To think, It's only been since March 9th

South room #2 floor ...Floor

Started last Friday, This laminate is Not Pergo, it was displayed in store with the Pergo but was actually Home Depots brand, "Home Decorator". It does not go together smoothly like Pergo, or Lowes store brand "Project Source". This laminate does not slide and lock smoothly, in fact we bent an installing tool and damaged quite a few board trying to drive these pieces to lock. It is designed to lift over a ridge and drop lock in place, more often than not it would drive through the lock ridge and the surface finish would lift while tapping the boards in place. We finally finished the floor last night around 9pm, except for the half round molding which needs to go around the wall areas, and a couple tiny fill in pieces because of closet cuts.

South room, 2nd floor

Laminate floor - number two floor

If anyone tells you these just flip, hook- tap - drop and lock....Ask them if they are sure.

It appears that the thin flooring does just that, angle it up, hook it on, tap to drop, tap to lock. The real thick planks, which you would think you be easier...no. The corners ride up instead of locking. the tightening bar, with plastic hammer slides the board along but then lifts small ridges on the end the plank which if you don't trim them off, foul the next piece going on. I am not sure if it a manufacturer issue or just because the panels are thicker. We are using Home Depots Home Decorators laminates, we started last night at 5:15pm,

the last photo below was taken at 9:15pm

Four hours, seven rows.  We should have been drinking a coffee with our feet up two hours earlier

Fo

Hot water heater decided 7 years was enough

Now am out looking for an affordable replacement

Another joy to house ownership

Something is always breaking or about to, this time the washing machine decided not to finish the laundry. In the old days you would turn the dial to drain, have the water pump out, then start over. New machines are computerized, so where they are and where they think they are can be different. It's about unplugging and rebooting. The use of a boat siphon pump took the water out of the machine. Having the water not drain lead to the possibility that the line between the house and the septic system may be frozen. A little digging, some new insulation (original was all rotted), 

a new heater cable 

and a lot of tracked in mud found the line was clear but now all the warming systems were new. Watching the machine as it worked through the various modes of washing laundry determined that the cold fill water would run for about 10 seconds then the valve would close allowing water to drip instead of flow. Switching the machine to hot water allowed the entire system to run correctly. I came up with the idea to take the back of the machine apart, swap the hot and cold water valves and buy a new valve. 

Doug suggested it would be easier and cheaper just to swap the incoming lines. 

So the machine is now set to run hot water, the hot water valve is working fine, but the feed line is cold water. All is well and it involved no disassembly or replacement parts. Sometimes you over look easy for complicated when you actually need working instead of replaced. 
If money weren't so tight, I would have gone the other way.

The second floor - South room

So, the new shelving has all been removed and the floor is underway.

The underlayment has been placed and the doors removed from the entrance and the closets which will need to be trimmed for clearance so they will work after the new floor is in place. 

The south room is done for underlayment and once I get the blade to cut the laminate. (very fine tooth), that will be installed.

A friend came over to help out and will be there when the new floor goes down. Pete just laid laminate in the house he is restoring so he decided to help out.

The Pergo Gold goes down fast and easy, and although the stuff is better to kneel on than the wood floor, by the end of install my knees were still unhappy with me.

That's Pete making sure he isn't in the photo.

Ready for laminate

Well, Well, Well...

A couple of days ago the waterpump for the well decided to start turning on every hour and run for a few minutes, then it slowly started to get more often. Shutting the water off after the pump and shutting down the pump allowed me to watch the pressure in the line drop. We just replaced the foot-valve last year (actually May 2014) Seemed like it was only last year. 

Having the back and knees I have, lifting the concrete Well cover and crawling down in the pit is not something I aspired to, so I called the boys from Tomaszek Plumbing. 

Finding water at the elbows indicated the foot-valve was probably alright, so was it the hoses or fittings between the house and the well-top or the well-top to the valve. A pressure test found the pipes to the house were fine, this is good as it would have required getting a backhoe and breaking the wallet. Pulling the hoses out of the pit revealed a pin hole in one of the hoses. 

So time to replace both old hoses.

It may have been one of the smallest parts on the system that caused the issue. The pressure switch feed fitting was plugged. This had the pump running at a higher than normal pressure before shutting off, instead of 60lbs it was running to almost 100lbs.

The new floor is in the dining room.

Unfortunately that means it still all has to be carried upstairs where it will be installed.

 Today I will pick up the Pergo Gold underlayment. I was advised to use this because where most material comes by the roll and wants to keep rolling back, Gold is flat fold out sheets. Each box covers 100 square feet.