A floor to remember

Before

      After

       AUBURN, Maine — The pounding of hammers and loud whining of heavy-duty saws have ceased. The dust has settled and there is only silence in our empty kitchen, but a freshly installed floor has brought our galley back to life.  My kitchen no longer looks like it was hit by an errant RPG.

Two contractors single-handedly ripped apart our 60-year-old dingy kitchen floor, which was coming apart at the seams.

The floor project was put on hold to pay for my son's $5,000.00 smile.

A lot elbow grease went into removing the stubborn and ancient floor, which fought contractors Bruce Pinette and Bob... every damn step of the way before they laid down the off-white linoleum.


This is a dirty job, but these guys are equipped and possess the know-how that would give the cast of contractors on "This Old House" a run for their money in the home-remodeling business.


For three days, Bruce and Bob labored as they pulled, ripped, sawed and stapled their way across our filthy floor. Bob resorted to a roofing shovel to blast apart the cemented composite layer of flooring, which could probably survive a nuclear missile strike. Chips flew across the room as Bob broke a sweat. I was ready for a beer after watching them hammer away at my floor.


This was no job for amateurs.  And when they finished prying apart the floor — and our lives — they began nailing down expensive plywood in just over a day. Our kitchen has more angles than a pentagon and the house is a bit crooked thanks to time and nature. 


Everything has shifted, but thanks to Bob's precision cutting and Bruce's guidance, they made each piece of underlay fit snuggly.  


When you survive a project like this, you feel grateful to have your kitchen back without maneuvering around nail guns, saws, brooms and plywood. I missed my stove the most and am tired of having the refrigerator in my living room, although a cold beer is just feet away from me.  


This inconvenience was a small price to pay for a brand-new kitchen floor.  Before I decided to hire these two adept contractors, I entertained the notion of tackling this project myself.


Foolish me!


When I thought about going it alone, and being the journalist that I am, I began researching the project at Web sites like "This Old House." They all made it look simple and explained it could be done in hours.  That maybe true if you are Bob Villa surrounded by crew of expert handymen who know the difference between a hammer and a screwdriver. 


What I learned was that no project is simple and it would take weeks for newbie like me to complete such an undertaking — or just go berserk and throw up my hands.  I was no match for this task and that is why I turned to the experts.  


Mr. Pelletier and Bob, for the reasonable price tag of $2,200 busted their butts to do a great job and gave a tired-old kitchen a new lease on life.  


You could say we are floored by their master craftsmanship.

Weathering Mother Nature

AUBURN, Maine — The weather guys and gals were in the ball park this time.

 

This winter storms that packed a 1-2 punch hit New England dead on Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving about  a total of 15 inches of snow in their wake. But these were not epic snowstorms that shut down communities for days and left cars and trucks stranded on interstates across the six-state region.

 

The benchmark for all New Englanders who were around on that tranquil February day is the Blizzard of 1978, where Boston nearly received nearly three feet of snow in 33 hours, closed roads and highways for a week, and killed 76 people in New England. So these storms have got nothing on the '78 Blizzard.

If anything, these were run-of-the-mill storms that added aggravation to frustrated New Englanders who are hoping February makes a quick exit and March is balmy and sunny.

 

But it has been fun to watch TV reporters standing outside and measuring snow with their hands and tell us all what we already knew when we looked outside a window or picked up a shovel on Wednesday —  there was a lot of snow on the ground.

 

The white stuff fell fast, and you know it is a premium storm when the city snowplow driver yells from his window, "It fell too damn fast." 

 

Indeed it did, damn it!  

 

The driver of the plow smiled, and with one swipe of industrial-strength blade, my driveways were sealed with a barrier of heavy snow that resembled the Great Wall of China. There is not much a home owner can do when those mammoth snow plows bury driveways and walkways in one felt swoop. They are only doing their job. Yelling or signaling them with a middle finger to demonstrate your anger when snow is pushed across your driveway only proves you are a moron.

 

The white stuff can't stay in the street forever.

 

There are a pair of small storms on deck for Saturday and next Tuesday. Those storms will give us another couple of days to lament about Old Man Winter and his underhandedness.But I have made my peace with this grumpy old man, who will hang around for another two months before spring shoves him aside and turns white into green.  

Stormy weather

AUBURN, Maine - Doom is upon us.

That's what our weathermen have been prophesying since the weekend. This could be the big one — the one to dwarf all other snowstorms this season and perhaps end civilization as we know it in New England.

Time to head to the grocery store and buy food!

Armageddon is on our doorstep and the slayer of this frozen tundra is dressed in white. We now look to the skies and cower in our warm homes as another Nor'easter bears down on Maine.

Farewell world!

OK, enough with all this melodrama over Old Man Winter's assault on Merry Ole New England.

It is going to snow. That's what happens here in the Pine Tree State. It is supposed to snow, and zero temperatures are par for the course in the hinterlands. Can't take it? If you don't mind the bugs, alligators and humidity, head to Florida to avoid winter's onslaught.

According to weather prognosticators, most of this state will receive anywhere from 12 to 24 inches of the white stuff. Ski country will celebrate and roll out the welcome wagon when the skies open up and blanket the slopes with white gold. Our neighbors to our south, particularly winter-weary Boston, do not appreciate Old Man Winter's generosity with snow.

No sir!

Bostonians have been exasperated from these weekly storms that have made their narrow streets nearly impassable as the murder rate of car batteries skyrocket from arctic fronts that come and go like the tides at Revere Beach.

But this is Maine where snowmobilers, skiers, snowshoers and ice fishermen embrace snowstorms like an old friend from high school. Mainers expect snowstorms to unload on them and simply dress warmer when a cold front slips down from Canada. It is a compromise that all reluctant Mainers understand when a beautiful fall gives way to an ugly winter.

Anyway, it is going to snow hard on Wednesday and children will rejoice when school has been cancelled thanks Old Man Winter's icy hands. Confidence is high that school will be a no-go on Wednesday.

Mainers will do what they usually do when a snowstorm approaches. They will have a snow shovel handy, their snowblowers ready to go and meet another Nor'easter head on with the tenacity of  Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and his 20th Maine when they faced the Rebels at Little Round Top at Gettysburg in the summer of 1863.