After scouring the internet for guides, tutorials and videos, I finally felt comfortable to attempt to install our Indonesian Taun Hardwood Floor that we ordered from BuildDirect.com. This floor has been sitting in our partially finished basement for over 6 months, waiting patiently and acclimating itself to our houses temperature and humidity.

The first step was to make sure I had the right tools, and from what I gathered through my research, I did not. So I went to the Home Depot and rented a floor stapler, bought some staples and some odds and ends to help prep the floor, and went to work. It took about 2 hours to get set up and ready to start installing. We brought up about 3 boxes of wood and gave it a go.

The hardest part, especially in a 98 year old home is finding a straight line. Even the walls we built  weren’t square with the rest of the house. What I did is found the straightest wall in the main hallway - where the floor will have its largest span and threw a chalk line all the way down it and into the bedroom. Using this line as a guide, I measured from it to create an equally parallel line against the bedroom wall - this was my start line to keep it all straight.

The floor went down pretty easy, and since it is a very hard wood, not much was bent or warped. The tools were also easy to use. It was a bit hard to plan on transitions to the bathroom and hallway as I did not want a continuous floor (room by room approach) so I set threshold planks to work off of in the doorways. It will take me a few more days, but so far so good - not bad for my first floor! Check out the photos:

Our second floor is starting to dry after being sanded and primed - and it looks amazing. Now the fun begins. We need to paint, lay the wood foor, put the doors up, install the molding and move in. We both can’t wait - out house just doubled in size.

Photos soon…

Today I signed up for a revolutionary service that will provide, install, maintain and manage a complete solar power system for our home. Amazing. More amazing than that is the cost - $0.

Let me explain that a bit in detail. Our current provider PGE, charges us around 8¢ per kilowatt. So REnU would charge us the same, but lock in the price for 25 years. They charge nothing for the equipment, and they have an amazing policy if you need to move, sell, etc. So you generate your own power and subtract that from the utility. The first few months you are paying the same, but your carbon footprint is drastically reduced. As time goes on and PGE raises their price, your solar power is still the same. Cool.

Here is what we will save in money:

More importantly, this is what we will save (or make if we invest the savings) in money - and in our Carbon Footprint:

	If you were to invest all of the money that you saved over the term of a 25-year contract, and you received the investment grade bond yield average of 9.44%, then your decision to participate in the REnU Program would yield $28,868.35 by the end of your contract.
	Additionally, over that same time period, your REnU will eliminate 86 tons of CO2, 292 lbs of NOx, 296 lbs of SO2, 12 lbs of PM, 2 lbs of VOC, and 19 lbs of CO. That is equivalent to taking approximately, 15 automobiles off of the road, or planting 253 trees.

Check out the Site

We are starting the second floor finish work, after a long and hard remodel that has lasted 6 months. We hired a great company that specializes in smooth finish - to match the rest of the lath and plaster in the house. They finished hanging the sheetrock today, and will mud, tape and prep the walls over the next few weeks.

Today (and the past few weeks) we finished up the insulation on the second floor. The insulation we used is recycled cotton / denim fiber - called SoftTouch. This insulation is not only easy to use and install it is not harmful to the touch and you don’t have to wear a hazmat suit to put it in. To cut it down to size, you use a circular saw and some finesse - and then jam it where you want it - as it expands it holds itself in place. The coolest thing about this insulation is that it is a sound blocker - and practically kills all noise from entering through walls. Our second floor is now a quiet zone for sure. Here are some shots of insulation installation - along with some frame fixes I did in the new master bedroom.