Finally!!!!!!

When we moved in our house last December I knew immediately that we were going to have to replace some floors. Let's just say that the previous owner had several pets that were NOT potty trained! Then Rebel couldn't seem to cover up their sent enough times even though we steam cleaned several times. I was completely disgusted! I couldn't stand it and Eric got an earful from me at least once a month about it. He finally gave in after I had saved my babysitting money from the entire summer to pay for the majority of the project. It totally sounds like a teenager, doesn't it? Anyway, when he said OK, I didn't waste any time getting things moving.

Julie's husband, Jason, is in construction and sent me to the place where he buys all of the flooring for his housing projects. I found a "rustic and better" quality solid hardwood for a really great price that was just in my budget. I couldn't afford to do the entire downstairs but I could at least replace the worst rooms for right now. The rustic and better grade of wood is a little more "grainy" looking and has a few more "blemishes" and visible knots then the better grades of floors but I didn't mind. I think it adds to the character of the floors. The color was great so we went with it. Mom and Dad agreed to take the girls for the weekend so we could work. We thought we would remove the old floors on Friday night and then start the install Saturday morning. Jason so delicately informed me that he didn't think we could get the demo done in one night. He was probably shaking his head and laughing to himself as I described our timeline for him. So Eric started the demo on Monday evening.

The foyer, half bath and hall closet had glued down engineered wood floors already. That was going to be very hard to remove Jason said. He suggested we pay someone to do it for us. Eric does not believe in paying anyone for something he can do himself though! After two nights of getting no where fast, I called Jason again and he got a price for having someone take the glued down wood out. It was going to be $400!! Eric became even more determined at that point. He made another trip to Home Depot and bought a different chisel thingy and ripped those things up that night! It was not easy though. I couldn't really help him. I just didn't have the muscle it took to do it. Please, if do not ever use glue to install a floor that is not meant to last for the entire life of a house!!! Then he took out the toilet, put it in the garage and we moved the sink into the kitchen. The carpet was no big deal to remove. I did the two carpeted rooms myself. That just pulled right up. Then I had to get all of the staples out of the floor. It was easier than I thought it would be. Lyla loves to help Eric when he's working. She really gets into it. She spent a lot of time one particular evening helping him pull up floors. Grace helped long enough to have her picture taken. ha ha Lyla is in her panties, of course.
This is the dining room/office. The big circle on the floor is the shadow from the light above. The is the front living room/girls playroom. The carpet was in these two rooms.
After I removed the carpet and staples I swept the floors. I was disgusted at the amount of dirt that was under the carpet pad! I had several piles just like the one in the picture below. The people that built the house didn't bother to sweep anything up before laying the carpet!This is Eric working hard. He'll work till the job is done! No matter what time of night (or morning) he gets done!This is a picture of our family room with everything from the other two rooms piled into it. What a mess! We finally got the felt tar paper down at about midnight Friday night. Jason told us to go buy a special staple gun that would make it easier to staple the felt paper. I did just what he said but when we needed the gun at about 9:30pm Friday night it wouldn't work! Just our luck. Thank goodness Eric had a regular staple gun already. It didn't have enough power to push the staples all the way into the plywood so I had to follow behind him and hammer the staple the rest of the way into the sub floor. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Saturday morning I went to Home Depot around 8am to rent the floor nailer to install the wood with. Julie and Jason came around 9am and we got started immediately. They were so sweet to give up their WHOLE Saturday to help us. It would have taken us twice as long if we hadn't had their help! Plus, Jason's experience and knowledge were extremely important for us! Thank you Jason and Julie. I drove Jason crazy all week calling him about every little thing too. He definitely proved his worthiness as a brother-in-law this weekend! He also brought a saw that we needed and a nail gun too.

So, Jason slammed the floor stapler, Eric measured and cut pieces and Julie and I laid out the boards as we went. After a while Jason and Eric switched jobs because bending over and slamming that stapler with a sledge hammer is quite hard on your back. Julie and I also made a few trips to Home Depot throughout the day. Here are some working pictures...

This is Jason...
This is Julie and Eric watching Jason. They really did work too.
This is Julie arranging the pieces so they would be ready to nail into place.This is me, at about midnight Saturday night, still working! Julie and Jason left around 7pm I think and Eric and I kept going. We needed to finish using the rented stapler so we could return it the next morning and not pay for another day of rental. Plus, the girls would be back the next day and we wanted to have it done, for the most part. After Julie and Jason left, Eric put me to serious work. I started measuring pieces, cutting them with the saw and using the stapler and nail gun to put them in all by myself. I told Eric I felt quite liberated! He was working in the bathroom and I was installing wood floors all by myself at the front door! It got a little difficult when I had to cut around vents and "rip" pieces for the last row at the front door and front wall in the playroom. To "rip" a piece means I had to measure it and cut it the entire length of the board. I ended up using three different types of saws, two different staplers, a nail gun and two different mallet/sledge hammer things. Are you impressed? I was quite impressed with myself. It was hard work and I usually complain about hardwork but it was easier than putting in a ceramic tile floor, which Eric and I did in our first house. We finally quit at 12:40am only because we ran out of nails!
Here are some pictures of the finished product. I am soooo happy with how they turned out. Now I'm saving "my" money from babysitting to put floors in the family room and buy some bookshelves and a craft armoire for all of my painting stuff. Hopefully, it won't take another year to get that accomplished.


This week I've been painting the baseboards. We still have to put down quarter round and fill some nail holes. We also have to touch up some spots on the walls where we banged it one too many times. It saved a TON of money installing them ourselves and I would recommend everyone doing it this way. It's hard work but it can be done with some determination. Having fun people to work with helps out a lot! Thank you Jason and Julie!