Losing my cool.

It isn’t very often that I get angry or upset. Even more rarely will I lose my cool. All in all I’m a pretty level-headed guy – I don’t require much to remain happy. Trissa even likes to call me “LMN”, for “Low Maintenance Nick.” But if you pound a nail through my new and expensive radiant floor, causing water to squirt out, watch out. I’ll definitely get mad.

This is exactly what I did Sunday night, and I can only blame myself. We spent most of Saturday cleaning up the reclaimed fir flooring that is slated for reinstallation in the living and dining rooms, and on Sunday I was anxious to start laying it down. Several other chores took priority and it wasn’t until about noon that I headed to Home Depot to rent the flooring nailer. My plan was to work all afternoon and evening and get the floor laid in one shot.

One shot was all it took. Around 5:30 I was getting tired and hungry, and told myself “just one more row before dinner”. Two-thirds of the way through that row I swung the hammer and froze. No. Can’t be. For every other swing I’ve paused to check to see that the gun wasn’t aligned with a tube in the subfloor. This one I forgot – what are the chances? No. Tell me NO. It looks bad – the nail went in very close to the tube. It’s the first nail in the board, and I know I have to take it up to check. I pry it up, and S H I T – WATER IS SPRAYING!

Trissa ran to the manifold and turned it off while I began a ten minute cursing session.

Later that night I emailed Paul Pollets, our heating contractor. Fortunately his crew was scheduled to show up the next morning to hook up our remote-thermostat, and I asked that he make sure to have them bring along a splice kit.

The next morning - $140 and 15 minutes later (!) – worker Kelly smartly repaired my puncture. He’s a real pro – he didn’t even snicker or scold me. I got an email from Paul later welcoming me to the “Hit it Here” club. I’m not planning on becoming a repeat member…

Here’s the nail:

Here’s the $140 splice:

And here’s the idiot: