We don’t need a stinking contractor

I have a sub-floor. Actually, I have a sub-sub-floor (something called Dricore, which Ian and I would both like to do a testimonial for. “We were just stymied about how to cover the concrete in the back room, then we found Dricore and our problems were over!” Being fulfilled in any small measure by a flooring system makes me feel incalculably nerdy. Luckily, before I’m writing about it on my knitting blog, which most people think is already so nerdy that I can’t possibly sink any lower.) and a plywood subfloor on top of that. The problem was (again, I’ll alert you to the potential here that I am writing the most boring blog post of all time. If you feel dizzy, you may be too bored. Quickly click this link to see something interesting.) the problem was that we needed a plywood sub-floor to put the final vinyl floor down on, but we couldn’t attach the plywood to the concrete, not in any sort of a practical way anyway. (There was a short lived plan involving a sort of screw called a “Tapcon” which were absolutely stupidly expensive and needed a predrilled hole and wouldn’t be flush and couldn’t countersink and…..the whole conversation made me want to knit something. Something fussy. Something with tiny little needle and six colours of yarn and 12 charts. It would be easier than attaching plywood to concrete, I assure you. Note: If you or someone you know is a contractor and you are just cracking yourself up at your computer because you know a great $2 way to attach plywood to concrete and it’s fast and cheap and really, really fun, so much fun that there are people who do it for a hobby…do not tell me. Do. Not. I’m a woman renovating an old and crooked house. The only thing level in this place is the water in the toilet and I am on the edge. Do not tell me.

In the end we found this Dricore floor that just whacks together on top of the concrete and it’s a “floating” floor. You aren’t supposed to attach it to anything. Can you believe that? Nothing. It just sits there on the concrete and then you nail the plywood ontop and then you have a floor. Crazy.

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My brother Ian shown here attaching plywood to Dricore. This takes 300 screws. We know this because we bought 200. (Again, I have included the knitting in attempt to keep all of you from shorting out.) Today we put the real floor on top of the plywood and the Dricore, and we paint and we weep a thousand tears for things that are going to go wrong that we don’t even know about yet. Oh…and I will vacuum up sawdust. Last night I found a perfect little tidy pile of sawdust on the middle cushion of the chesterfield. I have no theory for how it got there. I do not care. I only vacuum, unthinking. Uncaring. Unmoved.

TSF stuff

Today’s TSF gift is this beautiful lot of yarn

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Doesn’t it scream Valentines Day? It’s all at Kris M.’s house, and she’ll be mailing it to Anwen. Congratulations!

Olympics stuff

There are more than 1800 participants listed on the Athletes page.

This is not all of them. S.Kate and I continue our entering of names, and in a desperate bid to not be overrun by the incredible outpouring of Olympic spirit, Emma has joined the ranks as “backup in charge of entering names while I lay floors.” (Good title eh?)

We are getting there, please continue to be patient if you don’t see your name. It’s a big job. Who knew it would be like this?

Today’s Olympic link: Team Wales, since according to their rules, I could be on the team.