Our house isn't really that old, as far as old houses go. None of Josh and I's parents were yet born the year it was built but almost all of our grandparents were.
It seems to have attracted more then its fair share of enthusiastic, yet inexperienced, do-it-yourself owners over the years, however- I once counted 5 (five!) different styles of baseboard still in use, almost none of them properly installed. And once, after drilling a hole in the wall, I spent a bemused half hour staring at the tiny layers of old paint newly exposed. Layer after layer of color like some permanent rainbow history of our house's many past lives. I could clearly identify seven different colors, and I wasn't sure there weren't a few more.
I don't begrudge the handymen of our home's past- Josh and I are not least among them. The first thing we did, after being handed keys, was paint over half the house. We were as inexperienced and enthusiastic as the rest of them and by looking at the details you can tell which room we began in and which room we finished last- our skill grew with time. We've finished many projects since then, and we still have our running list of projects waiting to begin. Projects waiting for funds (finishing the basement), projects waiting for motivation (repainting all the trim), projects waiting for the other spouse to get behind them (Josh-rebuilding the deck, me-transforming one of the small bedrooms into a master bathroom/walk-in-closet).
One of the very first projects I had in mind for the house was wood floors. Carpet is my kryptonite. My bane. My arch nemisis. It is the very blight of my life, a scourge on my otherwise happy existence.
Unfortunately, it was also installed in our house and removing it was firmly in the "projects waiting for the other spouse to get behind them" category.
But in the last two years, between that time Josh let Zeke eat blueberry yogurt in the livingroom, that time Malachi danced on a cartons worth of raspberries, potty training the puppy, potty training the toddler, and a hundred other mishaps, between a husband who wont take his shoes off, a dozen times shelling out to get it steam cleaned, and two overworked and broken vacuums later- our carpet had gotten into an embarrassingly stained state. Also, shag doesn't give up cracker crumbs, it doesn't matter how many times you vacuum. The crumbs will live there forever.
Then the many small things we board and feed (otherwise known as children and pets) decided to start pulling the carpet fibers out. One by one. Creating a hole in the middle of the livingroom.
And reader? I. lost. my. shit.
It was the last straw.
And new floors went straight from the "projects waiting for the other spouse to get behind them" category to the "things we are doing this weekend" category.
So Thursday The Hole happened, and Josh and I started pricing out options online, weighing wood and laminate in our minds. Friday we went to Home Depot and bought everything we needed. Saturday the boards acclimated to our house's temperature and we had a BBQ we'd been planning for a few weeks.
Sunday we moved all the furniture,
(see that white square where the couch had been? yuck.)
and ripped up all the carpet.
(here I am contemplating the wood floors we found underneath.)
(here are Jonathan and Mal pulling up carpet staples)
Monday we forgot to take many pictures, but we spent the entire day installing our new laminate flooring in the livingroom and hallway. We dont even have an empty and completed pic because I slowly moved the furniture back as the room was completed to appease Zeke. Zeke was NOT pleased with the house upset. Or with the fact that daddy and Jonathan were both home yet neither were playing with him. Or with the noise that the saw made- which frightened him.
Malachi was happy as a clam. He loved pushing furniture and he loved using tools and he loved the saw and he happily pointed out where each new board should go for us.
About 10 o clock we finished. Or..."finished". About 10 o clock we ran out of the type of nail we needed for trim. So i guess it will be Finished with a capital F after we buy those.
It brings our different types of flooring in the house count up to 5- but I don't care, it matches all the baseboards.
4 comments:
It's beautiful! I can't wait to come over and see it.
Oh Courtney it looks AMAZING!! Great job :)
Yay! Looks so good. I'll have to invit myself over for tea to see it in person. Then I'll invite you guys over when we finally get our new floors in (hopefully soon!) :)
WOW! Great job, Courtney! Remember, if you don't want to take on the challenge yourself, or if the job is just too big or difficult, my husband Chad owns a Hardwood Flooring installation company and is Licensed, Bonded, and Insured with 15 years of experience. His phone number is 509-995-4123 if you have questions or want a free estimate! Thanks, Aly Knudsen
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