Simple Suburban Life: New Job and Failing Health

The Bible tells us that there is a time for everything and our family has been in a season of significant changes over the past several months.  Some are good, and some are not so good.  But we know that we are to count it all joy and trust our heavenly Father with it all.

The good news first.  At the beginning of September, I (the SSL mom) accepted the position of preschool director at our church.  Todd and I have been serving for several years together on the elementary side of the children's ministry and when this position opened up, we knew right away it was something we were being called to do.  We are five months into it and we have been so blessed by the people we have been able to meet, serve alongside and grow closer to.  Our entire family serves the Lord together, side-by-side, and it's amazing to be a part of it all.  But it did take some time getting used to our new roles, readjusting our schedules, and reevaluating our priorities.   And preschoolers are a WHOLE lot different than elementary kids.  Wet noses, wet pants, you name it, they do it.  And if you think just because you had kids of your own that you could do it, think again, they're a force to be reckoned with in high numbers.

More good transitions, we have a high schooler!  While it is bittersweet watching her grow up so fast, we are grateful for the young woman our oldest daughter is becoming.  She loves her sisters, the Lord and sports.  AND she starts driver's ed next week, so look out.  Since we know these next few years are going to fly by, we try to remind ourselves how much we are going to miss her clothes all over the floor and dishes strewn about her room when she moves out on her own.  We are also in the middle of her bedroom renovation, so everything she owns is all over the house, literally.  But thankfully, Todd is mudding her room as I type and we will be onto the plywood flooring very soon.

The difficult news is that my mom was officially diagnosed with ALS in October.  ALS is tricky and there isn't a definitive test for it, but we knew something was terribly wrong with her.  A little over a year ago, my mom started to have difficulty walking, talking and swallowing.  She progressively got weaker and weaker over the last year and we got the heartbreaking news in October.  She now communicates to us with her phone by texting and it will speak for her.  She eats through a tube in her stomach, and is almost exclusively confined to a wheelchair or her bed.  A ventilator breathes for her at night.  Our family is now in a season of caring for her, showering her with as much love as we possibly can, and doing things for her that she can no longer do herself.  This is perhaps the worst disease I have ever heard of.  It takes everything away from you.  She can't eat the foods she loves, we will never hear her voice again, we will never hear her laugh again.  My daughters can't play Just Dance with their grandma on her Nintendo like they used to. She is the best grandma I could ever ask for to my girls. They miss her voice, they hurt to see her so helpless, and they are trying so hard to process it all.  We are bearing down, pushing forward, and putting all of our hope and trust in God. While we don't always fully understand, we are confident He is working good into this situation.  And we know He is a God who heals.

We hope this update helps to explain some of the random projects Todd has been working on over the past few months.  The candy canes for the church's children's play, the bedroom renovations for our oldest (we've been promising her closets for years and realized time is running out!) and the wheelchair ramp and video doorbell for Mom.   We love sharing our way of life with you all and are so blessed when you send us your comments and pictures.  They mean more to us than you could ever know.

Your friend,
Lisa, the SSL Mom


"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."  Genesis 50:20

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Make Your Home Bright With Smart Lights! - ambiLite Wifi LED's

Check out this awesome smart lighting solution for your home. This is the latest addition to the Simple Suburban Living smart home and we absolutely love them so far!

These WiFi LED lights from ambiLite are easy to setup and can be used in any standard socket (U.S). The Simple starter kit that I have comes with 3 LED lights and the control module (Genie) that connects them to your home WiFi network. The range on the Genie seems to be pretty good and can easily reach from the top floor all the way to lights in the basement with no delay.

The Simple bulbs are adjustable from the app to any color temperature from 2700K to 6500k. This makes them great for use in any fixture and even grow lights if you do any type of indoor gardening in the winter months. I liked this feature as my wife and I sometimes disagree (what?) on the color our home lights should be. So now, I can switch them to 6500k(blue/white light) when she is not looking:)

The app also lets you control the brightness of the bulbs and for all of the controls you can group bulbs together or control up to four individually. the response of the controls is instant even if you are controlling them from away from home.

The app also has an alarm and sleep feature that is quite handy. The lights or group of lights can be set to come on at a certain time each day. This is a neat feature for hallways or even bedrooms where you want them to accompany your alarm clock or come on as the family is waking up for school or work. The sleep feature just allows you to delay the off command by slowly and gently dimming the bulbs to 0 over a minute or two. This is nice if you want to switch them off but still need to see for a minute before you are left in complete darkness:)

All in all these are the best value on the market for the features and easy of use. The kit can be added on to with the full range color Nabe set or more of the Simple bulbs as I have here. I will also be combining these with other smart home products for more control including motion, alarm systems etc. so stayed tunes for those products and videos in the future.

Check out the full video here

Simple Starter Kit - http://amzn.to/1Q3vv5H
Nabe(full color) Start Kit - http://amzn.to/2358Ahi
Simple Add-on bulbs - http://amzn.to/1OTV764
Nabe add-on bulbs - http://amzn.to/1OTVjlA

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What To Do With a Picked on Chicken

What do you do when one of your chickens starts to get picked on? In every flock of chickens there is a pecking order and sometimes the weaker smaller birds will start to get bullied, mean old chickens. We have not had any issues with this until just recently when we started noticing a lot of feathers scattered around the run and coop.

I started to investigate a few days ago and witnessed one of the larger chickens chasing the smallest one around and literally pull its feathers right out! Not just one at a time but bunches at once. I hoped that it would just lay low and heal up and all would be well in the SSL flock. I could not have been more wrong, by the next day there were more feathers and more bald spots on the hen.

I was starting to get concerned especially since it is winter here in Michigan and temps were dropping into the teens at night. Each day I would check on the hen and see that it had bunkered down in one of the nesting boxes; basically hiding from the rest of the chickens. I tried to feed it some scraps of food and gave it water.

Last night I went out to put the chickens in for the night and I opened the box to check on it and noticed blood all over the tail and wings. It was time to do something to help this little egg producer.

After some research and based off of what I have seen once the flock draws blood they will not stop until the hen is dead. There is something about the look or smell of blood to them that makes it irresistible and they will actually eat the chicken alive basically. Now, I know what some of your are thinking, take it to get slaughtered or put it out of it's misery. Well, no, not going to happen here. Number one I live with 4 girls in this house and if I wanted to continue to sleep inside I don't think that is an option. Number 2, the meat is no good at this age and this chicken still has a year or two of egg production left so I want to save our investment. And, oh yeah, I don't like to see the little runt chicken suffering!

At this point the only thing you can do is separate the chicken from the flock in some way. In our case, the easiest thing to do is to bring it inside our basement or garage and let it heal up. I had and old dog crate that will work just perfectly. Since our garage is a mess right now the basement seems like the logical choice.

Is it weird that I now have a pet chicken in the house? The answer is, yes! But, it is nice to be able to go down and collect an egg without having to go out in the cold so there is that to think about. Maybe I should move the coop inside too! Don't tell my wife that I said that or seriously, it will happen.

I will give an update on this little hen down the road after a full recovery. My only further concern is will it happen again? I may have to separate the bullying chickens for awhile when I reintroduce this one but either way I will take you along and let you know how it turns out. Good luck to all you chicken owners out there and as always let me know if I can help anyone out there in anyway. Have a good one!

Check out the full video here

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The RING Video Doorbell - See who's knocking!

I have recently installed a new video doorbell at our suburban homestead and man is this thing cool! We have been having fun playing with some new technology and thought it would be nice to share the process of installation and what we thought of it with you.

This is not an official review of the product but I will share my opinion of it so far and what I thought of installation. The Ring video doorbell comes with everything you need to get it setup and installed quickly and easily. The setup comes with an easy to follow guide and as you install the app on your phone it walks you right through connecting to your home wifi. Once connected to wifi you can answer a series of questions and then watch a detailed installation video right from your phone while you install or just follow along the paper instructions.

Once the doorbell is connected to wifi the next step is to cut power to the current doorbell switch. This can be done by taking one of the wires off of the 24v transformer which is normally in a utility closet, basement, or crawlspace. I installed two of these this week and the second one I could not find the transformer so I hooked it up without cutting power with no issues. The old doorbell should come off pretty easily with a few screws and the wires detached. If you didn't cut the power obviously make sure these wires do not touch each other or you will have all kinds of issues.

The install kit comes with the mounting bracket for any surface, a masonry bit (if needed) and a level that mounts in the bracket for install. Hold the bracket to the desired location and market the four hole locations. Pre drill the holes and then attach the bracket with the provided screws.
Once the bracket is mounted connect the two 24 wires (it doesn't matter which terminal is red or white). Next, the doorbell itself will clip onto the bracket and then then security screws will screw in from the bottom. The doorbell is now setup and working!

From the app on your phone or the RING website you can now setup the motion sensor range and name your doorbell's location (ours was "front door"). Now get outside and test it out, it should detect your approach to the door and chime on your mobile device before you even ring the bell. Of course, if you ring the doorbell it should chime in your home and on your device. I did notice a bit of a delay with this on my phone especially when I was not at home but it does work quite well.

The cloud recording subscription saves each interaction on the web and allows you to go back and view any motion triggers or rings of the bell at anytime. We love having this device setup and it is so nice while I am working to just be able to look at my phone to see who is at the door rather than stopping work to answer. I can speak to through the doorbell and they can speak back with me, a great addition and beginning to our "smart home"!

Check out the full video here

The RING Video Doorbell on Amazon

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Preparing Barrels for Grow Beds- Aquaponics or Hydroponics

Every aquaponics or hydroponics setup needs to start with a good set of grow beds. But, what should you choose? Cement mixing trays, PVC pipe, gutters, pond liner with wood boxes, troughs, feeders, waterers; there are so many options! The best option in my opinion, for an aquaponics system especially, is these 55 gallon plastic barrels. They are cheap, durable, food safe, and generally come with food products in them so they are easy to prep. Below is a method that I have developed to get these cut perfectly in half and ready for your setup.

I have used both the white and the blue 55 gallon drums but I prefer the blue ones. These generally come with food materials in them and are easiest to clean. In my first system I used the white ones and they had some type of cleaner in them. A quick trip to the power washer took care of it but I was always unsure if I had removed it all well enough. I have had the best luck on Craigslist finding these and pay between $10-$20 depending on how far I want to drive to get them.

 There are a couple of different types of plastic that you should be aware of when working with anything you are growing food in. Some  grades and types of plastic are safe while some are not.

HDPE, Vinyl, LDPE, PP, and PS are some of the labels that you will see, most commonly HDPE, which is High Density Polyethylene. All of these listed here are considered food grade or food safe plastics. I have also seen the label above "PE-HD" with the same recycling symbol (2). I can't say why it is labeled differently but it is also supposed to be High Density Polyethylene and food safe.



 Now down to the fun part, cutting stuff! For a perfect grow bed you need two perfect halves. There are two methods to accomplish this. the first is to just follow the seem with a circular saw and cut the barrel in half. The only problem with that method is that the seam goes right through the bung on each side of the top lid rendering them useless. This is fine if you do not plan to use them and I have actually done this for some of mine. However, the best way is to leave them intact. So how do you cut a cylinder perfectly in half? Well, the easiest way is to first make yourself a larger square. I screwed these two pieces of 2X4 together at a perfect 90 degree angle to use here. You could also use a large carpenters square.

Start by measuring out and marking the center point on the top of the barrel lid. Then use a square to draw a perpendicular line across the top of the barrel. This will give you your references to draw down the sides. Now, use your large square placed on the lid to match up to the line on the top and transfer it down the side of the barrel on each side. You can then transfer the line onto the bottom on each side and connect the two together. You now have a perfectly straight line to follow with your saw. You can cut these anyway that you would like but I have found a circular saw to be the easiest. You could also use a reciprocating saw, saber saw, jig saw, hand saw, router, dremel, angle grinder, etc.

What you end up with is two perfectly neat and equal halves with the threaded bungs intact and centered at the bottom of each barrel. These are very useful for connecting barrels together, external bell siphons, water supply piping and other things I am sure I have not thought of yet. I will talk more about installing these and building a frame for them in a later post and video, until then, thanks for stopping by!

Full Video here

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How to Make Giant Candy Cane Decorations

I was asked to help with some props for the Christmas play this year and so I signed up to make some giant candy canes, seems easy enough, right? I started by looking around on Pinterest, Google, and YouTube for ideas. I wasn't impressed with what I was finding and so I came up with a design of my own. There are some great ideas out there using larger PVC piping and cardboard tubes but the cost and time required was too much for what I was in for. So I decided on the following process.

You will need

2 10' sections of 1/2" PVC pipe
2 rolls of white duct (duck) tape
2 rolls of red duct (duck) tape
4 pool noodles
Hair dryer or heat gun
Some scrap wood and piece of plywood (could also use a deck or come up with a  different way to bend the pipe)

Step 1 - Start by laying out the shape of the candy cane on the plywood. I used a trash can lid to trace the curves and adjusted it until I liked how it looked.

Step 2 - Cut up some small pieces of scrap wood and nail or screw them along the line you have drawn. Alternate pieces on each side of the line leaving space in between for the PVC pipe

Step 3 - Start to feed the PVC pipe through the template heating it with the heat gun or hair dryer as you push it through. This process takes a bit of time, just keep applying heat, alternating sides, and pushing the pipe further into the template in increments.

Step 4 - Once the pipe is shaped and cooled pull it out of the template and then slide two pool noodles over the PVC pipe. Cover all of the pipe except for whatever is left over a the bottom. You can cut this extra piping off and make the candy canes as tall as you need them to be.

Step 5 - Start with the white tape and wrap a piece around the seam between the two pool noodles. Then starting at the top, wrap the white tape around the noodles on an angle until you get to the bottom. Do this about three times until all of the pool noodle is covered in white tape.

Step 6 - Starting at the top, wrap the red tape around at an angle (like a candy cane) until you get to the bottom. This is the hardest part, try to keep the tape flat and evenly spaced as you wrap it. This is best done with two people, have one person hold the candy cane and the other hold the tape. Have one person turn the entire candy cane as the other applies the tape. You may have to work with it a little bit before you get it the way you want it.

Check out the full video here

Red Duck tape - http://amzn.to/1NUawEL
White duck tape - http://amzn.to/1NUayfG
Pool noodles - http://amzn.to/1NUaAEA

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Easy Homemade Spray Cleaner

Stop buying expensive chemical cleaners! We are not the first to use this type of cleaner but it is simple and effective and costs almost nothing! This is the process we use to  mix up a cheap and simple cleaner that can be used on counters, windows, bathrooms, etc. 

The first step is to grab a cheap dollar store spray bottle or use an empty spray bottle of your choice just be sure to wash out whatever was in it thoroughly.

There are many ways to make your own cleaners depending on what you have access to. We like to start with vinegar in ours and mix with some warm water as a base. I general fill the bottle up about 1/4 with warm water and then the rest of the way with vinegar. This is not an exact science so you can adjust it as you need.

 At this point you have just created a very effective and cheap cleaner. You can stop right here and use it for counters and anywhere you would normally use Fantastic or similar cleaners. But if you want something with a bit more cleaning power, a better scent, and antibacterial properties essentials oils will be needed. The SSLFamily Mom as a post on essentials oils here and links to where you can buy them if you want.

There are infinite combinations and concoctions that you can make with essentials oils but I love to add lemon to just about anything, cleaners included. I normally add between 15-20 drops of the lemon oil, it is cheap and adds a great fragrance to the cleaner as well as helps the cleaning power. I have also recently started adding oregano oil as well. Just a couple of drops; this stuff is more expensive and potent! The oregano oil acts as an anti-fungal and anti-bacterial in the cleaner. Added bonus - smells like a pizza while you clean:)

We have not purchased any cleaners in quite some time here on the Simple Suburban Homestead and I don't see any reason for us to go back. Using these homemade and chemical free options is cheaper, safer, and as an added bonus the kids can use them too! No need to open windows when you clean the bathroom or worry about the kids getting things in their eyes or on their skin. Although I am not sure I would spray this directly in your eye (it would probably not feel  good) lemon in the eyes, ouch!

As an added feature you can sprinkle some baking soda on countertops, floors, etc and then use the spray cleaner. The vinegar and baking soda react and the foaming can help lift and wash away dirt as well.

Check out the full video here

Lemon oil -  http://amzn.to/1HRg80d
Oregano oil - http://amzn.to/1HRgmo2

Spray bottles - http://amzn.to/1PqW2H9

All of these products and more recommended items from the SSL Family are available at the

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Fixing Leaks with Flex Seal

When I began building my indoor aquaponics system a couple of years ago I made a few (a lot) of mistakes preparing the barrels and cutting holes. I found various easy (but not very pretty) ways to seal up these lapses in judgement. The most common method I have used to fix a 2" or smaller hole was with small pieces of plastic and silicone. I cut off the lid of a plastic food container like sour cream or cottage cheese and then used small screws and silicone to seal up the hole. This worked great for a while but I noticed the silicone seems to break down after about a year and leaks began to form.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Flex Seal to try and demo some of their products and I couldn't have been happier since I was sick of emptying little plastic drip catching bowls! The product comes in several colors so I choose to try the clear for this application since it would look the least intrusive on the white barrels. Flex Seal is a spray on rubberized coating that can be applied to pretty much anything that needs to be sealed.

I started by turning off the aquaponics system and bringing the water level below the area that needed to be patched up. The surface needs to be clean in order for the Flex Seal to stick so I removed any old silicone and then used my homemade spray cleaner to remove any dirt, oils, or debris from the area.


Once the area was prepped I started to spray on the Flex Seal. After some vigorous shaking I applied a light first coat and let it dry for a few hours. I then came back and sprayed on a second coat. I let this dry overnight and then first thing in the morning I sprayed on a few more coats letting it dry for 3-5 hours in between. This gave me a nice buildup of the sealant over the area and since the product is a bit thin going on it seeps into all of the small cracks and holes to create a fairly ridge waterproof seal.

Once the product had fully dried (24 hours to be sure) I fired on the pumps and air stones and let things start cycling as normal. It works! No leaks and the area looks much better than I expected and doesn't catch your eye when you look at the system. I couldn't be happier with Flex Seal so far and I am starting to think of all of the others areas I could use it around the house.

Check out the full video here

Flex Seal Clear - http://amzn.to/1Ny8R17
Flex Seal Black - http://amzn.to/1Ny8TpS

Flex Seal Website - http://flexsealproducts.com/

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Sanding and Finishing Plywood Flooring + Cost Estimate

Plywood flooring is complete!  I could not be happier with  how this turned out and may end up doing the other rooms in our home with this same process. If you have not seen the process of creating the plywood flooring please check out the article here or the full video here.

Before I got started with staining I chose to run over the entire floor with a 150 grit power sander. I did not spend a whole lot of time on it just enough to take any dings, dents, and scuff marks out that I most likely added while installing the flooring. Once this was done I cleaned the entire room as best as possible with a vacuum and damp towels and we were ready for stain.

I chose a Minwax dark walnut stain to give the floor a dark old farmhouse kind of look. You can apply this stuff many ways but what I found to be the best was a homemade creation as usual:) I used an old Swiffer mop handle and head and stuck a cotton t-shirt to it. I dipped the contraption in the stain using a paint tray and then spread it on the flooring. This saved my back, a lot of time, and applied the stain fairly evenly.

  After the first coat things were starting to look really good but a little bit lighter than we had hoped.

 Two coats of the stain were applied about 24 hours apart which gave the floor a deep rich color that we absolutely loved. It was really starting to come together now. This is the point at which I began feeling relieved that this project was going to turn out exactly  how we wanted it to.

Once the stain fully dried we were ready to start putting on the final protective coating. We chose a Minwax flooring polyurethane to seal the floor.  This seemed to be the best, most durable, and easiest to apply option.

I started applying the poly one coat at a time with a small paintbrush. This method worked very well and although a bit slow, this stuff goes on very easily. I applied 4 coats of poly allowing each coat to dry for 6-12 hours before putting on the next. This is a quick drying poly so you can put it on in as little as 4 hours if you would like.  I did not sand between coats; as directed this stuff is supposed to dry pretty flat without needing to sand each coat.

 After 4 coats were applied I chose to do one round of sanding to knock out a few bumps I was starting to notice and some dog hair that somehow floated into the room and had dried into the finish, stinkin' dog! I used a power sander with 220 grit paper and I did not push very hard at all while sanding. I just let the weight of the sander float on the floor until it was smoothed over very lightly.

Next I cleaned the floor with a damp cloth and applied the final coat of poly. I applied this final coat a bit thicker and let it dry over night.

After the final coat was dry the floor was safe to walk on and inspect and it looks awesome! It turned out much better than I could have imagined and the poly makes the flooring so durable. Even though this is a "soft" wood (pine) it is now very hard and resists scratches and scuffs very well. I will do a follow up on this project next year and update on how well it holds up to the changes in seasons and wear and tear or a 9 year old:)  

How much did it cost? The room that I was covering was about 165 square feet and the total cost was about $253. This works out to about $1.50 per square foot and is much cheaper than traditional hardwood flooring.

Check out the full video here

Dark Walnut Stain - http://amzn.to/1jxBmnY

Polyurethane - http://amzn.to/1O2bSHJ

Porter Cable Brad Nailer - http://amzn.to/1O2chdh

All of these products and more recommended items from the SSL Family are available at the Simple

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DIY Plywood Flooring - An inexpensive hardwood alternative

Plywood flooring? Check out this inexpensive alternative to traditional wood flooring that you can do for less than half the cost. Although plywood flooring is not as durable as a solid wood floor it is by far less expensive and with the proper treatment can last many many years in great condition.

I started this project in order to give some relief to my middle daughter who suffers from allergies and asthma. The carpet was old and when you walk on carpet, no matter how clean you think you get it, it kicks up dust and allergens. It was time for something different for her. Although this was a priority we didn't have the  money in the budget for a new hardwood floor and after looking into other options (reclaimed wood, laminates, etc.) we decided to give the plywood flooring a try. I have seen a few other videos and posts around on the net and it seems most have pretty good results.

So, with a budget in mind I was off to our local building store (you guess which one). Our room was 165 square feet so I needed to get about six sheets of plywood to cover the area. That is based on 32 square feet per sheet with a little bit extra. I ended up going with a thicker plywood than I had originally thought because I really liked how flat the sheets laid and also for long term durability. I chose 23/32" pine sanded plywood for $29.98 per sheet. There are lots of choices here and you can go with a hardwood plywood or a thinner softwood to cut cost even further but I would recommend spending the extra money and at least getting the sanded ply that is about 3/4" thick.

Once I had the plywood chosen I loaded up with the help of some of the associates there and asked if they could hook me up and cut some of the plywood for me. After all, who wants to cut 6 sheets of plywood into stripes:) I was going for 8" planks since this divided evenly from 32 and it seemed like a good size for that farmhouse look. They said they could cut it into 16" stripes for me but no less due to safety concerns. ( I went back for more on a second trip and they did cut it down to 8" except for the last cut on each piece of plywood).

Back home I had already removed that nasty carpet and padding and also took out the moldings along the floor. I then laid down some roofing paper or tar paper that I had left over from another project to cover the subfloor. I used a staple gun to secure it to the floor. This will provide a sound barrier and also liquid barrier for the OSB subfloor below.

Out in the garage I used my $5 super fancy table saw to rip the boards that were not cut at the store into 8" strips. I then carried them inside and placed them in the room for a day or so to acclimate to the humidity and temps inside.

I wanted each plank to be a bit pronounced from it's neighbor and my wife came up with the idea of rounding the edges. The thought of rounding the edges of all of those planks was a bit overwhelming at first but it actually didn't take that long at all. I made a quick sanding block from a piece of 2X4 and sandpaper and quickly knocked the edge off of all of the top edges. I went through first and picked out the best sides and stacked them accordingly to make things easier.

 Now the fun part, nailing! I started by using a chalk line to mark a line long ways down the room at close to the middle of the floor. This gave mea  good starting point to work outward in both directions with the planks. I didn't want to just start on one side and work all the way across fearing that I might be off by too much for the molding to cover once I reached the other side. I am using a pneumatic brad nailer to secure the planks with 1 1/4" nails.

I chose to use a random pattern with everything. So no two seams will line up and no two nails are right next to each other. This was easiest to layout, looks the nicest, and has the least amount of waste.

I did not leave any gaps between boards either on the sides or at the ends. Most of this wood is fairly "wet" still and will shrink a bit. Also, plywood by design does not expand and contract much vertically so I am hoping for no real expansion and contraction issues. Only time will tell and I will keep you updated on that.

 I couldn't be happier with the first stage of this process, it looks like a real old school farmhouse floor. The boards lay nice and flat and the sanded edges make them look like hardwood planks. In the next phase I will go through sanding and finishing the flooring to give them a classic hardwood look. Stay tuned for that article and video soon. Thanks for checking it out!

 Check out the full video of this project here

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