Last Thursday, the flooring installers showed up to put down the "wood floor". Actually, it is bamboo and since bamboo is technically a grass, I guess you could say we have grass floors rather than wood floors. This stuff is significantly harder than oak so it makes for a durable surface.
Unfortunately, the sales people at Lowes screwed up when they told me that it could be stapled or nailed down even though it is designed to be a floating floor. My plan was to have the floor installed all the way to the walls in the kitchen and then set the cabinets on top of the flooring. Since it became necessary to change to a "floating" installation, I became concerned about setting the cabinets on the flooring. The concept of floating is to allow the floor to "move" if it wants and having cabinets installed over the flooring is normally not recommended since it will prevent the floor from moving. So, I called Lowes and explained THEIR mistake and asked about installing the cabinets on the floating floor. He assured me it would be OK. On that basis, I had the flooring guys go ahead with the floor in the kitchen. The next morning, I called the manufacturer with a question and decided to ask him about cabinets installed over the floating floor. He said no way that should be done. As a result, I instructed the flooring guys to pull up what they had installed in the kitchen and explained that they would have to put it back down after the cabinets were in place. Grrrr!
BAMBOO FLOOR IN SUNROOM
On Saturday and Sunday, a guy that had been recommended by the cabinet shop and I installed the kitchen cabinets. We got most of the job complete but there is a some trim work that will have to be done later after we get the necessary moulding. Yesterday, I had the electrician come out and help me install the microwave and the oven in the tall cabinet that houses both appliances. We have had appliances sitting in Sears back room since November and I am sure they were happy to get rid of some of it. We still have a refrigerator and dishwasher there but should be able to get those items soon.
Had a somewhat embarrassing situation today.... I noticed the absence of a floor register in the laundry room. I called the HVAC contractor and asked if they would normally have one in the laundry room. He answered in the affirmative and asked me whether it had perhaps been covered up. I discovered that when I put the underlayment down in that room, I did just that! Fortunately it's an easy enough problem to solve...I'll just cut out the flooring in that area.
On Monday, the excavator started installation on the septic tank and leach field. I'll report more on that in the next post. In the meantime, I'm continuing work on hanging interior doors and trimming them out.
