Finished Floor

Before

After

We're very happy with the final result and especially with the low cost. I'm glad I did the work myself. It was fairly easy with basic carpentry skills and actually kinda fun to do. Now we just need to find a reasonably priced rug to add a splash of color under the table.

Noon Patrol

Well maybe closer to 11am but you get the point. BC Skiing just isn't fun enough for me to crawl out of bed first thing in the am and rush up the canyon. I like to take things a little easy, sleep in and enjoy my coffee before heading out on a tour. In search of some decent snow Saturday we decided to poke around the back of Reynolds. Parked at Spruces, skinned up Mill D to Dog Lake and finally to the top of Reynolds. We skied off the back shoulder through the trees in some pretty nice creamy protected snow and then skinned back up to ski the main bowl.

Sunday I finished everything but the last course of hall/dining floor and got in a short 1.5 hr skate before dark.

Skinning up Mill D
On the way up Reynolds

Main Bowl

The Peak

Skinning back up

Final Run

Flooring Install

Pre
Tearing up Carpet

Scraping up tack strips and other junk

Underlayment

Install

I'm not sure how I survived until now without a nail gun. What an amazing time saver!

I was on call this weekend and didn't expect to get much done. Saturday morning I finished moving the fridge and got everything in the kitchen ready to install the last top cabinet when it arrives later this week. After lunch I decided to head up to Mt Dell for some skate skiing. I arrived a little after 2pm and just decided to skate until I got called in. Almost 3 hours and countless loops around the course later I hadn't received any calls and it was getting dark so I packed it in. It was a long and exhausting skate but I made a few small breakthroughs in my technique and I'm finally feeling pretty competent on the skis. After dinner I decided to start my Bamboo Flooring project. We cleared out all the furniture in the dining room and ripped out the carpet and pad. The old hardwood flooring under the carped was a disaster which we decided to save for the next day. Sunday we tore up all the tack strips and began scraping away left over materials (thinset, chunks of vinyl and underlayment) from various previous floors to get a nice even surface for the new floor. There was plenty of scraping to do which took all morning. After that was laying the vapor barrier and finally installing the wood. I'm about a third of the way finished laying the wood and I must say it's a lot easier than I thought. We'll see if I'm saying the same thing once I'm finished.

I married Homer Simpson

A quote from Rhonda last night. "I'm tired of working, all I want to do is eat and drink beer." I seriously have the coolest wife ever!

Another Busy Weekend

Thurs- Ate a wonderful New Years Brunch cooked up by Karen, got home, tore down the right side of my kitchen, moved the fridge and installed the new base cabinet, watched Step Brothers (mediocre movie but funny at times), crashed.

Fri- Worked all day, picked up the 600lbs of bamboo flooring, got called back into work for a bit, watched Hancock (another mediocre movie) and slept for 10 hrs.

Sat- Slept in, shoveled the driveway, unloaded the 600lbs of Bamboo, hit Mt Dell for a couple hours of skating, drove home, cleaned up and hit the Last Call Cyclocross party, came home swag-less (rare for me) and crashed.

Sun (B-day)- Slept in again, Rhonda cooked me breakfast, cut a hole in the wall to recess the fridge but ran into a main support stack, decided it wasn't worth messing with just to recess the fridge, drywalled over the hole and ran the electrical for the fridge. By this time it was too late to skate so I threw in Death Race (sweet trainer movie!) and rode the trainer. When I got off the trainer Rhonda had Nick and Willy's pizza and a bottle of champagne waiting. Excellent B-day dinner!

I can't wait for summer so things can slow down a bit.

Winter home improvement projects

Found 300 sq ft of 6" handscaped Cognac solid Bamboo floor remnants on KSL classifieds yesterday. It's $7.50/sq ft retail and the guy sold it to me for $2.50 / sq ft. It should cover most of our entryway and dining room and it's still available from Simplefloors in case I need another case or two. For now though I'm off to PC for a couple hours of skating.

Skate Ski Weekend

I'm really glad we decided to take up skate skiing this year. I think it might be the perfect off-season sport. You get a nice low intensity total body workout that is perfect for building base and strengthening underutilized muscles. Also, unlike running, snowshoeing and classic xc skiing, skate skiing is challenging which keeps my interest level up so I keep at it.

We hit Mountain Dell for 12K on Saturday and then Sunday we decided to try some of the free trails up in Park City. We skated the loop around Willow Creek Park a couple times and also did an out and back to Redstone. The Park City trails get a lot of hiking and dog traffic so they're not quite as buff as the Mountain Dell trails but they're flatter which makes it easier to work on technique.

Haven't had a chance to do any Alpine skiing yet. The backcountry has been way too dangerous for my tastes this year and I haven't really felt the urge to drop $50+ to ride the lifts yet. Maybe the snow will settle in by this weekend so I can sneak out for a tour.