Days One and Two: Flooring Update!

Well hey there! I’m THRILLED to announce that the great floor install has begun!! Wait -- that should probably be The Great Floor Install. It deserves caps cause I’ve been been waiting for this for a loooong time. (Six weeks and three days. But who’s counting?)

;)

The process started bright and early Tuesday morning – the handymen came to pull up all of the carpet and laminate. But first all of the furniture had to be moved out! Initially we were going to try to move furniture back and forth (from the front of the house to the back) but I’m SO glad we didn’t mess with that. It would have been a total hassle, and I’m not even sure we would have had room for all of the furniture in one place.

By the way – before this I didn’t think we had much furniture. We do. Have much furniture.

While the guys moved furniture and pulled up flooring, I took all of the little stuff – lamps, baskets, knick knacks, pillows -- down to the basement.

Can I get a hollaaaaa for basements? I don’t know what we’d do without ours. Double thump to the chest at it.

After everything was out, the flooring guys got going pretty quick – they started with the front of the house and moved back. I was shocked at how fast the floors went down – it’s just the measuring and cutting that takes time.

By the end of day one, the dining and living room were DONE!:

I am SO IN LOVE!!! Even in the natural color – I. am. giddy.

I cannot even express to you the difference it’s already made in our house! It feels HUGE! I know the whole no furniture thing plays a teensy roll in that, but STILL. :)

They worked their tails off today, and would have gotten all of the floors down, but we had some little problems to work around in the family room and kitchen.

Thousands of them:

See that line of itty bitty staples? When we had the laminate installed years ago, the installers had to put down a layer of plywood to even out the floors. The plywood came up easy – the staples did not.

It seems like there are (pinky to mouth) meeeellions of them.

So the guys have to pound down each and every one before they can install over them – it took hours this morning. Tomorrow they will finish that up and finish the floors!

We were told the whole process would be done by this Friday, and HA! that makes me laugh. ;) It will be next Tuesday at the earliest, unless things go magically fast over the next few days. I’m going to plan for mid-next week and be pleasantly surprised if it’s finished up earlier.

The finished on site process obviously takes much longer than a prefinished or engineered wood would take. With either of those, they would go down and then be done. The version we chose is installed, spots are filled, the floors are sanded, then stained and finally coats of poly are put over all of it.

So a one or two day process for prefinished will be at least five for the finished on site.

There is one BIG reason that we went this route. I know myself. :)

The little crevices in the prefinished flooring would have driven me nutty:

Quite a few of you mentioned this (actually, a TON of you) when I asked about the floors on this post. You all were so helpful!!

Many mentioned how it drives you MAD when you have to vacuum out those little cracks. I know it would put me over the edge. Really. You just have to know what makes you tick. Or itch, in this instance. ;)

I had hoped to do the wider boards – maybe four inches wide. But the contractor and installer both explained that the wider the boards, the more the chance of cupping. Indiana weather isn’t exactly what I’d call stable – we get freezing cold, super hot, insane humidity and major dry spells – all within days of each other sometimes. (You think I kid.)

The extremes in weather are a great recipe for cupping floors. The thinner the width of the board, the less chance of that happening:

Ours are 3 1/4 inch wide I believe? They are also 3/4 inch thick (top to bottom)– so there will be plenty of chances to sand them down and restain in the future – which is another reason for this method. They should (please Lord) last forever.

That’s also the reason we didn’t go with the hand scraped look – we were told those can be hard to sand down and stain because of the texture. I’m not sure if that’s 100 percent true, but it makes sense. They’d have to be sanded down to almost flat if they were going to be restained.

I decided to go basic and what I hope is timeless – flat, crevice-free wood floors. ;) I can already tell little bumps and nicks aren’t going to bother me – scratches yes (I may cry the first time!!), but the rest will give them character. :)

I told myself I wouldn’t work on any projects this week because the house is such a mess – but that lasted all of ten minutes. I just can’t sit around watching – I have to do something!

One of my dirty little secrets was revealed when they moved the furniture out – I had even forgotten about it!:

Ha!! I never painted or finished the molding when I did this project a couple years ago.  (I posted a how-to video in this post!) I always meant to go back and do it, but the sofa hasn’t moved in years. ;)

So I’ve been working on that…painting and installing the additional boxes. And then because they finished the floors in the office:

I took that opportunity to finish up the baseboards in there. I’ve been waiting forEVA to do this and I’m SO thrilled!! When I installed the B and B in there, I put the mdf right over the top of the baseboards:

It didn’t really bother me – but I knew when the floors were installed that I could fix this, and I’m SO happy with how it turned out!

One of my lovely readers mentioned that they just installed baseboards right over the top of the whole thing – and I thought that was brilliant.

Because our old baseboards were a bit thinner than the mdf I used on the walls, I used a bunch of paint sticks and nailed them over the old baseboards:

I offered to pay for them, but Paint Guy at Home Depot told me to take what I needed – rock on Paint Guy!!

Doing this prevented the bottom part of the new baseboards from caving in when I nailed them in – does that make sense? Otherwise the bottom part would have been against the old baseboards and the top part would have been sticking out – it gave them an even surface to lay on.

It worked like a charm!:

Sorry for the night pic! I got this done late!

Here’s a before and after to see how looks:

 

OH MY I am so happy to have this done! After the floors are stained the quarter round will go down, completing the baseboards.

Goodbye shorties – helloooo tall baseboards!

You could easily do this over carpet as well…I plan to. :)

So, that’s the update on our new floors – it’s not the easiest route but I think it will be the best one for us. So far I’m dealing pretty well with the mess. I’m just so excited about everything I don’t even care!

I won’t have any reveals to show off till next week -- I’ll talk more about our stain color then. (Cause I’m still deciding!)

So…can you see the potential? I think it’s going to be gorgeous!!

Great white!

Well, first of all, thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes! And everyone who guessed 26 was RIGHT!! I am 26! Plus 10.

Everyone who guessed 32 and younger has a check coming in the mail. ;)

As many of you know, our new hardwood floors are being installed this week. I’m a jumble of so excited I could pee and totally dreading this – I’m so confused.

They start Tuesday and at least for right now, I’m definitely leaning toward the excited part. Actually, I’m GIDDY at the thought of lovely hardwoods throughout our main floor. By Thursday, when we’re covered in an inch of dust, I may be signing a different tune. ;)

Check out all this hardwood waiting patiently!:

I’ve been trying to get a few projects done before they get started, especially since I won’t be able to get much accomplished this week. One project I’m ITCHING to get finished up is the office.

I started painting the board and batten six weeks ago – just days before the water issues and the kitchen island was placed in the office for a week and the whole house basically imploded.

At least that’s what it looks like. ;)

So I haven’t gotten back to the painting. Because it’s just not been a priority and OH YEAH, I despise painting board and batten. For reals…it is one of the most dreaded activities EVER.

I’m exaggerating. A wee bit. But not much.

I was out with my friend Beckie the other night and she reminded me that she used her paint sprayer to spray her (awesome!) board and batten project. I kept pushawing it though – whining about taping off walls and protecting floors and wah wah wah…

And then I realized I didn’t need to worry about the floors. Cause they were comin’ out! I could spray right over them and it wouldn’t matter one bit! WHOO!

And then Beckie told me about this awesomesauce plastic stuff for the walls:

The bottom part is painter’s tape. You just tape it along the surface, and then the plastic opens up and sticks to the wall all by itself.

It was not cheap -- $8 for the roll. But it was the best eight buckaroos I’ve spent in a long time.

It worked like a charm!:

Then it was time to bust out the sprayer. My Dad got me one for my birthday, at least a year ago – if not two. I just used it for the first time two months ago.

I kept putting it off cause I was sceered. Not sure why, cause it is SO easy to use, and it works GREAT! Mine is the Wagner Paint Sprayer:

You can see it on Amazon here. The reviews are mixed, but I LOVE IT. There’s a few tricks I’ve learned as I’ve used it, and I’m doing a post about it shortly. So far I’m very happy with it!

Even though I use primed mdf, I still start with a primer when painting it. I used that in the sprayer, and I couldn’t believe the difference after just that coat!:

When I did a wall by hand a few weeks ago, I did one coat of primer and two of white. It still looked like it needed another coat. It was driving me MAD.

But when I used the sprayer, I did one coat of primer, and one coat of white – that’s IT.

(I use semi-gloss or high gloss white on all of my moldings.)

It was so, so, SO much easier and quicker than brushing it on! THANK YOU BECKIE!! ;)

I am so in love with the crisp white against the walls!:

It’s exactly how I envisioned it 18 months ago all that time ago when I started this room redo!

I’m such a sucker for contrast – I could eat it up with a spoon. I can’t get enough of it:

It feels so good to finally have this done. And now I never have an excuse again to paint the board and batten. Which means you’ll probably see it in every. single. room. :)

I realized after the fact that taping off the floor wouldn’t have been a big deal – next time I’ll just get another roll of that plastic and use it along the floors. I did the whole room and used it on the windows and doorway and still have a ton left.

Now you know why I’m giddy – how fantastic are the floors going to look up against all this white??:

Even MORE contrast! Be still my heart.

Here’s an idea of the difference the white paint makes:

  

It took all this time, and it was so easy to get done. I should listen to my bloggy friends more often. ;)

And this room WILL be done this month. I don’t care what it takes – it will be done. It’s soooo close already…just a few or 15 things I still need to do. ;)

Now, I’m off to bed because I need to be up at the bum-crack of dawn to start moving stuff to the basement. The contractor we’re using covers all of the moving of the furniture, but there are a few delicate items I want to get out of the way myself. :)

I will give you some updates on the progress soon! I hope to post on why we picked this installation method and how we decided on all the other details – stain, width, etc. – this week. It was a lot to figure out so hopefully it will help some of you too!

Wish me luck! ;)

P.S. I always get asked about that drum light, and you can see the how-to for that here!

Fall Outdoor Spaces Party!

Hey there! It’s here! The final fall linky party in our Fall Extravaganza:

Layla, Rhoda and Kate and I have such a blast throwing these shindigs! I hope you have found some inspiration (and new visitors!) throughout the past couple of weeks.

My outdoor space started with a big change  -- yes, I painted our front door! I have to admit -- it was nerve-racking. I had been thinking of painting our door red for months, but was soooo sceered. I even mentioned it on Twitter one day and I tell you what, you all are a bunch of enablers.

And I love it! ;)

You were all, DO IT! You’ll love it!! Crack under our peer pressure!

And that I did. It just took me a while.

Our door was actually a greyish brown – but it always photographed blue:

Many of you have asked the paint color of my “blue” door! ;) The color matched our shutters and I’ve always loved it…I was just ready for a change.

I think your front door should make a statement, and I knew if I got the right color, a red door would look fantastic!

Well. It was definitely a lesson in picking out REDS. GoodNESS. It took three different colors. I wanted brick red – and the first “brick” color was orange. The second was pink.

But just like Goldilocks, the third was just right. :)

This is the color what I think of when I think of brick. Maybe it’s just me. ;) The color is called  Chocolate Cosmos and it’s from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot.

(Although now it photographs purple – so I can’t win for losing!)

I changed out the hardware as well – our old set was seven years old and was showing it’s age. It was brass – which I actually didn’t mind because it wasn’t so shiny anymore. ;) But it was in sad, sad shape.

The ORB set is so sharp against the red!:

I took down the light fixture and cleaned up the glass, then sprayed it in an oil rubbed bronze:

It’s AMAZING what some cleaning and spray paint does for…well, anything. :) You can go here to see how I transformed our coach lights the same way last year.

The red door is actually more of a reddish brown, which works PERFECTLY with our other brown accents:

Because I cleaned up the front a few weeks ago, I was able to add a hay bale next to the porch for the first time ever:

I’ve always wanted one – I was so giddy about that silly bale of hay! ;) Now that the landscaping bricks aren’t there anymore, it just fits.

We’ve been picking up pumpkins here and there over the past few weeks, and I piled them all on the hay. Most will go inside eventually, but I LOVE the big cluster of them, snuggled up with the mums.

I LOVE FALL!!!

(Have I mentioned that?)

I was going to put the mums in the pots, but I found Cinderella pumpkins for a steal at a local pumpkin patch. I’ve seen these for as much as $12 each this year! Craziness!!

I stacked them three high and they are so fun:

I love how the front has changed this fall – the landscaping, the door, the hay. ;)

Of course it isn’t fall around here without my corn stalks – I love how they cozy up our small front porch:

(This pic is the true color of the door.)

Now I just need to decide if I’m putting the “Welcome” vinyl back! For now I like it simple – but we all know that could change fast.

The new color works perfectly with the colors in the window boxes:

I would like to say I planned that, but no. It took three tries, remember? ;)

See that sweet smushy-face in the window? My heart!

I’ll show you more about installing the hardware and a how-to on painting the door in an upcoming post! One was way easier than I thought and one was way harder. (Five hundred points to the person who guesses the three-different-reds-door.)

Now I can’t wait to see your lovely outdoor spaces all decked out for fall! I know many of you may have shared your doors and porches at Rhoda’s door decor party last week, but feel free to link up again!

I would love it if you would copy and paste this cutie button into your post, or link back to this post in yours:

Thank you and have fun!!

Don’t get me started

Well, it looks like we will get our new floors next week!! They will be finished on site – meaning the wood will be nailed down, then sanded, then stained. I’m so excited…just not excited about the process. It’s going to take a week total, and we’ll have to be out of the house quite a bit.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with the cats, the dog, the fish or the humans. ;) I’ll just take it day by day and expect a total mess. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Stop laughing. :)

When we had our laminate installed (almost) five years ago, I had them put it through to the mud/laundry room:

But I didn’t have it put under the washer and dryer just in case we ever had water issues. HA! Little did I know the refrigerator would be the culprit.

And if we did have issues with the washer, I’m sure it would have extended out beyond that little transition piece. ;) Whatever. I was trying.

We have learned throughout the years that laminate in the mud room (right off the garage) was not the best choice. The laminate was still OK – no buckling – but was so tired of worrying about our wet boots in the winter.

So with the new floors coming,  my plan was to pull up the laminate, and eventually put a tile or a peel and stick tile down instead. I could have done it any time – but I was hoping to get it done before the floors were put in.

And time is dwindling. :)

The other day, as I was walking to the garage to grab some spray paint, a few thoughts ran through my head:

“Hmmm…I wonder how hard it would be to just pull up this laminate super quick.”

“No. Sarah. Keep walking.”

“But really, now hard could it be? It could be fun.”

“FUN? Whatareyoucrazywoman?”

“I’m gonna try it.”

“Spray. Paint.”

“Oh come on…just pull up one piece and see what happens.”

Famous last words. You can guess which side won out.

I started with the transition piece:

 

And my first surprise came. :) The installers used liquid nails to glue down that piece.

And a few others. I actually like the vinyl we had put down when we built the house, so I was hoping to just keep that for a while till I figured out what I wanted to do with the floor.

The glue threw a bit of a wrench in that. But I figured I could get it off.

I moved on to pulling up the laminate:

It took some muscle and a really good pry bar. It was a bit difficult to get the first piece out, but after that it was like butta:

But I noticed something else as I removed the laminate. The underlayment was cut into pieces. I have no idea why.

And I’m not sure why it seems like they put a full piece down, then used a razor to cut it into pieces.

And I’m not sure why they decided to do that right over the perfectly good vinyl:

Cutting a gash in it the length of the room. I mean, I guess they didn’t think we’d ever pull up the laminate and want vinyl again? I don’t know.

But it threw another wrench in my plan.

The vinyl wasn’t glued down, for the most part, so I started pulling it up:

I saw the wood flooring, and though maybe I could just paint it in the meantime. How fun would that be?!

SO fun. But it wasn’t happening:

That vinyl glue is SERIOUS stuff. Insane. Like, they could glue buildings together with it.

I gave up after one piece. There was much sweating. And maybe some pulled muscles. And maybe a swear word.

See that spot by the door? I was right – water had been seeping under the laminate for years. It wasn’t moldy, thank goodness.

Sooo…my simple walk through the laundry room for spray paint turned into a distress call to our handyman. ;) He is AWESOME and was able to come out the next day and lay down new plywood (or whatever that stuff is). I could have left it as is for a while, but that splintery stuff made me nervous with the Bub and the dog.

Once we had decent floors again, I took a trip to Lowe’s to see what our options were. And I found the PERFECT solution.

It’s called Novalis peel and stick tile -- the one I picked out is the copper slate finish:

You can find it online here. It’s 18 by 18 inches and 18 by 18 inches of AWESOME. I am so giddy about this stuff!! And it’s only $2 a tile – crazy good for such a great look!

The back is sticky, so you peel the backing off and stick it to the floor. That’s it:

OK, well not that’s it – but really, it was SO EASY to install. It took quite a few cuts, but even those were easy. It’s vinyl, but it’s way thicker than vinyl on the roll. And it’s hard – each piece is really sturdy.

Our handyman showed me how to disconnect the washer and dryer, so I was able to get it down throughout the whole space. I started it late Saturday night and finished up Sunday – total it took about two hours. And that’s me doing it alone – it would go so fast with two or more!

After I was done, I called the hubs in to see it. He loved it too, and then asked why we don’t just put it throughout the bottom floor instead of the hardwoods.

Uh…

Crickets.

I got nothin’.

It looks THAT good:

You would never know it wasn’t real tile, right?

You can even grout it – which I did…kinda. I’ll show you the whole how-to in an upcoming post.

For now, it’s kicked off a mini redo of the laundry room. And I was just trying to get some spray paint!! People…THAT is how I roll.

And yes, my husband is ahhhhmazing to put up with me.

;)

I’ve needed to finish off the beadboard in this space for years now. I had the handyman take off the remaining baseboards while he had the washer and dryer pulled out. So the next step is to finish up the beadboard, paint it, repaint the existing beadboard, and paint the room. Oh, and reinstall baseboards. And add some crown molding.

(Spray. paint.)

I’m thinking of pulling a color out of the floor for the walls – I’m SO excited about the potential for this space! My plan for about a year now has been to move the washer and dryer out of this room, but that’s on the back burner for sure now. Moving the water, electricity and the gas line for the dryer is not going to be cheap.

So for now, the floors are making this room feel completely new and shiny!:

I can’t wait to get started on the other stuff. I just have a few other rooms to finish up first. ;)

Have you tried this peel and stick goodness? One of my BFFs actually has this exact tile in her mud room and I’ve loved it for years. I didn’t think there was any way it would still be available, but there it was! She said she loves it so much, she would put it throughout her kitchen in a heartbeat.

I’ve also seen the peel and stick “hardwood” floors – they look surprisingly real too. I know many of you have used that and love it!

So…that’s how a trip to the garage turned into a complete room redo. Eventually. At least we’re not walking on splinters. :)

Before & After Party: Ghosts in the Trees!

Well hello! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I got SO much done around here. DIY-wise anyway. You can’t walk through the house without stepping on a toy or a piece of clothing – but the projects went very well! ;)

It’s time for the October Before and After Party, and I’m also linking this up to Kate’s fall craft party tomorrow! Linking a party up to a party --  not sure that’s even allowed.

Breaking the law! Breaking the law! (90’s flashback anyone?) ;)

Anyway, I’ve got a super quick, super cheap, SUPER FUN Halloween project for you today – it’s adorable. And the kids will LOVE it.

I had this idea last Christmas, and I doubt I’m the first to come up with it. But, really, am I ever? I doubt it. Too much awesomeness out there.

I bought a package of small Dollar Tree ornaments last year just for this project, and the rest of the stuff I had on hand:

I used some scraps of batting (I knew they would come in handy someday!), and some muslin. If you don’t have these – you can easily skip the batting, and the muslin is SO cheap.

I just wrapped a piece of batting around the ornament, and made a hole so the top could stick out. Then I covered that with the muslin:

Later I snipped a hole in the muslin as well, so I could hang them.

Like I said, the batting is not necessary – I just thought it would make the ghosts a little more chunky chunky. (Which is never a bad thing.)

I used some Halloween ribbon I had to tie a “neck” around the ghost:

I ran out of that after the first few, so I just used some twine for the rest.

Then…you take a cutie patootie I could just squish him Bub and have him draw faces on them:

So cute I could squish them faces!:

The faces were so precious, I just couldn’t bear to leave them outside in case it rained. So these stayed in, and we made more (without faces) for outside.

I taught the Bub how to use my camera the other day, and now I have to fight him for it every time I bring it out. (GREAT idea, really. Gah.)

He’s caught some surprisingly great photos though!:

 

We hung them with twine throughout the trees:

We loved them so much, I dug a few more little ornaments out of the Christmas bins to make a few more. :) They hold up great to the weather too – we’ve had a ton of rain and they are doing great.

They are SO CUTE swaying in the wind. They make me smile so BIG when we drive up to the house.

I’m thinking about adding some felt faces to them, or maybe some googley eyes. Wouldn’t that be adorable?

So here’s my (FREE to me!) Halloween/fall craft before and after! From cheapy Christmas ornaments:

To cutie friendly ghosts swinging in the trees:

I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to! Any fall goodness this month? And don’t forget the craft party at Kate’s place on Tuesday!

If you would, please link this post to the post you are linking up – I really appreciate it! You can copy and paste this button in as well if you’d like!: