Doorways where you have to leave a 3/4″ slot for a threshold are another joy, fitting tile under doorway frames, etc.
The good news is it looks great. And the wall, formerly pinkish, now plays off that grey/rust and reflective tile (slate pattern) and looks a proper salmon, headed toward orange, which will look great with our cabinets.
We are very happy with the flooring. CoreTec(h) is the brand, Empire Slate, which is ‘waterproof,’ or as waterproof as a floor is likely to be. The table saw is my little toy, and yes, I’m careful. There are many ways to get hurt, one of which, I swear, is to use the ‘safety guides’ the manufacturer provides. A, you let the saw power up and sing a steady note before trying to use it, B, you use the metal/measure/guide clamp rail to assure a straight feed. C, if you aren’t using B, you have a pencil line and you use your ears. If the saw whines, you’re wobbling out of true: listen to the saw and keep it singing a single pure note. D: if you do all the above, it’s not likely to buck or kick back, but if it does, don’t reach to steady it—back up, hands off, and just let the lumber fly where it will. F. And if you have to saw something tiny, use a push-block of wood, not your fingers. G. Wear a mask and safety goggles or glasses. Most injuries come from D, F, and G territory, plus uneven ground, crowded setup, not planning the EXIT of your board with plenty of room, poor lighting, and beer. I learned to use this as a kid, and it’s my favorite power tool: I’ve cut with a handsaw, and a table saw is ever so much nicer.
We have the fridge and dishwasher now sitting on new flooring. Only 300 more square feet to go. We have to bring in another batch from the porch to let it assume room temperature before using. [We’ve had it sitting under tarp, on skids to protect it from rain.]
We have painting to go; plus the flooring; then roof vent and ducting, wiring for lights; then we start thinking about cabinets, countertop, and backsplash orders. Countertop can’t be ordered (measurements) before the cabinets are all in; ditto the backsplash. We have the sink; we have the faucet on order; and we’re now beginning to see the kitchen we’ve planned starting to have floor color, wall color, and such, with appliances moving into place where they will fit.
Amen as far as table saw safety. I lost the tip of one finger to a table saw in college, due to impatience, a tight deadline, and being on hour 36 without sleep (no beer, but might as well have.)
“One of which…is to use the ‘safety guides’ the manufacturer supplies?” Is the word “not” missing in there somewhere? I don’t run my table saw without safety guides except when I’m using the dado cutter, and even then, I have several jigs that I use to hold the wood. I use the fence whenever I can, but I have a panel jig I made (modeled on Norm Abram’s “New Yankee Workshop” jig).
I was proud of myself one year for laying vinyl tile in the sunroom, which doubled as the cats’ bathroom and my chest freezer was in there. One of my friends in high school worked for his father’s flooring company, and one evening, he showed me how to lay tile. I never forgot it, and my first attempt in the sunroom was very successful. Other than a bit excess cement coming between the tiles, it turned out very well. It wasn’t all straight lines, as this farmhouse was built a VERY long time ago. I no longer live there, and have wall to wall carpet in the living room and two bedrooms, and laminate flooring in the kitchen/dining room. I’d almost like ceramic tile in the bathroom with underfloor heating, but that might not be all that nice, after all…..
My father did a bunch of tilework in the bathrooms in the one house we lived in – the downstairs bathroom needed its floor replaced completely, and he redid it with 1-inch ceramic tiles (the kind on mesh backing) set in concrete over the crawlspace – that floor isn’t going to rot without major plumbing problems. (The shower was already tiled; he used 4-inch ceramic tiles on the walls, up to backsplash height.)
The other bathrooms got vinyl tile floors and ceramic tile on the walls up to backsplash height.
The word ‘not’ is not a fall-out. Those plastic guides nearly got me seriously hurt—I tried to use them, and ended up tossing them. I learned on a barebones second-hand table saw with no such precautions except a handmade pushblock and a single comes-with-machine rail clamp. I’m just old-fashioned, I guess.
Then I must have misunderstood what you meant. I thought you meant the blade guard that lifts as you bring the work to the blade. Mine used to have the anti-kickback pawls on it, but the springs got lost and Sears says they’re no longer available.
This is a table saw, not a skillsaw. No blade pawls, just a slot in the table, in which the blade sits. What the manufacturer provided were some plastic guides sitting around the blade, which bound up the board and darn near caused an injury when I tried to use the saw. I pitched the worthless ‘safety’ guides onto the scrap heap and have used the saw without incident since.
I will confess the Skilsaw I did learn on as a kid of about 13 had no safety pawls, just a bare blade, and it scared me more than the table saw. Justly so. The pawls to this day get in my way and make me have to make two starts on a job, but I appreciate their purpose. To use it the way I learned, a) set your feet in a good stable position, b) have your board completely steady and accessible, c) plan a safe direction in whiich you COULD throw the saw if it hit, say, a knothole and compromised your stance or grip. The plan is also valid for chainsaws….
I understood that, and was describing my table saw as a referent. I never had any plastic guides, just the fence and the guard (which includes the separator where the pawls were located at the back). I’m just not familiar with the guides you were describing.
If your floor is level, simple water-resistant vinyl tile as a ‘floating’ floor is an option. We got ours at HD, wasn’t awfully expensive, cuts easily with a carpet knife, and is a little nicer after a shower than cold tile. Also not-slippery. It sticks together with really meaningful adhesive striping,overlap, and it has not come undone in 2 years of steaming showers and water spillage.
I visited a Hutterite colony near Lethbridge, AB, with family once upon a time–someone needed physiotherapy, I forget who. They had lineoleum or vinyl on the floor and 3-4′ up the walls. You could’ve done house-cleaning with a firehose!
There are two old villages on the Meuse (Itteren and Borgharen, near Maastricht) with a street with houses like that.
That old cobbled street was the slip where fishermen pulled their boats out of the river in medieval times, and they built their houses alongside the slip for easy access.
The river Meuse is fed by rainwater from Belgium and France so it gets high water in rainy periods, and the ground floors of the lowest of those old houses along that steep bit to the river can get flooded every few years. They’re stonebuilt, generally whitewashed inside and out, with tile floors; and everyone who buys one of those houses knows to only put light and portable furniture on the ground floor.
When the high water warning comes, you take your table and chairs upstairs; when it subsides you can pressure-wash the ground floor rooms, apply a new coat of whitewash to the walls, carry the furniture down and you’re set for another year or so…
I wonder if that thinking could be applied to flood prone areas in the US. As long as you built with stone or cinderblock/hollowtile, it might work, although most builders consider that more of a pain than simply throwing up a fast wood framework on a cement slab. In some beachfront areas, I have seen houses built on piers, where the first level is open and used for storage and/or a garage. In case of high water, you move anything that doesn’t like to get wet upstairs; some of the houses also have an uncovered parking area adjacent to the upper level.
Not cinderblock or hollow anything, those would fill up with water, take ages to dry out, and get full of mold in all the little pores.
That would be very unhealthy!
We have few wooden houses here, most are brick, and in south Limburg where there are some quarries either stone or brick.
Careful with the pinkies that are needed for the important stuff, CJ. Finished a re-read of Tripoint (last time, 1997). Thought it still reads well, and would make a good basis for a series, if not in the soon-to-be-released, Alliance Rising already. Capella was the biz 🙂
Learned to use another real nice power tool—the top-end Dremel, not that delicate crafter’s model they push so hard, the one with paper cutting blades that come apart after 3 seconds of use, and that probably were intended to cut balsa wood. This one uses steel blades, and has a ‘sunset’ shaped blade you can set on a line to create a hole to get the straight cutter in for a cut no table saw could reach. Heavy, but manageable, and no great finger-danger with this one.
Stay safe 🙂
Tripoint – good basis for a series. Actually, there are dozens of series in Ms. Cherryh’s works. Not just unanswered questions but endless possibilities. And of course – since Ms. Cherry has to do the work, she and her publisher call the shots.
Hot and humid in New Hampshire.
Thanks
Hot and sticky in Boston and environs too right now… And the Boston Globe reported that it was 67 degrees (Farenheit) yesterday atop Mt. Washington (In New Hampshire’s White Mountains for those of you unfamiliar with New England’s geography): their hottest day yet at the top this year.
Off topic, but fun: “Beyond the bicycle” song video. I finally got to tick off my adapted cycle bingo card today – biking to work I met a duo on a bicycle with a wheelchair in front, so now I have seen all the types from the video (as well as some other types of recumbents, like the bright yellow mango, and more sorts of bakfiets, babboe bikes etc.) cycling freely around my home town.
It’s one thing good safe separate cycling infrastructure is good for, giving elderly and handicapped people the freedom to get out and about under their own steam, mostly without needing to depend on others.
Even for those who need a helper to ride together, getting out in the fresh air and among people feels good.
I used to ride a lot, then began living in places where the traffic just is too much. It’s one of the best things for exercise AND transport. I really approve of the wheelchair-rickshaw arrangement.
Not as hot as here:
Dubai reveals £100m ‘Martian city’ in the desert to simulate life on the red planet
https://www.sciencealert.com/to-prepare-for-mars-the-uae-is-building-a-simulated-martian-city-on-earth
Elon Musk unveiled plans for an earth to orbit rocket that would connect to craft going to Mars as well as provide commercial flights to the other side of the earth in less than an hour. He’s hopeful of this occurring in a few years. Oh Brave New World… That we have dreamed of in our (Sci-Fi) books:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/science/elon-musk-mars.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
That’s what the North Koreans are really working on, but don’t want to give their A-game away, to the competition 🙂
Don’t we wish!
We had a weird one today: coming home for lunch, we discovered that the fridge door refused to shut completely, remaining open about half an inch. To all appearances, there was nothing wedging it open, the door was not overloaded which might have caused it to sag. We even inspected the hinges to see if one might have loosened. We took half the contents off the door, still no go, then suddenly, clunk! It shut, and we were none the wiser.
Pro’ly had something in the door shelves that was just a bit too wide and hit one of the internal shelves, or something on one of those shelves that was sticking out into the door spaces.
Lifted just slightly off the hinge?
mmm. Earthquake? Frozen water?