In this post - http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/oldhouse/msg0818381713439.html - Weedyacres said, "getting those first couple strips laid out right is half the battle. And it's fun starting rows on either side of a wall that have to meet perfectly after it."

Here's the trick ... don't start rows on both sides of the wall.

I declared the living room's west wall to be "baseline" because it was extremely straight (checked with the laser level and a 10-foot chunk of flooring). The DR to the right is narrower than the LR and less square, so I had a complication there too.

I tapped a bunch of the shortest floor boards together to make two rafts, for lack of a better word, that would let me test the clearances. It's hard to work with less than 1/3 of a board, so if the DR gap was too skinny, I would have to adjust the LR starting board outward and rip a filler.

The gap between the boards and the DR wall is not straight, because that wall slants a bit to the west. However, it goes from about 1/3 of a board to almost 3/4 a board (yup, really slanty!) so I could use a whole board as a starter in the LR.

The marked line was made with a laser level so I had a reference line that was parallel to the LR's west wall ... it's not quite square to the north or south walls, but the eye will follow the sweep of the hardwood.

After I had figured out how far in from the reference line my starter board had to be, I drew another line to mark where the starter board had to be nailed. After I had filled in the LR floor up to that doorway, I doublechecked to make sure it was going to work (another raft). You can see the raft, and the long board that holds it to the already nailed LR floor.

[ADDING: I aligned and nailed the first board in the DR while it was attached to its raft ... sort of a belts and suspenders AND velcro approach.]

Then I worked on the DR floor until I reached the edge of the doorway and from then on it was full length of both rooms (35 feet?) with each row.

This post was edited by lazygardens on Tue, Oct 1, 13 at 11:00