Today is the day I've been waiting for

After several marathon-like days of work - dog issues - concrete -family visits - work - assorted crises - dog issues - family visits - work -- you get it -- today just kind of popped out of nowhere. My folks who are visiting went on a lovely boat ride for their anniversary, Ken had to go to work, the dog is all set for a change, I have a half a bottle of Diet Coke left over from the family dinner last night...

And I was ready.

Inspired by the Herculean efforts of Susie, the one-woman kitchen renovator extraordinaire over at Bangor Foursquare (go girl!), I said, Hell, I can put in the mudroom floor today. Forget the deck - that's Ken's & my weekend date. We realized yesterday that we're not using the mudroom anymore since we can't go out that door. (Well - we shouldn't go out that door, since it's 3 feet off the somewhat uneven ground - even though we have done it a few times. Daredevils.)

And, the 2 pieces of mudroom underlayment plywood we bought a couple of months ago have been totally in the way of the Shopsmith and most of our tools in the garage - so that's been a total pain in the neck. And, it just so happens that the beams for the deck are just perfectly spaced to use as sawhorses for the plywood!

So, despite my usual avoidance of the big skil saw, I busted it out today and ripped all the plywood to size, cut out all the odd shapes so it will fit around various trim pieces, and screwed the freakin' things down. Woo hoo!

The most irritating part was that we had one old subfloor board that was bowed up in the middle, so I had to plane and sand for a while to knock that baby down. It was one of those jobs where you start with the planer, then think - no, the sander would be easier, then as you start sanding you realize the planer was easier - and around it goes.

I was going to fill the screw heads and the one seam but we're out of the floor filler stuff and I'm thinking I'm too lazy to walk to the hardware store. Maybe if I take a shower and get the sawdust off everything I'll take a walk in a bit and get this thing DONE! I'm out of Diet Coke - so might need to stop at the store for some other sort of fuel (coffee? maybe it's too hot) on the way by.

p.s., I used a tip from the new issue of This Old House - I think it was a reader tip. All the screws need to be 6" apart. Instead of dealing with measurements, etc., I covered a long metal straightedge with masking tape, marked every 6", and then used it to mark the floor every 6" in two places. Then I just lined up the straightedge with the 2 marks, zipped in a screw every place there was a mark on the tape on the stick, and slid it to the next position. Voila, a 6" grid with no chalking. We're also out of chalk, and again, I was too lazy/dirty to walk to the hardware store. And I totally suck at the chalk line; it's virtually impossible for me to snap a decent line with a partner, forget about by myself!