Bamboo Flooring, Part 1

Over the past few months, we have also been working on installing the bamboo flooring upstairs, starting with the east bedroom. The first step was demolition of the carpet.

Then came more tedious prep work. The subfloor is oriented strand board rather than plywood, and the quality of installation is less than stellar. We could not find a self-leveling compound that can be used on OSB, so we tacked down layers of tar paper to even out edges and other unlevel spots. We also removed the baseboards and undercut the door trim to allow the flooring to slip underneath.

After unrolling and trimming the underlayment to fit came the fun part - installation of the bamboo planks. The flooring is Mohawk Uniclic, which snaps together along both the long and short sides of the boards, requiring methodical left-to-right and front-to-back installation. To maximize the salvaged pieces, we used previously cut planks as much as possible.

The east bedroom is done, except the closet, which can use small scrap boards left at the end. Installation went quickly, but the next area will be more challenging. The hallway will require some creative cutting and gluing to come together.

Wildlife

It's been too long since we last posted. By late June, the baby martins had grown as big and sleek as the adults and were eating whole insects.

Before long, they left to join hundreds of other purple martins in the undeveloped fields to the east of our house before migrating onward.

The barn swallows laid another round of eggs much too late in the year and raised three babies in sweltering heat. Once they got their feathers, the little swallows spent most of their time standing on the edge of the nest, panting.

Recently, we've spotted multiple tiny geckos around the house.

With all of these animals living nearby, we have applied for Certified Wildlife Habitat status from Wildlife Austin and the National Wildlife Federation. Our neighborhood is competing with others in Austin to have the most habitats certified this year!