The case of the missing pencil

Yesterday I learned two things. One of our supervisors, Dennis, taught us how to install Prego interlocking laminate flooring in Justin's bedroom. It wasn't quite as easy as the commercials on television, but it was so satisfying to see the room transform before your eyes.

The only tools required are a pencil for marking the length of the piece at the end of each row, a chop saw to cut the end pieces, and a block of wood and a hammer to"persuade" the pieces to interlock securely. We were a little slow at the beginning, and a little uncoordinated, trying to keep our tools close by so that we didn't have to get up and down too often since my knees don't like that very much. We kept losing our pencils, but there was always someone working nearby to offer another.

We were so pleased to see it coming together and we almost done when our foreman arrived on the scene. As he walked into the room, he got a very strange look on his face. Suddenly he started jumping around on the floor. To our surprise there was a lump under the flooring. Now what were we going to do?

Neil got a long straight edge and started fishing under the floor. Was it the foam under layer that got wrinkled or could it be the sub flooring that was lumpy? No. it was the pencil we had lost! Boy was I glad that we found it before he'd nailed down the threshold!

So today I learned that like you count sponges in the OR, you have to count pencils when you lay flooring. :-)
Cheryl