The Kitchen Floor

Last week we got the kitchen ceiling painted up and got the electrical more or less finished up. This week, we focused our efforts on the kitchen floors. For the flooring we’re using the same tongue and groove pine that we used in the living room and dining room. When we installed those floors, we stopped right at the opening between the kitchen and the dining room. So this week we picked up where we left off with those floors.

The old floor was bad!

One of the reasons we had stopped the installation of the flooring at the kitchen is because the original kitchen floor was bad. Real bad. As I started getting into it, it became a full tear out and redo of the entire floor system including the framing. Well, now with brand new framing and subfloors, we were ready to proceed.

Setting up

My mom gave the floors a good vacuum while Teak supervised.

My dad got set up in the driveway to cut the major defects out of the boards. The tongue and groove boards come in lengths up to 10′ or so, and they’re chock full of knots and defects. So the first step is cutting out all of the bad stuff so that we have usable planks. Once we have the usable planks, we start laying them out on the floor and installing them.

Teamwork

Oceana and my mom helped hand off boards being cut and getting the next boards staged for me. I was the installer. It was a full team effort.

Slowly but surely we worked our way towards the makeshift sink and countertop. Once we got too close to the sink, it was time to remove it. I had held off initially in case we ran into any issues with the floor as I didn’t want to uninstall it just to have to put it back without getting the floor in.

Finishing up

With the sink, dishwasher, and water purification system out of the way, we finished installing the flooring all the way to the wall.

With the new floors in it was time to put the sink, dishwasher, and water purification system right back in. Done.

Installing the A/C

Last on the list was getting the air conditioner/heater unit re-installed in the kitchen ceiling. We removed this unit nearly a year ago when we redid the kitchen ceiling. Two weeks ago we installed the cypress ceiling and last week we got the new ceiling painted, so it was time for it to get reinstalled. Also, I wanted to make sure the floor had a chance to acclimate before we sanded and this unit would help with that. So up a ladder I went and a while later the unit was operational again.

Next week

We’re going to let the floors set in place for a week with the a/c on (yes northerners, it’s 85 here) so that they have a chance to move as they get acclimated to the new environment. Next week we’ll plan to sand them flush and fill any gaps and cracks.

That’s all, folks!

Thanks for following along!