Wood Floor Reveal

After almost exactly one year of living with plywood floors we were able to install our new bamboo flooring last week! We think it looks AMAZING and it feels like a whole new house downstairs!
Originally, our plan was to go with this flooring from Lumber Liquidators, but after reading too many reviews about how easily it scratches and dents we opted to upgrade to what's called a strand bamboo. Something about the "stranding" process is supposed to make the bamboo extra durable, 150% harder than oak is what they claim. The guy at Lumber Liquidators said you could drop a hammer on it and it would be fine, now that's more what we're looking for!

Installing the first row was by far the most time consuming (and nerve wracking!) to make sure we got it a straight as possible.

There was a bit of a learning curve to using the floor nailer (the hardness of the bamboo did have a downside when it came to actually installing it!), but once we got the feel for it it worked pretty well. By the end of the first day our floor looked like this.

It surprised us how well the floor blended with the log walls. We were actually hoping for a bit more contrast, but we'll still get that when we add the kitchen cabinets.

So after 3 1/2 days of pretty constant work by Travis our downstairs now looks something more like this

and this

and this.

Slight improvement wouldn't you say? It's so exciting to be getting to some of the more aesthetically pleasing projects versus some of the more mandatory, but less beautifying things like plumbing and electrical!

The Unveiling

I decided to tear myself away from admiring our fireplace and mantel for a few minutes to share with you some pictures of our almost completed fireplace (grout work is still in progress). We are thrilled with the way it turned out!
It's hard to picture how it looked before compared to the grandeur of it now! It feels like it makes such a statement in the room and Travis did a superb job on the rock work in my humble opinion!

It was a big undertaking in time and money (at least for us), but we're pretty confident it was well worth the investment!

Brick By Brick

Or in our case, stone by stone, our fireplace is making progress. It's been a huge project and we still have a ways to go, but it's getting there. And so far we LOVE it!

The last time you saw are fireplace was shortly after we installed it. It looks kind of bare and lonely. =o(

But since then Travis built and plywood frame around it following code requirements (we were able to safely do this since our stove is what's considered zero clearance), as well as built and installed a sweet mantle milling the lumber himself with his Alaska mill (more on that to come, but since it's Travis' project I thought it'd let him write it).

After wrapping the frame with wire mesh like this:

We (i.e. Travis) applied a scratch coat and we were all ready to start putting up the rocks.

Yesterday afternoon we got the tile laid on the hearth and our firewood pad, too. The tile is the same as what we laid in our entry way this spring.
We got our tile in the spring and the rock was given to us at a later date by a friend who had some leftover from his own house, but we couldn't have coordinated the colors any better. They blend perfectly!
As you can see we still have a LOT of rock to put up, but it's getting there little by little. And in the mean time we just sit back and admire our handiwork. =o)

Time to Get Kozy

Before winter hit, we were able to install our new fireplace. It's a Kozy Z42 that we were able to purchase locally here in McCall and install ourselves. It functioned just fine as is, but aesthetically we had a ways to go on the project.

The new fireplace requires zero clearance, so Travis has been working on building a frame around it to hide the stove pipe and one day (hopefully one day very soon) it will be covered with ledgestone and tile.
It looks better already, don't you think?

But before the stone and tile come the backerboard...

Our hope is that by the end of the month we will have the tile and stone installed. Here is a sneak peak at the ledgestone we are going to use. It was given to us by some friends who had leftovers from their house. We just have to see if we can purchase some corner pieces and we'll be set.

Chimney Demolition

Aside from being the one moving stuff back and forth while Dad and I worked on the floor, Mom was also the picture taker and the chimney brick remover. As a result we don't have many in progress pictures of the chimney removal. This first one is after the floor bricks were removed and the second is once the job is complete.

We moved the stove out, busted down the bricks, propped the chimney up, put subfloor below the supports, replaced the supports, put down a pad of bricks, and moved the stove back in!

The Projects Commence

Installing a new deadbolt was the first project on the list. It took longer than expected, but I'm sure it won't be the only project that doesn't quite go according to schedule!When employing the help of free labor it's alway best to tackle an exciting project like tearing out a wall...

Or creatively installing a chimney pipe on our new, free wood stove (courtesy of Larry and Sharon Burke)!