My Living Room #3: Progress finally

What the heck. I decided to get ahead on painting the trim. I primed my some door trim and quarter round. It’s an hour I won’t have to spend on another day.

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.

Since my wife really likes the color match I did on the trim for the fireplace, she wants transition pieces between the areas. That’s one wide one for the kitchen, One wide for the bar, One midsize for the Entry hall, One narrow for the Hall and the den passages.

Here is what I’m thinking:
Cut away some tile or wood floor depending on where the transition piece will be. Make it a 1/2 inch gap.
Cut tranistion piece tops out of oak 1.5 X 3/8.
Route edges of top with a slight curve.
Fill gap w/ 3/8 wide strip of oak.
Glue Filler to top to make the T shape.
Stain and seal. (What sealer would stand up to traffic?)
Use Urethane glue to attach.

Please let me know if I’m asking for trouble.

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.

Ok,

This shot is simply to prove that I will be alive tomorrow. My wife will not murderize me. The tree is up. Tomorrow it’s gets trimed out.

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.

Still managed to get a bit of priming done. I dislike painting trim. I could paint the whole room in just about the same time it takes to do priming and oil painting. Still it’s gotta get done. I’d pay my son to do it. But I’d have to do some scraping.

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.

Hey mark,
I’m curious, why cut away tile and floor and fill with oak pc.? why not just make threshold 3/8” thick and lay on top? Cutting that floor and tile inside a door jam will be a bitch.

Personally I hate thresholds between rooms and go to great lengths to avoid the toe trippers. They always make me think, bad planning or install, and “I don’t care”. Can you rework the floor to make it flush?

Do you have to put a threshold at every transition? It’s not quite the same as adding crown.

Thresholds also suck for vacuuming, dust mopping, area rugs, baby strollers, wheel chairs, half asleep people, rc cars and lazy dogs.

You might want to attach it with small screws or nails so you can R&R it later. I’m not sure glue only will hold up in heavy traffic.

just my thoughts…..nice progress by the way.

-- mark - Grayslake IL.

this isn’t helpful… just related to the transition ideas. Too cool not to share—> LINK

-- ~ Debbie, Ontario Canada

Looking great Mark. Glad you were able to pull off another day of living. SWMBO can make life a living nightmare if the job takes a bit longer then they planed for.

The transition strip. Hmmmm. I’m sort of following you. There are several problems that might occur. Expansion along the length will be minimal, if at all. However, the width will cause some problems. When you mention tile, I’m assuming they butt up to the wood flooring – correct? Although expansion with slate, ceramic, and porcelain cannot be seen with the eye, it still occurs and causes buckling, and cracking (if over a large area – greater then 24’ in length). Additionally, the flooring you’ve installed is laminated hardwood – correct? Oak is rather porous and will expand and contract more then your flooring or tile.

Just make sure you compensate for all of the movement. I think strips are a great way to distinguish various zones within an open living space. There are expansion strips made of rubber-like materials that will allow movement to take place even when everything is tight. If not that, then use silicone caulk as the expansion strip between the wood and the tile (especially if it is along the width of the wood flooring butting up to ceramic tile). You might be able to find caulk the same color as the grout.

Maybe I’m paranoid about this, but I’ve seen some floors around here buckle or pop because people didn’t leave enough of a gap along the wall or hard-butted tile against brick. Oh, did I mention that I’ve done that?

-- No matter how many times I measure, I always forget the dimensions before I cut.

Mark,

Out of all the work I did on my house – the floor in the living room was by far my worst work. It was so uncharacteristic of me to rush through and let mistakes fly. For the first time – I did. I was intending to to do some very careful cutting but I got impatient.

I really need to cover my work from the engineered floor to the kitchen. The bar transition looks pretty bad as well. The transitions between den, hall and entry way look good. I’ll skip those. I will just lay the trim over the top as you advised and decide how to attach it after I consider the rest of your feedback. Thank you very much sir!

Debbie, I’m on the iPhone. I’ll have to take a close look at the link later. Thank you my dear.

Billy,

Thanks for the guidance. Since I’m going to go with Mark’s suggestion, I will have a little expansion room under the transitions I cover. I hoping that small gap will save me from any expansion problems. A friend of mine gave me some thin 9/32 solid oak flooring, I’m going belt sand the finish off that, cut to width, add a slight round to the edges, sand, stain, seal and install. I think it’s my best chance of my work looking its best. By the time I finish sanding, I’ll have a 1/4 inch thick transition piece. I really appreciate you brother.

Thanks for the compliments my friends.

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.

A bit of progress today although I’m moving really slow. That flu I got almost 2 weeks ago is playing hell on my lungs. On top of that, ups really screwed up bad and misplaced my 3 month supply of meds. I’m having a bit of a problem with withdrawals and pain today. That’s a long story.

I still felt well enough to install all the plinths and base board. I also installed the she molding around the fireplace. Last but not least, I made some thin transition pieces to cover up my sloppy job of flooring. I haven’t stained it yet but I got to show Martha what it will look like. She was pleased. Photos are coming soon when I wrap up this stage.

I still have question. I don’t think a poly finish is good enough for a transition piece. Any recommendations?

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.

Work while being sick? ...you are a better man than me.

I’m no expert on finishes but I would go ahead and use an oil base polyurathane. It’s a thicker coating and stays more flexible compared to water based finishes. If you’re worried about it lasting, apply three coats. In a year or two, you can light sand and apply a new coat in place.

Hope you feel better soon.

Ps. – “She” molding? Did you make a new custom trim profile for Martha? Ha!

-- mark - Grayslake IL.

;) ‘She molding’ um…. I was tempted to go there for just a minute.

Waiting for paint to dry at the moment. I’m not going to make any progress except that the transition pieces have been stained. I’ll get some oil based poly. Thanks for the tip Mark.

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.

Well, I had a few hours this evening. All the trim is installed. All that’s left is to caulk, touch up and clean up Agee spots on the floor. Not only that but I will get to call the entryway and the bar area complete because they were waiting for me to tie the living room trim in. I’m really kind of excited about that. So many things are done finally!

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.

Home stretch. Base boards and threshold jams caulked and painted. Walls touched up. Next – secure transition pieces and give a really close inspection.

-- Working on my home for 2 years and counting.