Semi-Complete Floor Project

Well, Thursday and Friday brought some bad news and unexpected hurdles for us in terms of our floor project. Thursday was our first day with our contractor, who was scheduled to put in the floor.

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, we found some rotten subfloor near our sliding glass door, and thought we may have to replace it. After further discussion and evaluation, Michael and I had come to conclusion that we should just replace it--it was looking like if we were going to do it, now is the time. So we told the contractor that. Only one problem--the weather. Thursday and Friday were going to be freezing. Way too cold to have a huge hole in the wall, and way too cold to ask someone to do such work outside.

The contractor came on Thursday morning as scheduled, just to see what could be done, and to see the rotten subfloor himself. He agreed that the subfloor needs to be replaced in that section, and that we should replace the door. However, he had even worse news--because of the way the siding is put on our house, parts of the siding need to be removed in order to put in a new door. And because the siding is vinyl, it cannot be removed in cold weather because it becomes very brittle and could break. So we need to wait for 2-3 consecutive 50+ degree days until we can replace the sliding glass door. And that means the floor can't be finished until then, either. We are in waiting mode with that--we'll just be watching the weather report, but it's likely it won't be able to be done until at least end of March or early April. We'll see. Weather around here can be quite unpredictable.

The good news was that he was able to get enough done so that our space is still liveable. He was able to put in the new floor throughout the whole kitchen area, and a small portion of the dining area as well. That way, we were able to get our appliances back in. We're disappointed about the delay in finishing the whole project, but we're really pleased with how the floor looks in the kitchen. And the wait is really not inconveniencing us too much--the only thing that we weren't able to put back in its place is the dining room table. It's currently in the middle of the living room. But we'll make do.

Anyway, here are some photos from Thursday and Friday, and how it looks now that we have everything back in place in the kitchen!
Mid floor installation.
Done!
From the opposite direction. We have that cardboard box up to block off the unfinished portion of the floor. We have to be extra careful not to walk over there because we may inadvertantly damage the locking mechanism on the floor that is already down. The contractor indicated he'd be really pissed if we messed it up. So it's essentially off-limits for us.

The new wine rack location--it used to be next the refrigerator, where the pantry cabinet is now. We went to the liquor store to restock it. :)

With all of the appliances back in.

The transition from the carpet in the living room into the new floor.

Where the floor ends.

The forbidden area. Hopefully we get to see this part finished soon!