I disappeared from work for a few hours last Wednesday I wouldn't be missed so I headed off to the auction. I had three different woods picked out that would work well in my study. Two were engineered hardwoods which is flooring with a thinner veneer layer consisting of a choice wood on top and few core layers below. It is cheaper than pure hardwood but is better than a laminate which is only a fake picture on what a choice wood looks like. These two matched the flooring I already have pretty well. The other was an unfinished pine hardwood that I can stain to match the rest of the wood downstairs. Suprisingly when these items came up for bid I was able to get the first one of my items that came up for the mimimum bid which was after tax about $1.50 per square foot. This is easily 1/2 of what this exact product is listed at stores I have looked at. Mark up about $300 dollars savings and now I am able to put down hardwood probably cheaper than carpet.

Yesterday I took a half "sick" day and met my Pops over at my house around noon. Since the subflooring in most the rooms of my house is so unlevel from board to board I had to put down a thin layer of luon to even out the floors. I have done this in my kitchen, bath and back bedroom prior to flooring those rooms it it has worked out well in reducing the waves in the floor. After doing some online research and consulting the hardware store flooring guy we decided that using the air nailer was the best we to install the floor rather than using a glue adhesive. Not having set directions was the only disadvantage I found from buying this wood at auction. My dad stuck around till about 8:30 PM last night (much to the dismay of this back) and I finished up around 10 PM. I should get the last two tricky rows put down tonight then all that is left is the quarter round molding. Ahhhhhh, one room nearing completion.

I will post pictures soon and tell you about what else has been going on at the Fountain Square Renovation......