The finished floor

I almost don't want to move furniture back in so that I can just look at it. This is the floor in the living room/tv area,

Looking from the laundry room through the kitchen to the dining room and door to the screened porch,

The view from the tv area to the front door (see the door has been framed and more tile has been laid. The top of the tile still needs to be capped and it gets grouted,)

the view from the front door as Todd was working on laying the tile.

This is in the TV room, the lid to the cistern (that wasn't yet covered with the ipe in the picture a few posts ago where Todd was laying the floor.)

Neatness in floor laying....

Okay, at the edges (close to the wall), you can't use the nail gun because there's not enough clearance to swing the hammer. So you either screw in the floorboards very close to the edge or do it through the board and cover the screwholes with plus. This is how Todd did it.

These pics loaded in the wrong order, but here is the finished product...
An unfinished plugged hole (with a spare plug lying beside it.)
Todd hammering in a plug. He first puts glue on the edges, then hammers it in.
Tools of the trade. Todd had saved the ends of boards from the pieces that needed plugs. He took them to the shop and used a drill press to drill these slightly tapered plugs. They get chiseled out, hammered in and then sawed flush to the floor.

The floor goes down...

Couldn't resist a picture of the six-month old cherub. This is her while her Dad pounds away with his nail gun.

A picture of the hearth that Todd finished (mostly) in the fall. He's still putting tile on the wall under the light switch to the left and tiling the mudroom to the front door (also on the left).
This shot shows how the tile and the ipe wood color go nicely together.
Todd pounds away. The square behind him is the cistern lid that now has wood on top of it. The lid will lift up with two recessed pulls that will the routed in to be flush. The door will be under a carpet and heavy so that no little people can pull it up and fall in.
Down the hall for the longest run of wood.
Todd finished laying all the ipe today. Tomorrow he has to fill little plugs where he screwed the wood in where it was too close to use the nail gun. He's also relaying the sycamore flooring in the small dressing room. Floor finishers will be here on Wednesday.

More updates

Here Todd is starting to lay the floor. Long pieces down the hall. The wood is ipe, it's hard and mostly used for decks. Grown (sustainably) in Brazil. The lengths are as long as 18 feet.
Before Todd could start laying the floor, he had to level at the join. The original house was two sections of the old modular, and it seems that leveling was not a big priority.
The wood for the floor has been in the house for a few weeks to dry.
Maudie and Dad in front of the Christmas tree--we had to get a more expensive tree this year so that it wouldn't look puny in our room with high ceilings.
This was in October when Todd did the surround and the wood stove. Thank goodness he got it installed in time for the weather because the winter has been brutal (but our electric bills have not!)Okay, I'm going to try to be a little more diligent about this. Maude is 6 months old, we got a roof over our head, slowly life is getting a little more normal.

Long silence ends...

We have to fast forward through six months...

Todd and Maude sitting in Miles' room--just finished in time for Oupi and Granny's arrival.The vanity Todd built in the hall bathroom. Cherry with sycamore inlays in the front.

Oh yes, I promised a last pregnant picture!The hall bathroom--with heated floor! Luxurious.