New Flooring - Day 14 & 15 - room two complete!

The spare bedroom has been completed!  This room is also known as the purple room, the mother in-law's den, or the bedroom we hope to keep purple for our next kid which will hopefully be a girl.

We did quite a bit more than the flooring.  Here are some highlights:

- sanded, puttied, and painted trim
- painted doors to match the rest of the trim (it didn't match previously)
- painted fan blades and reinstalled
- touched up purple paint on walls
- updated all door handles for the two rooms
- moved in all furniture to the spare bedroom
- created mount for hanging the ironing board in closet (not shown)

Jack still thinks we made this room up for him.

New Flooring - Day 12 & 13 - picking up momentum

So on my last post I didn't have time to make an update so this post will be another two-in-one.  Day 12 I got a good start ripping up all the carpet, padding, tack strips, etc.  I also applied a good coat of Kilz to help with any odor.

Today was day 13 and I started laying the laminate and I got almost halfway done with the second bedroom.  This one is driving me crazy with the length of my cuts.  It seems like it is hard to maintain the 12" distance between planks without having like a 3 inch plank at the end. Oh well, it is working out.  The great news is the floor is completely flat so there was no need to use any of the leveling concrete or roofing paper!

Thank you to my wife Aimee who has helped me a lot.  Even though she is nearly 6 months pregnant, she still is able to help move things between bedrooms, paint base trim, Google things for me, tear out carpet, etc.  I love you wifey!

It is time to hit the shower, go to bed, then get up and help my sister move to her new apartment tomorrow.  I have confirmed there will be an episode of "Eating with the Starrs" tomorrow morning as we are meeting for breakfast before we begin hauling stuff!

Baby BPM

Aimee and I had a doctor's appointment to do the regular baby check up routine.  The doctor hooked up the [audible] heart rate monitor and we could clearly hear some thumps.  I was sitting down so I couldn't see the heart monitor's read out but after about 10 beats I asked the doctor, "Is that about 144 or 145 BPM?"  She looked at me with her eyes wide open and said, "What'd you say?"  I looked at her again and said, "Is it 145?"  She said, "Yup, it's 145!"  It was hard to explain but I guess I've listened to enough dance music to know my BPMs.  Lately I've been listening to a lot of dubstep which is fairly nailed to 140 BPM and the beat sounded slightly faster so I figured about 145.

Okay, it is time to start on the laminate flooring in the second bedroom and maybe I'll have another update tonight.

New Flooring - Day 10 & 11 - one room down

This will be an update for day 10 and 11 since I didn't have time to post anything last night.  I ended up buying an entry level brad nailer with a compressor and tank.  It worked very well when it came to reinstalling the trim.  We now have stuff moved out of the spare bedroom and temporarily stored in the baby's room so we can start working on it.  

Ignore the putty on the trim.  That still needs to be painted over.  For those of you wondering, this is the Swiftlock Plus laminate flooring found at Lowe's.  The color is Westmont Oak.

I was happy with my closet transition.

Here is the next room's before pictures: (ahh! Orb)

Yeah, it is blurry but I'm tired and I don't feel like retaking the picture.

New Flooring - Day 9

After work I took Jack to Lowes to get some more spacers to place around the floor to maintain the expansion gap.  That was his first time there and his tail was wagging constantly.  Someone commented that he has a cartoon dog face.

I came home and worked on fixing the grill because the igniter and one of the gas lines had to be replaced.  After eating that seemed to take up most of my night.  I got started on the floor at about 9 and made it to a good stopping point.  This is where I need to do some more reading because going around the closet door is going to be fun.  I'm pretty sure people recommend sawing off part of the tongue and glueing the pieces together.  Anyway, here is today's progress:

New Flooring - Day 8 - Progress & Pics

I was struggling for a while getting the first two or three rows in place without them unsnapping.  I found out that if I put them on the kitchen floor (tile) and assemble the first two rows then move it in the bedroom, it makes it easier.  I got to rockin and rollin with laying out the rows until my cutoff time. (10-ish)  I got about 5/12s complete with this bedroom and it is looking pretty good.  I need to get some more spacers tomorrow so I can keep the expansion gap.  I was eye-balling it on my last row tonight and I was off by about a half inch.  That means after installing the trim, you'll see some baseboard.

Here is what our living room looks like with all the boxes of planks.  The first box of 49 is by the fireplace and the next group of 32 that I picked up yesterday is in front of the coffee table.  Notice how our office exploded into the living room.

Here are a couple pictures of the progress that I've made.  Things to note:

- Fine cutting around the floor vent

- Black stuff is the roofing paper we used for leveing

- Gray stuff is the leveling cement.  This is the part that I actually had time to level out before it dried. 

New Flooring - Day 7

Quick update... We actually started laying down the planks tonight and got 3 or 4 rows in.  Some of them aren't lining up very well and I'm getting tired so I'll resume tomorrow.

I also got a call from Lowes that my other 32 boxes of planks plus the stair nosing came in.  I went up to pick that up today so now I have two big stacks of flooring in my living room waiting to be installed.

Dang... The sump pump is kicking on 2 or 3 times a minute!  I LOVE IT!  I better get to bed while it's pouring... I sleep better that way.

New Flooring - Day 6 - upset neighbors

We changed plans on flattening the floor.  Instead of using the messy leveling cement, we got two rolls of roofing paper that we found out other people use for flattening subfloors for new flooring.  I'm still trying to remove all the cement mountains I created with the original batch of cement I used.  At first I was chiseling it out with a hammer and screwdriver but I'm finding that striking it with a hammer is more effective, though a lot noisier.  Aimee interrupted me and said someone was at the door.  With my knee-pads, protective eye wear, face mask, and ear plugs installed I answered the door.  A friendly looking guy asked me to quick banging so I apologized and agreed to quit for the night.  This was at about 10:15 PM tonight.

yeah... I'm that guy.

Day two of the sump pump and it is already paying off with all the rain.  The basement is still dry.

New Flooring - Day 5 - working backwards

So I totally let the leveling compound / floor patch dry too long.  I was expecting it to level out a little more but it pretty much dried before I could use the trowel to spread it.  I started off with the palm sander that I already own with the courses grid paper I had, which I think was only 60 or 80.  That wasn't doing much so I decided to go buy a belt sander.  That was a trip to Raymore Lowes and Lee's Summit because Raymore didn't have the one that I wanted.  I bought some 40 grit paper which was the most course I could find there in that size. (3x27)  After sanding it down and nearly smoothing down both papers I decided my efforts weren't enough so I started chiseling it out and I got a new bag of the leveling compound so I'll start over in some spots.

In good news though, Brian came over at 9 this morning and we finished the sump pump.  Its all hooked up and functioning.  I can hear it faintly turn on (and NOT off) through out the day to pump out the ground water from the continuous rain we've had.  The reason why we don't hear it turn off is because we installed a Klunkless check valve.  The basement is still pretty dirty from all the clay we dug out so we're letting it dry out then we'll go back and clean it up real good.

I just realized that I have been using my MacBook Pro for quite a few weeks now and I still haven't hooked it up to an external mouse.  I'm very happy with the touch pad since it is multi-function, large, and smooth.  I can't stand working for more than 5 minutes on my Dell without an external mouse.

New Flooring - Day 4 - Mix it up!

This is sort of two days combined.  Yesterday we went to get some floor leveler and the primer recommended for it.  The deal with the primer is you should apply the leveler over the primer after the primer has set for  2 - 5 hours.  It was already about 10 PM when we got home last night so I decided to start that part tonight.  I got the primer down at about 6 or so and let it dry until about 10.

During this dry period I mixed up some electro & house in the living room while drinking a pepsi/cherry coke/rum 151.  (hey, thats what we had!)  I also had a chance to repair some of the ugly blow popcorn ceiling stuff that was all crappy looking from the hail damage.  I have some before pictures but I'll take the after picture after a second coat of the ceiling paint.

After the primer dried I mixed up 2/5's of the leveler because I didn't think I would need much.  After quickly using 2/5ths I ended up mixing and using the whole 50 pound bag.  So I poured this stuff in all the low spots that I marked ahead of time.  After pouring, I let it do its thing before using a trowel.  By the time I came back upstairs from cleaning up my tools and work area the stuff was already almost unmovable.  It is possible I didn't use enough water but we'll see after it fully dries.  Worst case I'll have to sand it down.  This stuff needs to dry for a few days before I even think about laying the flooring.  Maybe I can get some rest this weekend... or at least do some more of the fun mixing. :)

Lots of mixing today:

• electro + house... speed ~128 BPM with Traktor
• pepsi + cherry coke + rum 151... 4 quick stirs with a spoon
• floor leveler compound + water... speed 1100 RPM for 3 minutes with electric drill

New Flooring - Day 3

Flooring Update
Today was not very productive at all.  Of course it was a work day so I didn't have too much time.  The miter saw doesn't cut deep enough to cut my planks so I have to flip them around which is kind of a pain.  I was having problems snapping in my first two rows when I realized I didn't even check the floor to see if it was flat.  Sure enough there are some areas that dip down too much so I'll need to make a trip to the hardware store to pick up some leveling compound of some kind.

Basic Plumbing Project Complete
I was able to finish the front spicket water pipe.  I installed the new copper piping and wrapped it in some foam to hopefully weather proof it better.

The Memorable Lowe's Trip
Before I did any of the copper soldering I realized I didn't have anything handy to block my flame from hitting the wood behind it.  There was insulation there too but I removed all that first.  I made a quick trip to Lowe's... you know the kind where you know exactly what you need and you know the general location within the respective department.  So I walked in and my auto-pilot took me right to the plumbing section.  (I got to know this section very well with the hot water heater project.)  Of course a Lowe's associate stopped me on my way to my destination and I told him I needed a flame protector for my soldering project.  Without looking at the items on the shelf, he walked about 6 feet bent over and blindly picked up the flame protector sheet I was needing and handed it to me and started to walk away.  I interrupted him and ask, "Is this the only one you have?"
"Yep, thats it," he replied.
While searching for the price tag I asked the guy, "... And how much is it?"
"Cheaper than burning down your house!" he replied.

New Flooring - Day 2

Okay, so this is the second day I have done anything to the floor.  I took a break yesterday so my days will be the days I am actually working on the project.  It was a pretty simple day today: I vacuumed it all up real good, cleaned it, and applied a coat of Kilz latex sealer/primer.  This room has a bad reputation for having some pet stains/odors so hopefully the Kilz will do the trick.  I only had enough to do one coat but I might go back and do a second coat later.  I got the miter saw and shop-vac from my Dad yesterday so those will come in handy. (the shop-vac has already)  I still might need to borrow Hank's table saw to do my long cuts with.  I think I'll give it a try with my circular saw first.  The good thing is all my cuts will be under the base trim so as long as they are relatively straight you won't see any flaws in the cutting.

I found a mini home improvement project to do while my paint was drying... fix the pipe to the front spicket / hose hookup.  It busted open a couple winters ago and I can tell it has been repaired 7 times.  I'm going to replace all their patch work with a longer pipe and insulate it.  I got started but I didn't have any flux or the right type of solder so I'll have to pick that up tomorrow.  This one should be a quickie.  No pictures for this one.

New Flooring - Day 1

Aimee and I have been talking for a long time now about changing out all the carpet in the house for hardwood or laminate.  Last weekend we took home a sample to try it out for looks.  We did some more shopping and ended up going back to Lowes where we got the sample and got our laminate flooring there.  We decided to do the installation our selves.

Here's the load.  We took everything the store had in stock so we still have like 30-ish more boxes to pickup later.

We are going to install this in our living room and the three bedrooms.  We are going to start with the new baby's room which was formerly our office.  Here are two pictures of the messy office before:

Here is the room all stripped down.

Here is what I got done today:

• Carried 49 boxes of planks into the living room
• Relocated all items in the office to various places around the house
• Ripped up the old carpet and padding.  This included removing all the stables and tack strips.
• Removed base trim

I still need to let the planks adjust to the temperature and humidity of my house so I have to wait a few days before I start installing them.  I still have a few things to do before I get there.

• Shop-vac the place up better
• Make sure the floor is level and correct as needed
• Borrow miter saw and shop-vac from my Dad
• I'm sure I'm missing something :)

Baby Boy Announced and MacBook Pro is here!

Time to slightly rename this blog from "beats - bits - bicycles - baby!" to "beats - bits - bicycles - baby boy!"   :)  Thats right, we have to come up with a boy name which I can't make up my mind on.


MacBook Pro
My MacBook Pro arrived earlier this week and I am totally satisfied so far.  I got the 15" 2.4 Ghz i5 with the hi-res anti-glare screen.  I've moved over most of my music and files and I think I have a majority of my apps installed.  My NI Audio 4 DJ sound card works brilliantly after installing the latest drivers.  Traktor and Ableton Live are installed and working flawlessly.  I haven't experiences any audio drop outs or issues with my current setup.

In Traktor / Out Kaoss Pad
For now I'm using the Traktor LE version which came with my sound card.  It lets me do most of the basics but I only get 2 decks and my effects are limited.  Plus, I can't configured my Oxygen keyboard as a controller.  When I get around to it, I'm going to repackage my Korg Kaosspad KP-2 and sell it on Ebay.  I can get more out of the KP-2 then it costs me to upgrade to Traktor Pro so I think I'll go that route.  My KP-2 has been around for a while now and I've gotten lots of use from it.  Luckily I still have the original packaging, box, manual, cords, etc so selling it should be easy.  Bad thing about the KP-2 is the fact that I can only do effects to one input.  So that is either one of my decks or the whole mix.  Technically I could get around this if I had a mixer with aux send/receive (and I do) but that is going backwards for me.  I'm trying to create a minimal / backpack configuration.