engineered flooring

• Engineered Flooring HOWTO v2.0- I don't like drywall. I like plaster. I don't like composite mouldings. I like hardwood. Heck, I don't even like prefab mouldings. I like to cut my own. So why would I like something as new-fangled and artificial as engineered flooring?
  
  Actually, I don't. Even though I went through bloody hell to lay those herringbone floors in the living room, solid hardwood is still my first choice. But there were reasons why engineered flooring was the better option for the second floor in my house. One is that I didn't want to add an extra 1.25" to the height of the top stair. That's what would have been required if I'd gone with 3/4" hardwood. I can't count the number of times I've tripped because of uneven stair heights, on one occasion fracturing a shoulder. Also, an engineered floor has a finish at least twice as hard as that of any job-site applied finish. With two big dogs tearing up my hardwood floors downstairs that's not a small selling point for me.
  
  Just to be clear, engineered flooring is in a different class from laminate a/k/a Pergo™ flooring. It's got a facing of real hardwood over a plywood backing. You can even sand them, although the best grades have 30 year warranties. Here's a pretty good engineered flooring FAQ so I won't go into the details, except that I chose Mannington's Ashville Oak Plank -- the same stuff I used in my office and guest room and which has held up very well.
  
• Phase 7: The Wrath of Details- Today officially begins the scheduled start of the next major phase of the renovation at My Old House: the rebuilding of the master bedroom and upstairs hallway. It started like most of my scheduled projects. In other words, it didn't.
  
  Dykes Lumber, which was given instructions to call me before delivery, arrived yesterday when I must have been out walking the grovelers. Granted, it's a contractor size order but, sheesh, even GC crews take lunch breaks, guys. They didn't call to confirm that they were even delivering yesterday so I could at least hang a note. For that matter, I still don't know what the charge is, although I'm figuring in the $2500 range.
  
  The delivery was rescheduled for Monday which isn't much of a setback because my weekend is shot anyway. I got volunteered to work with a bunch of dog people on the neighborhood dog run. DOT dumped 30 tons of wood chips just inside the dog run fence in a long mound, which provides a handy springboard for the more energetic pups (like Auggie) to jump the fence. So it's shovels and rakes for me this weekend. I'm glad my next door neighbor is a chiropractor.
  
  I thought of hooking the dogs to a plow and letting them do all the work. It would serve 'em right but where would I rent a plow in Brooklyn?
• Guest Room-

  Renovation By The Numbers

  
  A few House page viewers asked me to walk them through a typical room renovation. This room already had a lightweight renovation when I moved in and needed to set up my office quickly. Now it will undergo a complete refab for a guest room.
  
  Generally speaking, I have a few fixed strategies for renovation, at least in this house:
  
  
  • Preserve the plaster whenever possible. Some people do drywall rehabs, then spend a bundle paying someone to skim coat blue board so it looks like plaster. Plaster is superior to drywall for sound and durability so it makes sense to save it.
    
  • Replace old electrical with new BX and boxes. Romex is legal here but I don't like pulling plastic-sheathed cable through nail-strewn walls. Romex also means another wire hookup inside the box.
    
  • New floors.