Attic, revisited

This is what our attic room looked like a few days ago:

And this is what it looks like today:


And the other side:


We decided to have the hired help do this work since I'm unable to haul heavy OSB upstairs, and my ability to climb into the attic is diminishing daily. While they were measuring and marking and cutting and attaching the studs, I worked on hanging insulation and attaching metal plates between the new studs and the old roof framing.

The dark wooden post in the last picture could not be removed, so we had to angle the wall to avoid it. (If we had been able to take it out, we would have built a bench seat over the ductwork.) From there, it goes straight back to meet the other wall at 90 degrees. It'll be a trick to frame that angled portion (attaching it to the roof framing, specifically), but fortunately it's not going to be my brain cells grinding together to figure it out.

Skylight

How do you like the new basement skylight?:

Hope nobody comes in the back door.

Just kidding, of course. In order to repair a hole in the floor of the master bedroom where a radiator pipe used to come through,

This picture was taken after we removed the surrounding planks, staggering the joints.

we had to take up some hardwood elsewhere. Fortunately, the original builders of the house used the same material for the first floor's subfloor and the finished floor upstairs. That area will be tiled, so we'll put down plywood sheathing and backer-board and use the salvaged planks to repair the floors upstairs. It was just so satisfying to rip that stuff out that we couldn't just stop at a couple of short planks. Here's a rough-fit of the patched hole (I didn't have the appropriate type of nails to go ahead and nail it in. I guess I could reuse some of the ones we pulled out of the boards downstairs).

The boards have the remnants of linoleum tile backing. It should come off easily when we sand down the floors.

Just a few nails and a piece of blocking underneath, and we can mark another thing off our checklist.

Flooring options

Cruising the fancy schmancy showroom websites like I always do, I came across a pretty good deal on laminate flooring. I just got a coupon in my inbox that entitles me to 20% off my next purchase, which if I can apply toward that flooring (available online only), would make it a really good deal on laminate flooring. [We plan on putting it in the attic room, and maybe even use it to make treads for the spiral staircase we're planning.] But always the deal-monger, I've looked online at other feasible options. Here are some that I like:

From the fancy schmancy showroom.

$1.70 per square foot ($1.37 if I get the 20% off) with free shipping. Pergo brand. I like the fact that it comes in 3.5" widths and is supposed to look more individualized than a lot of other laminates. I hate it when you can tell it's the same 3-5 woodgrain patterns.

Source.

Balterio brand, which I've never heard of, but only $.99 per square foot and comes with a 25 year residential warranty. The planks are 7.5" wide, which I'm not crazy about but will make installation go faster. This website also offers a free sample so I can tell if I like it.

Source.

This is about $1.58 per square foot. It comes with underlayment, so that saves time and money in installation. I love how dark it is, but I don't know if it will go with the rest of the flooring in the house (which needs to be sanded and restained anyway). Am I going too dark for a room that gets very little natural light?

Source.

Another from Sam's club, priced at $1.50 per square foot. I like the reddish undertone it has. Also has the underlayment. I know that my 2 readers (hi Mom and Marian!) have experience with this sort of DIY project. Any recommendations or pearls of wisdom?