New Floors

Ever since we moved into our condo, we have been dreaming of having new flooring. The linoleum in the kitchen was cracked and peeling up, the carpet was stained, and frayed in transition places, and the blocks by the front door came up easily. This was demonstrated by Owen (among other children and sweaty feet) on numerous occasions...


After a long long wait, we finally decided to move forward with doing our floors. We got some bids, but decided it was just too expensive and that if Miles did it himself, it could be done so much cheaper. Costco was having a sale on laminate flooring, so we decided to jump on it. We bought all the laminate for our place and Miles loaded it into our dining room area. (I know, not the most convenient.) This was especially true since it ended up sitting there for about four months. Yeah...we were a little slow to get going. But in all fairness, Miles was going through a transition at work and was swamped with work deadlines and business trips, and it just didn't work out with our timing for a while.

After some discussion, we decided it would be much better if Owen and I were not around for the remodel. With the house torn up and in disarray, it would be pretty hard to keep Owen contained, safe, and happy. Finally Miles told me to just book a trip to CA so he could get it done. So I went out to CA for 12 days while Miles worked his tail off in the evenings after work, on the weekends, and on his holiday for the 4th of July. I should also mention that he worked for a week without air conditioning and was sweating it out in 90 degree weather. Poor guy! :( Luckily we got a new A/C half-way through the remodel so he could work in cooler conditions. However, after doing all the demo and laying the floor in the front room, Miles was pretty beat. He was exhausted and had hurt his wrist and finger in the process. He called and told me he was worried about wether or not he'd be able to get it done by the time I was returning. He asked if he could call Curt Smith (a friend from our old ward) and get a quote from him to see how much it would cost to have him finish it out.

He got the quote on Monday, the 4th, and we decided it was worth it to have it done professionally and that way Miles could use his time more effectively for his side jobs. Curt was able to do most of the work on Tuesday and Thursday during the week and finished installing the baseboards on Saturday, the day before I came home. Miles stated that Curt did a much better and faster job than he would have been able to do himself. While I was away, and would talk to Miles on Skype or FaceTime, he wouldn't let me see any of the work that was complete. So I was very anxious to get back and see my newly remodled home. 

All I can say, is I was not disappointed. The floors look amazing. Everything looks so clean and fresh. It makes it feel bigger and more spacious. I love, love, love them! Now I am anxious to get our bathroom floor tiled, the shower retiled and the bedroom carpets replaced. Then it will feel complete.

Here are some before, demo, and after pictures. Miles really only took before pictures of the front room...which is sad, because our kitchen was the nastiest of them all.

You can see part of the nasty linoleum in this shot:

In this picture of Owen, you can see more of the gross linoleum as well as some of the cracks that were in the floor. Even Owen was grumpy about the floor:
 
And here are the finished floors:

We've been talking about buying a different/bigger home. And while I would of course still love to do that, I am feeling a lot happier living in our current place. It just makes it feel so much nicer. I've noticed that Miles has also taken a greater interest in caring for our home. He has swept and mopped more than once since I have gotten home. When you have something nice, it makes you want to take care of it. Owen seems to be adjusting to the hard floors just fine. However, we have to keep a closer eye on him to prevent lots of banging on the floors. We're hoping to get some rugs to help alleviate some of that concern. For now, I am just enjoying the new look to my home.

On top of all that, when I got home, I saw these beautiful flowers Miles had bought for me. What a good husband!