Kitchen Flooring: Work Day One

I can't believe how long this takes. I started at 9am this morning and didn't quit (other than a few breaks and lunch of course) until 8pm. In that time, I cleared everything left in the kitchen (including the washer and dryer), put down the tar paper, chalked reference lines marking the floor joists, chalked parallel lines going across the flooring (so I'll know if the flooring is off before it's too late to correct), leveled the area under washer/dryer, set-up tools for cutting flooring and nailing, and --finally--laid 3 rows of flooring (almost). The fireplace is a problem. The wall to the right of the fireplace is set back about 18 inches from the wall to the left of the fireplace. So, it is taking a lot of measuring to get the flooring "runs" to be even since I have to start from the wall and work out and still have it meet exactly to the floor board directly in front of the fireplace. I know, this doesn't make any sense - it would if you were standing in front of it. Tomorrow morning I'll start back on the right side of the fireplace --I have the measurements completed and just have to start nailing. Once this part is finished, the rest of it should go much faster...until I get to the laundry area on the other side of the kitchen.