Finger Check

I am trying to finish up installing the new vinyl floor in the kitchen and I am at the point where I need to put on a toe cover on the top step going into the basement. The problem I am running into is that the covers I got from the flooring store are not quite right. The directions say that they are supposed to be glued into place. Well that ain’t happening! There is no way that I am going to be able to glue this down, and even if I do, it hangs way below the thickness of the step and just looks ridiculous. This meant I needed to get creative and find something that would work. First I tried a wooden piece, but that wasn’t quite right, so I settled for a metal piece. It fit perfectly, and the screws to put it in would hold everything down quite nicely.

The one problem was that I needed to cut it to size. I had bought a 72” strip and figured I could cut it to size, that way I had an extra piece of drop, just in case something went wrong. As I brought down my miter saw to cut a 2” section of the end, The metal strip kicked back at me, bending the piece I was planning on using in half as it went flying out of the hand that I was using to hold it down while being cut. As it flew up, it caught my thumb, nearly ripping the nail off. Then as I way jumping up and down yelling OW!, my next door neighbor musty have heard the metal go clanking, and the abrupt stop to the power saw and shouts over the fence asking if I was OK. That was nice. Luckily everything was OK, I still have all ten fingers, there is just a big bruise under my thumbnail.