entry nº 17 // 20180204

Squad Leader Justin, a blip’s appeared on the hyperspace radar! 

–another example sentence from my japanese dictionary app

in the month of october, shoko + i went big-time on some apartment renovations. well, kind of big time, i guess. walls? painted ‘em. bedroom floor? painted it. just kidding. really we just ripped up the old, gray carpet, and put in laminate wood flooring. wow. i was on my own for the bulk of the flooring project [shoko had to work] which included putting down floor joists over the concrete, plywood subfloor on top of that, and then the laminate flooring itself. 

it was certainly a roller coaster ride at times, in there. certain elements i was just unsure about: in the states when you put in flooring, it’s like, leave gaps around the walls or else due to expansion + the forces of nature etc. your shit’s gonna be all warped somewhere down the line. but here, every sort of instruction i could find just seemed to show the guy pushing the flooring up tight against the wall? though this is all in japanese so for all i know the dude in the video could be saying “although i am pushing the laminate up tight against the wall in this tutorial video that i am making, you, at home, should definitely not do what i am doing, as it would be incredibly, unforgivably stupid to do so” or something along those lines. i’d like to think my listening comprehension is of a level where i’d pick up on that, but i mean, you never know? 

so as i’m getting this thing going it’s like, ugh, do i leave a gap? don’t leave a gap? visions of shoko’s dad ten years down the road pissed at me for the warped, heaving floors in the bedroom of his once-beloved beach condo, raining shame down upon me in front of my own children, who will never again respect me or listen to me, etc. the voice of some american contractor guy on youtube ringing in my ears being like, “eh, some fuckin’ idiot tried to put in his own flooring, didn’t leave a gap, and now here i am, gotta rip it all up and do it over, more money in my pocket, heh heh…”. and on the other hand, the very kind man in the instructional video provided on the website of the home center where we bought the flooring, in his little specially-constructed demo room built for the express purpose of showing me, the consumer, how to do it right. and him just sliding that laminate tight up against the wall like it’s the most natural, beautiful thing in the world, like breathing, or sunshine. nailing it right down w/ a sense of self-assuredness that i thought people only had in movies or classic works of literature. 

(anyway i ended up leaving a gap, okay? of course, came out a hair wider than the baseboard along one wall, so i had to kind of double up the baseboard there which is luckily covered up by the bed and a wardrobe so you don’t really see it, but still….)

worst part of the whole project? no power tools. cross cut on an 30cm piece of flooring? it’s fine, whatever. but rip cut along the 1.8m length of one of those fuckers? not super fun. though it was cool to try to hone my technique w/ the pull saw. (later on, on a subsequent trip to the home center, we saw that they had various power tools for rental – including circular saws – for about $3.50 a day. “son of a gun,” i thought to myself.)

best part of the whole project? the bedroom looks super nice now, feels fresh + new + bright. i’m glad we did it + glad i had the experience + i’m glad it’s over. kicked things off w/ a new bedspread, too, some new art on the wall – it’s great. and during the couple of days the bedroom was under construction, we camped out in the living room, which was also super fun. like having a sleepover with your partner in your own house. 

second best part of the whole project? the home center gives you a free hour rental of a little japanese farmer-style pickup truck when you buy big stuff. i got to drive it. it was awesome. more on that later.