Month: June 2009

After work on Friday I headed out towards Morrisburg with the sun shining down on me.  What a beautiful weekend for a golf tournament!  Unfortunately for me, I was not taking part in the actual tournament this year but nonetheless, I knew there was fun to be found south of Ottawa.

I stopped by Long and McQuade on my way out of town to pick up a new music stand as I was probably going to be playing some guitar and I needed a hefty stand to hold up my monster of a binder.  I then hit the road (ala Bank Street) and enjoyed the scenic drive which brought me to the MacIntosh Inn in Morrisburg where the Gaspe Golf Tournament is held every year.  I say this as I swear Mike assumed I was going to Gaspe for a golf tournament for the second year in a row!

I walked in and everyone had arrived just in time to see that there was a room rented out to celebrate Mom and Dad’s retirement.  Uncle Brent was there as well as he was coming into Ottawa for a conference the next week.  Someone (I believe Lynn and Sue) had ordered some pizza (the pizza at the MacIntosh Inn is amazing) which was a welcome sight after driving so I sat down with Uncle Greg and the parents and chatted for a bit.  Afterward, I went with Uncle Greg to work on the slide show.  Uncle Greg had some great old pictures to show off so I spent the next hour inputting them into a Frankenstein of a presentation that was made from the copy that was from Dad’s work retirement party.

Once that was all said and done I went down to the big room and it was packed to the gills!  I ordered myself a beer ($5.50!  I found out later that if I didn’t order a Keith’s it would have been $4.50.  Insanity!) and asked that some extension cords be brought down.  I set up the laptop, said a few words thanking everyone for being here, let everyone know where the washrooms are and then played the first two slides of the show which were a recap of why Dad doesn’t wear shorts.  We then got a picture of them cutting the cake and then let the slide show run.  There were a few great photos in that lot from yesteryear.

The night proceeded in a manner of interesting conversation and hearing Uncle Johnny’s voice from seven tables over.  I was surprised to hear that Uncle Richard’s team needed a fourth as someone backed out so I decided I would play considering I was originally going to head back home with Vero on the Saturday, but Vero was not around as she was studying for her interview.  We managed to track down some clubs for me and we were all set.

We all piled into Lynn and Sue’s hotel room afterward and I’m amazed that we weren’t thrown out.  Perhaps the entire floor was in there, hence how we were not thrown out due to a noise violation!

The next morning I awoke to find out if I was playing golf and I raced over to Tim Horton’s where I met Uncle Greg and then I went back to the hotel looking for a pair of shorts to borrow as it was quite hot outside.  When you’re not prepare to play golf for six hours, the event seems daunting but I thought to myself “How bad can six hours of golf in a cart with a beer be?”

Our team headed over to the Cedar Glen golf course (an excellent golf course by the way) and our team assembled…Uncle Richard, Jacques, Andrew and myself were out to take the cup this year (we didn’t).  At 11:30, we started on Hole 17 and it was just our luck that the beer wagon pulled up before we started.  I had a rough start for the first few holes (this would have been my third time ever playing golf) but with Jacques encouragement, it made the day fun and I didn’t really care.  It was a beautiful day outside and I couldn’t have asked for better company.  I can’t say I’ve mastered how to hit a ball but I will admit that I played a lot better than the last tournament.  I have to realize that I don’t have to put all that much power behind my swing.  It’s all about connecting with the ball.  However, I’m sure there are golfers reading this and are dying to comment on how I can achieve the perfect swing.

After losing 63 golf balls (Jacques’ of course), we hit the last hole (Hey!  Lasthole!  Lasthole!) and headed back to the clubhouse for some dinner.  Some highlights of the day were:

• Helping the blond girl out with her broken down golf cart
• Jacques achieving an excellent shot around the third hole only to realize that he thought the pin was in another direction.
• Constantly losing balls only to find another one.
• Playing against gale-like winds around the 15th hole.
• Hitting the pink ball right into the drink on the first shot.
• Hitting my other ball over the drink and it JUST made it into the mud along the side.  I was lucky with that one.

I believe I must have been doing quite badly on the first nine holes as Andrew never asked me what my score was but in the afternoon I started to have a score which was lower than nine so I felt proud to yell out an eight once in awhile.

The dinner was a success as always.  I got stuck with eating some steak (awww shucks!) and while it was as tough as shoe leather, I had some of Uncle Brent’s chicken and it was amazing.  It was half a chicken!  Dad ended up winning some mixing bowls and Uncle Willy won a seat warmer.  I believe Bobby won an actual golf related prize but I can’t really remember.

We headed back to the hotel where we piled into our room to watch the hockey game.  I had brought my guitar for the weekend but it’s hard to play guitar when people want to chat; especially if we are in a hotel room.  So there was no use of it that weekend, but I’m sure one weekend I’ll haul it out.  We ended up in Uncle Frankie’s room near the end of the night where Aunt Val and Uncle Willy were in good spirits and then we headed to bed.

All in all, a great success of a golf tournament again!  I am glad that I managed to get onto a team this year as it would have been a waste of a great day.

Thursday after class I went home and started packing up the bookshelf in the living room. It was time to prepare for the onslaught which is the laying down of the laminate floor! On Friday after work, Mike and I started moving out all the furniture from the living room. Surprisingly it all fit into the kitchen except for one chair that we simply left in the living room.

We then took the trim off the wall which wasn’t too hard at all (except for the one spot where I ripped some paint off the wall. Argh!) and I’m thinking we can salvage all of it to put back on the wall instead of buying all new trim.

We then went ahead and ripped up the carpet. I was interested to see how carpet was laid down. Essentially, a green foamy underlay is placed onto the subfloor first. Then (in our case), there were strips of wood running along the wall which had little nails sticking out of them. We’re talking thousands of little nails sticking out. When the carpet is laid down, this is what the carpet sticks to. There are different variations on this theme…gluing, stapling, etc.

We went to Home Depot to determine if we could simply leave the green underlay in, but we found out that we should strip it all up and put down the proper underlay (which we did).

Mike and I definitely had a hard time getting the carpet out of the living room as we were trying to keep it in one piece for Mom and Dad to bring down to Gaspe with them. I personally don’t think they will have much luck with that considering it’s the length of two cars, but nonetheless, we managed to stuff it into the garage but now we have to enter the garage from the front of the house as we can’t very well jump over it! We were going to roll it up with our helping hands on Saturday but it was too late by the time we were done.

We finished stripping the floor of everything by 11PM and we headed to bed. By 7:30AM I was back at it and I started to lay out the underlay and assembling the pieces. Mike joined me shortly after and pointed out that I had started out the first two rows the wrong way as it was supposed to flow from left to right and not the other way around! Not a big deal,we disassembled them and laid them out again and it was definitely easier! We were definitely having some problems with the first three rows and having them fit snugly and it wasn’t until later that we realized that if it wasn’t fitting properly, chances are there was something caught between the tongue and groove that we had to remove. We also found the secret of hitting the new row with a hammer to ensure a good seal between the two rows. I had bought a great kit that Rob’s dad had recommended which helped us immensely. It had spacers, a block to hammer with and a pull bar. Well worth the $21.

Vero and Duncan came over later with some muffins in tow and Vero went back out to pick up a few things. Vero was definitely an appreciated resource during the day as she was helping out with both the laying of the floor as well as keeping us well fed throughout the day. After they arrived, things seemed to pick up in pace until we hit the hallway and the better part of the day was spent cutting out notches around columns, cursing the gaps and general meandering around while careful calculations were performed. Mike had the hardest piece to calculate at one point with an angled wall falling into the equation and we were quite impressed when the piece fit after one cut!

By the time 8PM rolled in, we sat down for some good chicken supper and a beer and Mike had to get ready to go to a party so Duncan and I continued the quest to get it done. The hallway was done so we only had four more rows to lay out.

By 10PM we were outside in the driveway ripping panels to get a 2″ panel to run alongside the wall. We must have been quite the sight. Both of us wearing sunglasses as I didn’t know where the safety glasses were (as it was hard to get through the garage with the carpet in there), Duncan holding the flashlight above the saw so I could see where I was going, and a racket that would make a banshee ashamed. We did manage to put the last piece in around 10:30PM so all in all, it was a 15 hour job that entire day along with the hours of prep work from the Friday. Duncan, Vero and I sat down for a few beer and then headed to bed.

I now am fairly confident in laying down laminate. My brain works a little slower on the calcuation side of things in comparison to Duncan and Mike so all in all, we made a great team and even though we were sore all over the next day, I think we all had some fun during the day. I must admit that I feel the room is less cozy without the carpet and I swear on Sunday night while I was reading comics, it seemed a little cooler in the house. I am liking the look of it though and now I just have to get over the inherent fear of scratching the floor!

Next steps are to wait until Dad gets into town when he can help me put the trim back on. We also have to think about transition pieces as well as how to do the steps. Someone told me it took him 2 hours to lay out his living room and eight hours to handle one step! I think Dad loves to have little projects to do around my place so I’m glad that I can accommodate him!

For historical purposes, here’s some approximate pricing:
400 sq feet = $400 (plus tax) and I had 1.5 packs left over.
4 rolls of underlay = $100
1 accessory kit = $21
Total (not including all the beer and food) = $521 to do the entire living room and hallway.

Update! – June 11

Laying of the laminate floor is most definitely not over!  On June 8-9, Mom, Dad, and Uncle Brent worked on laying out the trim around the floor.  I helped them out on the Tuesday and let me tell you, I hate the finishing touches on things.  It is a pain in the ass.  Painting, bah.  Filling in holes, bah.  Mom and Vero graciously painted the pieces of trim on Monday night and we went ahead and rented an air nailer on Tuesday morning to put them in.  An air nailer is a MUST HAVE when nailing the trim.  I think if I only had a hammer and nails, I would have added ten hours to this job.

Dad said cutting the quarter round was a pain as it’s hard to figure out the angles.  Mom and I spent the afternoon putting DAP (some type of putty) into all the nail holes and around the casings of the door.  This was painful as I realized I will probably have to repaint my hallway after seeing what ripping off the casings did to my walls.

In the end, we managed to get 99% of the trim up along with the quarter round and all I need to do is to repaint all the DAPped spots.  In terms of what needs to be done with the laminate itself, we need to lay the laminate on the step up into the hallway which may be prove to be a pain.  I will see how painful that will be.  Then I will put the transition pieces (where the kitchen floor meets the hallway).

So an update to how much the project is costing:
– New Trim and Quarter Round – $120
– Rental of the Air Nailer, along with the fuel cell, and some nails – $65
– A quart of white paint – ??? $20?

Also, I just realized that I only had three months to return laminate flooring so now I have 1.5 packs left over.

Grand total now: $726.  Please note that the guy at Home Depot said any tool rentals is good for the tax rebate!  So if I manage to break $1000, I should be good to go.  I may very well hit that if I buy some more paint to do the hallway.