Guys! Exciting news- our laminate floors are in! Before I show you the progress and after photos, I am going to flash back. We bought our house in 2009 and the carpets were kind of gross then. Add in 7 years, 2 puppies, and a baby and our floors were really gross! Let’s be honest they smelled and were super embarrassing when people came over. I avoided taking pictures with the carpet in them, which was a struggle.
Earlier this year we got our tax return and saved a big chunk for new floors. But we were busy and it was a HUGE task so we put it off. In August we decided to go for it and bought the flooring. I talk all about how we picked it out and our budget here. We didn’t actually start demo on our home until early October when I came home to find the hall carpet torn out:
If I would have had my way, I would have torn out one section, finished it, and moved on to the next section. But my husband did all of the labor, so he did it his way. Which was tear EVERYTHING out and start from there. So our hall, living room, dining room, laundry closet, and kitchen were in construction mode for TWO MONTHS. It was insane. The first step was that the floors were super uneven so we had to level them with the subfloor.
Don quickly learned how to cover his ears when the saw was anywhere in sight- haha! My dad lent us two foldable saw horses and they were SO helpful to have! These are similar and we have since bought one because cutting on them is so much better than bending over and cutting on the floor.
Once the subfloors were nice and level, the underlayment went down (the red you see) and then we started with the actual laminate flooring.
My husband took off the trim and it was my job to paint it from black to white. That took 5-6 coats and was a long process.
You can kind of see the chaos of living in a torn up home in this photo… We started in the hall, did the living room, and then did the kitchen.
The last, finishing cuts were taking forever and my husband and I were sick of the sawdust everywhere. It was SO hard to get pretty pictures of the house (which, first world problems, right). So we set a deadline of Thanksgiving to have everything done by. We both worked hard to get it done and the night before Thanksgiving, the last piece of wood was put in place! Thanksgiving day I did a ton of cleaning so that we could put the furniture back in it’s place
Let’s break it down!
How much did it cost- about $1500 in supplies and tools. We own so many saws now that we did this project- haha
How long did it take- a month and a half of chaos and mess and saw dust everywhere
Was it worth it? Yes!!! We love the look. We love that it doesn’t smell like dog pee. Our house feels bigger and cleaner now. I am no longer embarrassed to have people over. It was a pain, but I am SO happy with the return!
What’s next? We’ll be adding some rugs to the space so stay tuned. We also are on the search for a new sofa. Ours right now has holes in it and some sharpie marks (oh having a toddler is fun-haha). If anyone sees a reasonable grey leather chesterfield sofa, will you let me know? 😉
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[…] friends! So last week I shared with you the process of laying laminate floors in our home. Since they have been down, I have been wanting a rug for our living room. Here were my goals with […]