Winters’ Wonders

Last week with the late spring snowstorm had me thinking about a family in Southeast Minneapolis that we worked the week before Christmas. The project was to install laminate flooring. The homeowner had ripped out the old carpeting the weekend before, which helped us out a lot. We had the entire week to install the laminate flooring, but to our surprise on the first day we were out on site, we found the old carpet had originally been glued down. 

With the carpet out of the way, we still had to smooth out the floor and remove the glue in order to prep for the new underlayment. For two and a half days, we were bent over on our knees scrapping glue, pulling staples, and hammering in nails that were sticking out. At first we tried scrapping the glue off with our five-in-one tools and scrapers, but found it was a long process. Then we tried using flooring adhesive remover which made a bigger mess than we expected. The adhesive remover made the floor slippery and sticky, making it both hard and easy to work with, but it helped.

The homeowner and her children had worked side by side with us during the time that we were on site. She had three children, two boys around the ages of 8 and 10 and a little girl that was just a few months old. Each day, when we arrived, the homeowner was ready to work. She would tell us how eager her boys were about the new flooring and how they were anticipating Christmas and couldn’t wait to put up the Christmas tree once the flooring was done. When her two sons came home from school, they would jump in and work alongside us. Of course, the first thing they would ask is, “is it almost done? When can we put up the Christmas tree?”

We were eager to finish the project in time for Christmas that on Thursday, we had volunteers the entire ABWK field staff working on the installation. By Friday before lunch, we had the laminate flooring installed. It felt great to have accomplished that project and to know how happy the homeowner and her kids were to finally put up their holiday decorations, just in time for Christmas.