Today was one of those calendar marking days.

Normally, when I say a project will only need another 20 minutes, it usually means another couple of hours, if I’m lucky. Today, I was bang on!

I conceded defeat with the angle grinder, concluding that I was missing a wrench to change the disc. Off to Home Hardware I went, hoping that someone could help me. My last resort was to schlep all the way to Home Depot to buy a new grinder.

Home Hardwares are, in my opinion, the stores with the most helpful staff. From Wakefield QC to Whitehorse YT to Campbell River BC and in some small town in Alberta the name of which I forget, I’ve never come out of a Home Hardware feeling like my business doesn’t matter.

I came into the store today and was promptly greeted by an associate who couldn’t help me. She scurried off to find someone who could. He confirmed that I was missing a wrench and got one, then showed me how to change the disc. He did not want to sell me a new disc because I had one and he did not want to sell me a wrench because Croft might have one. I insisted on buying both. For one thing, I don’t think it’s right to go ask for help at a store and not buy something. For another, Croft most definitely does not have that wrench and is going to need one! Plus, what if I wound up needing to switch discs again?

Once back home, I got down on my hands and knees again and away I went. Twenty minutes later the chairs were out, vacuumed, and stacked in the garden shed awaiting their new owners. Tabitha and Neelix seem so bereft without their lounging spots!

Please, no comment on the mess or the mountain of metal shavings still on the floor. 🙂

Had I not had people waiting for those chairs, I would have probably procrastinated on this project. I’m so glad it worked out the way it did! Now, I just have to finish dismantling the other dinette bench and rip up the rest of the flooring.

Before I dismantle the bench, however, I need to figure out how I’m going to get in and out of the loft, even if only temporarily. I have three three ideas for that.

As for what I have in mind to replace one of the bucket chairs, I’m flashing back to my student days as the solution then might be the solution now. I just have to find the right one…

Off to clean up the lounge. What a mess metal shavings make!

It’s funny how one organizing solution can snowball into a massive reorganization project.

No, I’m not talking about the new dresser. I’m talking about the pocket organizer!

As I suspected, I have way more pockets than I have stuff to put into the pockets. So, I decided to move the cleaning supplies from under the sink to the pocket organizer to make the laundry supplies more accessible by putting them under the sink. They were previously in the cabinet under the wardrobe. This frees up the cabinet under the wardrobe for shoes, which are currently piled on my lounge floor, after being pulled out of their very unuseful spot in a basement storage bin.

(Are you yet as exhausted as I am?! 😀 )

While I’m moving all this stuff around, I’m also gathering clothes from the far reaches of the rig and either putting it into the new drawers, in a pile for laundry, or in a pile for donation. Ms. Tabitha felt a need to help, of course:

I’m at one of those points where I’m trying to decide who I am now. For all but, oh, two or three years, of my life I didn’t really care about clothes or how I looked. Then, I started to get disposable income and that all changed. The house I rented before moving into Miranda was huge, I had money to spend, I had girlfriends to go shopping with, and my favourite store was on the ground floor of my office building. I had a whole closet devoted to skirts, one to tops, two coat closets, a shoe closet, and several dressers for accessories. And, yes, I wore everything! It was so easy to see what I had and when I started to run out of room, I’d donate the least favourite pieces.

Now, I have a wardrobe that’s half the size of the smallest closet I had in that house, plus the cloth dresser, the drawer under the wardrobe, and the cupboard under the drawer. I started RVing by rotating my clothing seasonally, but that just didn’t work out. I’d find myself in places where the weather turned rapidly and without easy access to the right clothes.

I decided that the only stuff that was going under the rig was the truly cold weather exterior gear and everything else had to fit inside. The wardrobe at present is divided into thirds and I’m using every trick I can to maximize space, like putting more than one thing on a hanger.

So, who am I now? The slob who doesn’t care what she looks like or the clotheshorse? I’m, unfortunately, a clotheshorse who cares what she looks like who is dressed like slob. It’s just so much easier to pull out a pair of sneakers, jeans, and top than it is to find tights and nice shoes. I’m therefore working very hard at getting as much of the ‘slob’ clothes and footwear out of here and making the ‘nice’ stuff more accessible.  It’s still hard to distill my wardrobe down to just a few outfits because of the variety of things that I do. If I ever manage to work 100% for myself, then it will be much easier to really reduce how many clothes I need.

Well, back to work!

What. A. Day.

Laying floor is a lot easier when your home is empty. I tried to pile stuff as out of the way as I could, but it was really hard. I don’t have that much stuff, but it didn’t feel like that at all today!

First thing I did was move everything to the passenger side of the study. I laid two planks and then reality hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t do the floor in the study without pulling up the flooring in the dressing room. That’s what took the better part of the day. The middle planks came up easily, but the edges were a nightmare to deal with since they went under walls, the vanity, the shower… My strategy ended up being using a chisel to score the wood, a pry bar to snap the board as close to the edge as possible, and then a combination of the chisel and pliers to get as smooth an edge as possible. I pulled up only as much floor as I needed to get the study done and will continue tomorrow.

Even with all that effort, I’m glad I pulled up that wood floor. It had reached its peak. There was water damage right through to the subfloor near the shower. Nothing major, but I could see how water had infiltrated. I also found a speckling of mould behind the trim along the base of the shower. Yup, this was one major project that I can completely justify.

Once the floor in the study was done, I had the desk left. My initial idea isn’t going to work. I had wanted to simply cut out a notch in the top to accommodate the little pop out in the corner, but the way the desk is built won’t allow that without major work on my part. For that much effort, I’d rather go out and buy a little secretary or something. I decided to just reassemble the desk with a gap between it and the wall and then sleep on the problem since I have to do a couple of hours of work tonight.

Allure is incredibly easy to install. What I love most about it is that all you need to cut it is a sharp knife and a metal straight edge. You can get down on your hands and knees with a plank and a piece of paper to use a as a template (see below) and do all your cutting and fitting right there.

The only thing that’s really finicky about it is that it attracts dust since the planks are held together with a glue strip. Since I left the dressing room half done, I had to lay down wax paper (provided in the the box) to cover all the glue strips and then weigh that all down to keep the cats off it.

I’m pretty pleased with how the installation turned out. The wood look wound up being more forgiving than the tile. I found some edges aren’t quite tight enough, but I’ve never seen a wood floor without gaps so I figure the small imperfections make the vinyl look even more like real wood.

Tomorrow, I’m going to focus on getting the computer area buttoned up and then take advantage of the promised sunshine to get a mountain of stuff out of the rig. That should free up enough space for me to finish up the dressing room floor on Thursday and start on the kitchen. Having used a box and a half already, I can tell that my flooring budget is going to go through the roof (my estimates are now seven boxes), so I’ve decided that painting is definitely not going to happen in Campbell River. That’s okay, the climate’s not right for it anyway.

All you need is Allure flooring, a metal straight edge, a sharp knife (with lots of blades), and pliers (not shown). Kneepads are a nice luxury. 🙂

First strip. I made the right choice. 🙂

Getting the measurements for a short strip.

Using the template and straight edge to ensure a straight cut.

The planks were held with these little tacks. I didn’t even need tools to rip up the middle ones.

Pulling up the middle part was easy.

Good shot of the gap between the floor and the bottom of the wall.

Crossing into the dressing room.

ALL DONE!!! Well, in the study.

Gap between the wall and the desk.

Might be lethal to cats, but it is funny to their mothers.

Tonight’s project was to get rid of the other bedframe. To start, I had to remove the drawer affixed to the top of it. I removed the drawer from its frame, then went out to get a screw driver. I came back to this:

(pardon the dust, renovating is messy business!)

Oh, I just adore her. 🙂

Removing the frame was tedious, but it’s done! Tomorrow, I’m going to out the carpet and all the staples, then get to work on the desk since I won’t be able to reverse it as is. I’ll have to take it apart to flip some components as well as cut a notch into it because the wall on the opposite side isn’t flat. The vent pipe goes through the corner so the wall was built around it. By cutting the notch into the desk top, I’ll be able to make full use of that side of study and give the desk a built-in look. The desk was finished to fit on this side, so it won’t look as nice once I fit it on the other side, but I intend to paint it the same colour as the cabinets later, so it’s fine. I debated getting a ‘proper’ desk with lots of cubbies and storage but decided to stick with this one because it is so lightweight. Plus, it reminds me doing the initial renos a year and a half ago (already!) with my mother.

Well, it’s midnight-thirty and the night is young so I’m off to work on other projects. Days should be longer than twenty-four hours!