Floors are not my thing, but I did it anyways

As I mentioned, I stole a Wednesday to put in flooring underlayment in the mudroom. One night after that, I cut all the tiles to size and labeled them all. Today, with rain in the forecast, Ken away, and folks here part of the day, I knew it could be my chance to lay the mudroom floor. So after breakfast, I coerced my parents to walk a few block the wrong direction with me so I could get the paper tape I needed to cover the baseboards, then I sent them on their way and got into the ol' work clothes.

I only would have tried doing this myself in this particular set of circumstances, because flooring really isn't my thing and I get a bit frantic about the short working time of the adhesive, etc. Plus it involves very sticky glue, which means I will end up covered in it. (I am, by the way. Yucky.)

First, we had already laid the big floor in the kitchen using all the same materials, so I had some practice. Second, I had the handy-dandy paper tape stuff which I won't do a tile or glue down floor without. Love this stuff, worth the $3. It's like a roll of post-its and it's just so perfect for baseboard.

Third, the prep was totally done and things were very organized. Labeling all the tiles was a really key step, as it turns out. In the kitchen, there were two of us to lay the floor, so we could cut as we went. In the mudroom, it was just me, and I didn't want to mess up so I labeled each tile with a letter (row) and number (column) and put all the labels facing the same way, so I'd know which way was up. Best idea I think I've ever had. You can barely see the little masking tape squares in the middle of each tile in the photo below.

So all the flooring went down in about an hour (the adhesive working time is only about 20-30 minutes and it's only a 6'x7' room). It did get crazy - especially at the end when I had to be a bit of a contortionist to get the tile pressed down next to the door I was working from. And by then I was covered with glue and a knee pad had fallen off. All together, I think I only went through about 4 pair of disposable gloves and 3 rags. Not bad for me. But my knee is totally gluey! Thank goodness for salt scrub. I bet the fancy spa people never imagined it being used to remove construction advesive. I got kind of tired of scraping away all my skin with Gojo all the time, though. Ouch!

The iron is just holding down a stubborn corner.

Check that baby off the list! Now we can put the rest of the trim back in the mudroom, and get it out of all the hiding places where it's been stashed since we pulled it off! Let's see, there's some on the porch...some under the buffet in the dining room...hope I can find it all!