On Wednesday, after I headed for Gainesville to finish my
credit union training, Champ laid the planks in the kitchen. I had a feeling of
Déjà vu from the days when we were rehabilitating the house in Williams. The
routine for the better part of a year was I would go to work and Champ would
finish another piece of the house. I came home to something new, nearly every
night. Wednesday, I came home to new tile in the kitchen. We both love the
choice. One never knows for sure how new flooring will look once it is
installed. Samples give you an idea, but the real truth comes when it is
installed.
What amazes us is how much bigger it looks in here without
the division between carpet and tile running down the center of the front half
of our house.
Champ was bushed, from a day on his knees and probably close
to 100 trips down the stairs to go outside and cut planks. I on the other hand
needed some activity after 5 hours in the windowless bunker where I am
undergoing training. While he took a load off, I grabbed a carpet knife and
tore out the rest of the carpet. When we went to bed that night the only
original flooring left (accept for the slide outs which we are leaving be for
now) was the tile in the bathroom.
I’ll digress a bit here. There is a reason carpet places hold up their hand like a stop sign or run out the back door with their hair on fire when you ask if they do installations in RV’s. When these things are built the flooring is laid before the cabinets, furniture and anything else that touches the floor is installed. Flooring runs wall to wall. When it’s time to replace it, you have to cut around everything unless you are doing a full overhaul, of course. If you plan to keep all your cabinets and live in it while doing the work, you have to negotiate an insane number of weird small tedious angels. It’s no wonder the place in Texas was going to charge $2,200 for installation. We don’t regret our decision to do the work ourselves. We never do. We have a new appreciation for the jobs of the techs in the big RV Centers who do flooring replacements for those willing to pay the big bucks and surrender their unit for a week while they do it. I’m sure whatever their wages are it is not enough.
Very tight work space in the bedroom. 
Coming up through the bathroom with new tiles 
Bathroom demo
After our experience with the N.A.S.A grade adhesive in the
kitchen we decided the bathroom would get demoed and reinstalled in the same
day.
The second phase of this part was of course pulling all the staples, this time in the small, dimly lit confines of the bedroom area. That is where a hanging shop light comes into play. It helps to see the devil you are cussing while pulling them. Things are taking shape. My new area rugs are on their way. We’ll both be around all weekend to start working on the back half of the motor home. And hopefully finish the project.
Stay tuned…
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