Tomorrow at 9am, the guy comes to install the ceiling fans in the two “guest” bedrooms. Here’s the pictorial story so far:

We load up on a thousand dollars’ worth of flooring, the same color and brand of “lock & fold” engineered stuff that finally saved the day on the original Floor Project from Hell.

This time, we’ve also bought the pine quarter round, and bought an undercut saw, because last time we learned that the pre-finished quarter round that’s part of the flooring system was made of some kind of densely impenetrable wood that our pneumatic brad nailer couldn’t handle. The pine came out fine, and I learned a few things about sanding and staining, while David learned how to use the mitre/chop saw we also bought as part of the “we’ve got to salvage our pride and get this damn project done” process. We also have the big bottle of special glue, which was used on exactly 1 run of ripped boards right at the end, and also in the closet a little. Last time, at least during the week or 10 days that it took to finally get it done, we must have made half a dozen trips to one of 3 home improvement stores in the area. Oh – and we also bought a quart of stain, and a quart of polyurethane, rather than do like we did before and buy stuff as we realized we needed it. Got staining pads and the underlayment stuff that the floor floats on, too.

Behold the “guest bedroom,” which has become a complete tip, full of unseasonal clothing, travel bags full of snorkel stuff and Hawaiian sand, some unwanted bedclothes, and discarded junk from the painting job in the smaller room.

We actually would like to have a “guest bedroom” for something called “guests.” It would remain a cat-free zone. And along with that, we’d like the smaller room to become useable space, and not the unsorted laundry version of the Dead Letter Office. I’m toying with the idea of moving my computer(s) up there, but at the least it’s supposed to become a cozy little reading room.

The front hall is suddenly full of DIY loot, plunder, and booty. And fans.

Yesterday we also brought home about $425 worth of ceiling fans, after a rather stressful sourcing expedition to the local specialty shop, Fan C Fans. It’s kind of a weird place, stuffed full of boxes stacked 8 or 10 high, with fans going overhead. And narrow little passages between the stacks of boxes, which wobble a little if you have to squeeze past someone. But the people there are very knowledgeable, and after some discussion they helped us find two fans of the right size and color and whatnot, along with lights and remotes.

Decks cleared, ready for action

This time I’m hoping to be more organized about the work space, as it reduces stress levels all around. The hardest part of the whole job will be after the fans are installed – we have to rip up the carpet and get it hauled downstairs, and get ready to put down the underlayment. Then we have to start laying down the boards so they’re straight and tightly joined. This time, the long wall we start on has a door in it, and we start right there, so… tricky. That’s why David thought the undercut saw would be worth it. If we go on with the master bedroom project, there are 2 more doors, so it seems a reasonable outlay.

With any luck, we could have the subfloor prepped and underlayment done tomorrow. We think we have the plan of attack figured out as far as where we start from when laying the flooring, and what we’re likely to face as we get to the far wall and inside the closet. We hope it’ll go pretty quickly, and will decide when done if we want to tackle the master bedroom, and its much heavier furniture that would have to be moved out temporarily. That would be a separate trip to Loew’s for more flooring and quarter round.

Wish us luck, we’re off to storm the castle!

When it absolutely, positively has to get there… sooner or later. Maybe.
Buzz Machine: The Death of snail mail and Sunday papers
I was actually waiting for some mail to arrive, and finally received it today. My eye doctor had promised to mail my latest eye prescription card 2 weeks ago today, but the office manager forgot to put it in the mail until a few days ago. My husband David was waiting for stuff, too, and had checked the mailbox 3 times today. Third time’s the charm; the letter carrier must have just gone by.

I rarely get mail anymore (note to self: to get it, you have to send it). And with Chicago’s shabby record with mail delivery chances are you might not get it at all. However, when the system works, it works well, as most person-to-person mail gets delivered the second day here in the suburbs. My prescription card came in an envelope postmarked July 23rd.

I don’t think “snail mail” will go completely away, but it’s already becoming more of an event marker than a communication method, aside from holiday postcards. The only time I mail something now is for holiday and (when I remember in time) birthday cards.

Back when our street was torn up and repaved, all the mail boxes were pulled up and a set of community boxes were temporarily installed about a block away, near the park. Picking up mail became almost a social outing, as neighbors that normally never saw each other walked or drove by to pick up their mail, usually in the afternoon or evening after work. I actually missed it when it was over and we had our nice new street back, along with the brand new mailbox (the old one had a rotted post).

The Washington Post reports that “in the past year alone, the Postal Service has seen the single largest drop-off in mail volume in its 234-year history…. That downward trend is only accelerating. The Postal Service projects a decline of about 10 billion pieces of mail in each of the next two years, going from a high of 213 billion pieces of mail in 2006 to 170 billion projected for 2010.”

No, physical delivery won’t ever die. (Like a good newspaperman, I lie in headlines to get attention.) Indeed, we’ll get more ever deliveries of more stuff that used to be on store shelves but are now ordered online. That’s what UPS’ and FedEx’ businesses are built for. But, as the Post says, we’re sending fewer messages to each other; we have much better means to do that now. And companies are trying hard to reduce their cost of dealing with us – billing, bank statements – by taking that online.