Finally - We Found a Floor!

I thought it would never happen, but we have finally settled on a floor. After approximately 20 different samples coming home and being scrutinized, we have a winner. It is called Crimson Merbau. Never heard of it? Neither had I. I thought it was just a fancy name for something known like Oak, Maple, Pine, something normal. But no, after Googling and Wikipedia-ing (sure it's a word!), I learned it is a wood from Southeast Asia which is endangered and nearly extinct. See the Wikipedia explanation below. Not to fear, we are not using the real thing, this is laminate so I won't have to feel guilty about having an endangered species.

From Wikipedia: The tree has a variety of common names including ipil, merbau and kwila. The bark and leaves of the ipil are used in traditional medicines. The tree's timber, called merbau or kwila, is a very durable and termite-resistant wood, making it a highly valued material for flooring and other uses. The wood can also be used to extract a dye. Merbau can contain a "gold" fleck that runs through the grain, considered to be attractive by some. Due to extensive logging of the tree, it is endangered in many places in Southeast Asia, and almost extinct in some. Extensive amounts were purchased for the venue of the 2008 Summer Olympics in China, which is the largest importer of the wood. The wood is used for flooring in U.S. and European markets where it is commonly sold under different names. Both licensed and unlicensed mills harvest the wood.

The gold fleck, or golden tones along with the hint of cherry tones (the crimson), is what made it a good fit for us. So hard to tell with a small sample but at this point, anything other than plywood will be luxurious.

Gross Alert

OK, so this is gross, but we must document this tooth. Lacey went through enough pain that it just cannot go without a few sympathetic groans. This is the tooth that the dentist extracted today. Mind you, this is a baby tooth! When you awe a dentist with your gnarly corkscrew tooth, you know you have done something. The dentist was actually quite proud that he was able to get this out without major surgery. He literally had to "unscrew" it out of her mouth.

That big rogue root was actually wrapped around the tooth beside it. Good thing we had it pulled because there was no way that the permanent tooth was going to be able to push this one out. As if this is not proof enough, Lacey has a little problem with her roots dissolving, this is why almost every one of her teeth have had to be extracted. We saved the best for last, this is her last baby tooth.

Happy 90th Birthday Grandpa!

Grandpa love....

Capitol project

Seth has been wanting a 3D puzzle ever since he saw one of the Colosseum. We decided to start smaller than that and he liked the Capitol Building. Of course, I had to do the building as it is pretty tedious, but Seth directed me to the correct numbered pieces. Here's the finished project:

Decisions, decisions

Just for reference, here are a couple of pictures of our old floor. I liked it, but it was always just a tad on the light side. We have so many cupboards and wood showing in the kitchen that we have to be careful not to get a busy pattern and were cautioned to stay away from the oak colors and patterns as they can make our kitchen look wall to wall wood.

With that in mind......here are some extremely small samples that we are supposed to choose from.

I'm really leaning toward sample #3 which is a light cherry. I think it will warm the place up. So hard to tell with such a small piece, what if it is too dark?? Aaagh.

The same group with one more sample that I don't like the color tone, too brown. It looks dirty to me.

Soccer

The only soccer picture I have so far, it is during practice before a game. Lacey is the tallest on the team.

Lacey and Banker

Lacey and her buddy - Banker.

Joe's Crab Shack

Joe's Crab Shack was the place Lacey picked for her birthday dinner. Last Friday we went and had a great time. Erik started the evening off with a Shark Bite. When they bring this to your table, the shark is holding a vial of grenadine. They announce to all around - "Watch out! Everybody out of the water! Shark attack!", then they pour the grenadine into the drink. = )

In the dessert menu, it tells you to take your picture through the porthole. Lacey obliged:
Seth did not, but I caught him anyway.
After dinner, what better thing to do than use Mom's sharpie and draw mussel animals. The manager and waitress loved this.
Dessert - holy cow! Six layered chocolate delight.

Game Face

Lacey had her first soccer game this weekend. She has face crayons with the exact same color as her team shirt so her and her teammates decided to add "eye black" or in this case "eye teal".

It must have worked, they won! There was some discrepancy whether the score was 5-1 or 4-0 (I never did hear for sure from the scorekeeper), but at any rate, they won by four goals. I missed the first 20 minutes of the game but they appear to have a really great team, good team spirit and respectful of each other. Big change from last year and it looks like it is going to be a fun team to be a part of.

New Light on Life

On the way home from Palm Springs last week, I made it 2,300 miles without incident and then, near Albany, OR, I got hit with a piece of flying debris (a chunk of tire about the size of a dinner plate). Incredibly, this was almost $1,000 worth of damage. A new headlight and the repair to the bumper.

Same bumper and new headlight! Also, minus all the bugs I gathered from Palm Springs.

Drying Out

The view of our lovely plywood floor. The contractor has taken out all of our flooring and we are now in the drying process over the weekend.

Two dryers and one dehumidifier. Besides being extremely loud, with all three running it also heats up this room to about 80 degrees. Needless to say, we are thankful for the pocket doors so we can close this room off and have it be somewhat bearable in other parts of the house.
Here's a better view of what is drying out. You can see how the nailheads are dark and have moisture around them. Even though the insulation below the house is not wet, I think the subfloor right here in front of the sink and dishwasher will need to be replaced. We'll see how well the dehumidifier does. It dumps a surprising amount of water every 20 minutes or so.
A plywood floor, a Sharpie and two kids:

Our new room

We have as new plastic bubble room! Last Friday the dishwasher sprung a leak and ruined the kitchen floor. Tomorrow the contractor starts ripping up the wet floor, then we live with a dehumidifier running for the weekend and hopefully by the end of next week we have our kitchen back. Stay tuned...

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