Fireplace Remodel Day Twenty Five

In real time it's been a bit more than a fortnight since Day #24, but this blog is about DIY time, which makes it the next day....sort of. The weekend before last I was at the drag racing with my buddies, but in my absence Amy Sheep did a magnificent job grouting all the tile.  It came out cushty! And she did it all without using tut sithers.

I don't usually do much DIY when the bread snappers are nipping at my heels, but this weekend we were all lying low, so on Saturday afternoon I saddled up my knee pads (!) and nailed down all the hardwood flooring I put down on day #24 (or yesterday in blog speak). I used heat-treated nails this time too, which don't bend like regular 18 gauge finish nails. The heads were sunk with a special punch I custom made last time around.

After that, I broke out the belt sander and some extra coarse 36 grit belts - the floor has been re-finished once in the past, so I had to bring the new hardwood down to the level of the rest of the floor. I took off something approaching a sixteenth of an inch, so it took a while, even at 36 grit.

Same again where the old outlet used to be...

The hardwood was pretty rough afterwards, but I decided not to do any more sanding at this point - instead I filled all the nail holes and tiny gaps between boards with ye olde red oakenshield hued filler, and then I went back to playing monopoly with the fam.