Some Front End Work

Well, I had originally planned to camp in Catarina all through this past Summer, and then take her back offline through the Winter of 2009/2010, in order to give the same treatment to the front half.

As I'm sure most have noticed, Summer 2009 is just about gone, and I have yet to go on a full-fledged self-contained camping trip. You know, like, with beds and running water and stuff.

SO... I've decided to postopone the front half renovation for a year. But, I did want to do something about the floor, as some of the vinyl tiles were starting to peel up and separate.

I prepped the floor by cleaning it, pulling up loose and separating tiles, scuffing the surface of any still-shiny tiles with an electric sander, and skim-coating with Ardex in a few places where it needed it. Then I began laying the new vinyl plank floor, designed to look like oak in a medium-dark stain. The product is made by Novalis and carried at the big blue box, and I really liked that it had "grain" embossed into it and had a fairly realistic wood look to it. It is similar to the TrafficMaster Allure product carried at the big orange box, but is designed to adhere directly to the floor, and is a bit cheaper, too. I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money, since I know I will be tearing the whole thing up in a couple of years anyway.

Enough exposition, here are some pictures of the finished product: