Saturday Jobs

Today was a full one of jobs around the house. In our garden level, Robin wanted me to remove the carpet. You might remember that we had plumbing disaster in June. That room has smelled ever since. I was to remove the not the whole carpet but the part on the 1/2 of the family room that got wet. Actually I had removed the carpet a few weeks ago but the underpad was still there. So this morning, I started removing the underpad and the tackless strips around the edges.

Now tackless strips is really a stupid name. What they are are two rows of wood strips about 2 inches wide with rows of very sharp tacks sticking up. The boards are nailed and glued to the concrete floor. I hear they are called tackless strips because using these "tackless strips" means you don't need to "tack" carpet down. But, I have tack holes in my hand from accidentally laying my hand on the first strip I started to remove. So I can personally vouch that they are not 'tackless'.

I took both a hammer and rubber hammer along with a flatbar nail remover. It took me a while to get the hang of the method. After tacking my own hand, I grabbed a pair of gloves and some goggles. Once I did that, I was whacking pretty hard with rubber hammer and the job went much faster.

I took the shop-vac and cleaned up. Then I laid down a rug and put a bunch of toys and the train table int hat area. Then I made the other half of the family room like a little den. It doesn't look so bad if I say so myself.

Later this afternoon, my neighbor Noah and I got ready for the coming snow. While I was removing nails and wood, he went out and bought us each a bag of fertilizer. (I need to remember to pay him for mine.) Then he let me use his spreader. Robin had gone to a ladies' spa for the afternoon so I had all three boys. Jack ad Drew played in the yard and Luke was my gofer. Then I watered the lawn and then Noah and I blew out our sprinklers around 6 or so. Actually Noah did most of the work and it was his compressor we used. I was his gofer.

(Noah is a great neighbor. He and his wife Casey are the ones who gave us the playground equipment.)

So my arms are really tired (and the holes still hurt). But all in all a good day of work.