Why RaceDeck?

When I started this quest I started at Garage Flooring Inc. because they at least were up front on their prices compared to RaceDeck & Swisstrax. I asked for some samples so I could see what these things looked like. They sent me three 3″ square pieces of tiles in the colors and styles I asked for. I played with patterns and colors and even ordered another set of 3 sample pieces.

For fun I went to the other two competitors and designed a similar floor and asked for quotes. Swisstrax’s cost was like 3 times the cost of Garage Flooring Inc., they are obviously aiming at the Porsche & Ferrari markets, not Miata owners.

Racedeck came back about 25% more than the Garage Flooring Inc. Hmmm. These folks also had something that intrigued me, a tile that interlocked with the typical plastic tiles, but had a covering of commercial grade carpet on top. Because our laundry room is in the back of the garage we have a rug runner along side the car to walk back and forth, this might be a nice alternative to putting that runner back over the top of the tiles. I asked for three different samples, including one of the carpet tiles.

They sent me 3 full size tiles! No bitty pieces for them and they got my request right the first time. And if you look above you can see that the underside of the full RaceDeck tile is much more substantial looking than the smaller Garage Flooring Inc. piece. So I placed an order. Estimated delivery date 7/20.

This Is It!

Tomorrow is the last dose of the second course of steroids and I handled it real well over vacation and the first day at work, but for some reason, reason ran off the rails today and continues unabated into the weeds tonight.

I am not allowed to change this pattern! I’ve just spent the last 3 hours playing around with various patterns for the garage floor tiles. Any number of checkerboards, stripes, diagonals and at least twice randomly selecting colors then randomly selecting squares…

The right hand side is 2-wide carpet tile aisle that interlocks with the regular tiles (it is there because that is the path by the car to the laundry room.) The other 2-wide outside areas are the regular coin tiles in Graphite which is similar in color to the carpet. The center section is 4 x 4 checkerboard squares of Alloy & Royal Blue grated flow tiles for drainage.

Smooth Trip, Rough Return

We have found coach seat nirvana for our flights of 4-1/2 to 5-1/2 hours over to Seattle, a Boeing 767-300. Its two – three – two seating gives us ample opportunity to not have to climb over anybody to get up and stretch or take a nature break1. Plus no possibility of a drunk napping on my shoulder during the flight. Both our flights out and back went un-bumpily smooth and 10 – 20 minutes quicker than advertised. No unruly kids ahead or behind and no crying babies anywhere.

We got back to ATL, ate a quick dinner at the terminal, collected our car and were on the road east by 8:00 PM. This, it turns out is the only time I have ever seen the bottom southeast quadrant of the I-285 beltway uncrowded. It was eerily empty. Even the normal 2-mile back up to transition to I-20 was wide open. There was more traffic near Washington Road in Augusta when we got there at 10:30 than around Atlanta…

When we go away for a week or more vacation we lock the thermostat to 77 or 78 so as not waste all that effort cooling the whole house down for the silk plants. When I took off the hold, I could hear the condenser kick on. The temp said it was 79, and I thought to myself, “That’s going to take a while to get down to comfortable.” As we went about our typical unloading of the car, tossing stuff in the laundry hamper, checking mail, staring into our empty refrigerator, we realized there was no cold air coming out from the vents.

Opened the bedroom window and could see/hear compressor running. Shut off thermostat. Reset, even though it wasn’t tripped, the A/C breaker. Turned the thermostat back on, the compressor came on, but still no air.

It was still 79° in the hall and the humidity was at 98.9%, we were in for a long night. We took cold showers, turned on all the ceiling fans to high and went to bed. I did eventually fell asleep, but poor Donna tossed and turned almost all night. At 5:00 I woke, found her in the other bedroom and said, “Hey, lets bike ride to Ridgecrest for breakfast, at least start the day right.”

By 2:00 PM we had cold air coming from the vents for about the cost of one of our round trip tickets to Seattle, but worth every penny of it.

98552 Humptulips, WA

98552 Humptulips, WA

OK, we are back home and I’ve about finished up the second course of steroids. As a favor to you I posted a picture from the trip everyday because everyone knows a picture is worth a thousands words. As a favor to me I didn’t have to try and tamp down the verbiage. And as a favor to my editor who would have had to make it intelligible.

Regular posting will continue tomorrow. I’ve got a nice one about our welcome home, what our best moments were on the trip and one about our biggest disappointment. Maybe I’ll go back and add a story about each day under the picture of the day or maybe I’ll add them as I go along. Oh, and it is time for a garage flooring update.