Wednesday, May 15, 2013, Finished the Floor, Lebanon, TN

Joani finished the grouting!

Wow! If we had known how much work the floor would be we might not have done it, which would have been too bad because we really love the floor now that it's done.

Saturday, May 11, 2013, Move to Lebanon, TN

We drove to Tennessee for the first leg of our real full-time travels. Stopped at Countryside Campground Resort in Lebanon, TN (241.6 miles/ 59,722.7). It was a very nice park with lots of rolling hills around.

I probably shouldn't include this since it might make us look a bit flaky, but after spending three months creating our to-do list and things to pick-up list we actually left home without remembering to check it one last time (luckily, we didn't forget anything.)

Mom didn't have much in the way of a work list. Put up a ceiling fan in the spare bedroom. My brother, Doug, made an aluminum panel for our stairwell. It fit perfectly and looked great even without polishing. (Thanks again, Doug!)

Friday, May 03, through Thursday, May 09, 2013, Week five of the floor renovation, Cumming, GA

Week five of the floor renovation:

That's right - the last piece of tile!

With all of the tile in place, Joani started the grout under the furniture first so we could get it back in place. We rationalized that all of the grout did not need to be finished before leaving, so we focused on getting everything else packed for the road and set our departure date for Saturday. 

We've been saying goodbye to friends for weeks, today it was Sam's turn. Sugar came by to romp.

Friday, Apr 26 through Thursday, May 02, 2013, Week four of the floor renovation, Cumming, GA

Week four of the floor renovation:

Finally, the actual tiling begins. Placement of the first tile is critical, but Joani has an eye for those things so, of course, she got it just right.

Maybe half of the tiles required no cutting at all and another 40 percent of the tiles only needed one straight cut, but every now and then the cut was a bit more complicated. Good thing the tiles could be cut with a nice sharp utility knife.

Above the stairwell was an improvised panel made with the hardwood flooring so it needed a makeover. We decided to combine the tile we used for the counter backsplash and the wood we used in the ceiling A/C vent. When it gets finished it will pull things together to make it look like we had a master plan from the beginning. 

Friday, Apr 19 through Thursday, Apr 25, 2013, Week three of the floor renovation, Cumming, GA

Week three of the floor renovation:

Had folks over on Friday, so no work on the coach.  

Saturday's excuse for no work on the coach was simply - we were tired of working on it - so we took the day off!  

Sunday we made sure the sub-floor was fitting exactly as we wanted and attached it with screws. Wanting to make sure it didn't shift as we travel, we used two pounds of 3/4 inch fine thread screws. I don't know how many that was, but I don't think there are many places that don't have a screw every 6 inches. It certainly felt solid. Joani worked for a few days making sure the screws were flush and any gaps were filled.  

I spent time on basement organization. I rationalized that since I had never used them I would not miss the Joey beds. Removing them easily reduced the coach load by 250 pounds and it gave me the clearance to store my telescope in the basement. With all of the additional cargo I loaded, I am sure I probably have a net increase in weight, but we have a lot more of our "stuff" with us.  

We watched a you-tube video by the RVGeeks on replacing fluorescent lamps with LEDs. It was very straightforward, so Joani ordered LEDs on a roll and we tried it.  

It worked out extremely well and was much cheaper than I had expected. Clearly, I was side-tracked from the flooring project, but it's all good stuff to get done.

Rain on Wednesday delayed us a bit so the primer was not finished until Thursday bringing to a close week three of our little project.

Friday, Apr 12 through Thursday, Apr 18, 2013, Week two of the floor renovation, Cumming, GA

Week two of the floor renovation:

Removing the hardwood flooring turned out to be more trouble than the ceramic tile - As we got towards the front of the coach the adhesive seemed to be different - either they had changed it or there was some water damage. I had not expected that to be the case. The flooring shredded or it pulled up the sub-floor with it - either way, it was a struggle to the bitter end. 

Another fun fact - sub-flooring that used to be 1/4 inch has been replaced by 5mm sub-floor. Not a lot of difference, but enough to notice. Joani had to do some shimming to even things out.

While we were reworking the floor, we decided it would be nice to open up the vents a little. Changed the 2 x 10 inch vents into 4 x 10 inch vents in three locations. Checked the air-flow and it all seemed well. Joani was happy to have more choices for the vent grilles. With the new sub-flooring cut and set in place, we took a break, set the lounge back in place and cleaned up for a party.

Friday, Apr 5 through Thursday, Apr 11, 2013, Week one of the floor renovation, Cumming, GA

Week one of the floor renovation:

Researching online it was clear there was no easy way to remove the old tile. Everything said you just have to chip away at it with a hammer and chisel. The first tile took over an hour to remove and that didn't count the time to clean up the adhesive. Two more hours and two more tiles and we were both ready to look for a way to replace the three tiles only and abandon the project.

Next day, I wondered if heat might help. The heat gun did seem to help, especially with the adhesive clean-up, but it wasn't quite enough. The propane torch worked better if you ignore the inherent danger of open flames and extremely hot ceramic tile shrapnel. Ultimately, the torch made it possible to imagine we could finish and a short 20 hours later (spread over four days) the tiles were out.

We talked about leaving the hardwood in place and tackle it later, but again, insanity took over and we started prying the flooring up. It was glued and nailed to make sure anyone trying to remove it would have a lot of fun.