I’ve blogged before about how much I hate our carpeted floors. Between the diabetic human sized Mastiff and the toilet training toddler, this floor has soaked in it’s fair share of urine. We’ve steamed and scrubbed and cleaned, but there is no getting rid of the vile smell. I have actually had meltdowns over the state of our disgusting floors. And the STARK WHITE kitchen tile? Don’t even get me started.
I am sooooo over all of it.
So over it, in fact, that I crazily agreed to letting my husband order 1100 sq. feet of unfinished, utility grade hardwood floors so that he can install them. HIMSELF.
Why hardwood and not laminate?
Because my husband is convinced that hardwood is better for the value of our home, he likes that he can sand and re-finish them if they get scratched, and because people told him he couldn’t.
Why unfinished UTILITY GRADE?
Because our budget is teeny tiny. We can’t afford finished hardwoods, this is basically the only way we can afford any sort of hardwoods throughout this much square footage (the whole house except bathrooms and bedrooms and the laundry room). In fact, this ends up being about as inexpensive as some of the lower end laminates.
The price we pay? OUR SANITY.
I present to your our playroom/office.
That is all the wood we need for our project PLUS the plywood for the subfloor. Oh yes, that’s right. This project isn’t simply putting a wood floor down, sanding and finishing it. It’s pulling up all the carpet and tile and installing a subfloor, too.
We’ve taken on small home renovation projects this last year, and they’ve turned out beautifully. We are finishing a master bath mini-renovation that has cost us less than $600 and makes the place looks completely different (hopefully I can share the result with you all soon- I’m bringing brass back… because I have no choice). The kids’ bath and laundry have new tile. I have faith in my husband’s ability to get it all done right. I do not, however, have faith in it getting done in a timely matter.
The reality, I’m thinking, is that I will be living in a construction zone for a long while with a 3 year old who likes to find ways to make my heart stop every day by making me think he’s going to kill himself, a BABY, 2 dogs, a cat, and an over-worked husband.
WheeeeeEEEEEeeeeee!!! This is going to be so much fun!
Stay tuned to watch me slowly loose my mind.
Kendall is just a couple weeks shy of 3, Leyna is a couple weeks shy of 4 months old, and I’m a couple marbles short.
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16 comments
OMG! I do not envy you in the slightest. Any time my husband thinks of taking on a home improvement project I have visions of him dying in a freak nail gun accident. I just remind myself that thankfully the life insurance is up to date. I also have visions of any project he tackles not being completed until the second coming.
I hope you allotted for a lot of wine in your budget. You’re going to need it.
I saw the wood piles but I didn’t see the wine piles. There are wine piles aren’t there?
No the wine piles were there when this seemed like a good idea :P.
That is a lot of wood! Good luck!
Oh gosh…I hate to tell you this since all that wood is sitting in your house but my BIGGEST home renovation regret is putting hardwood in our kitchen. With a [small] dog and a child, it’s a disaster. It’s sratched and scuffed and just looks AWFUL! I so wish we would have went with laminate or tile :/
And see, I feel like the kids and dogs make our tile look like shit. I think they are the real problem here 😉
Please tell me you brought extra?? I have heard that not all of it is usable.
Good Luck!
We did! We got 30% more per the retailers suggestion. Hopefully we will have enough left over for Scott to build me a headboard or a new kitchen table, or both!
Dang gurl! I hear you are going to stay with Skelly for a weekend to avoid some saw dust in your life. That should be fun. 🙂
Hopefully this will make you feel a little better. When we started the reno on our house last year we completely gutted the front half which included the kitchen, dining area, living room and two bedrooms. A week after we started I found out I was pregnant. It was hell and I had several breakdowns because it ended up being a two and a half month project, but it was all worth it in the end. We have hardwoods throughout and I love it! Before that we had old hardwoods that were damaged from a flood and tile. We still have two bedrooms to go, but I am nowhere near ready to start all that again. Good luck, I’m sure it’s going to be beautiful.
How stressful! Thanks. I’m sure they will turn out great. I just need to be patient.
Good luck! It will be all worth it in the end.
I know the feeling. We bought a house when our baby was two weeks old that needed an entire remodel inside. We just finished a couple months ago…after nearly a year! I lived in one room of my house (bed, tv, couch, table) for at least eight weeks because I was scared to venture out into the “rest” of the house.
And last weekend, we hauled 12,000 pounds of landscaping bricks because apparently the inside remodel wasn’t enough; now we have to do the outside!
It’s projects like these that make me really, really, REALLY happy that we rent. Otherwise I know my wife would have me doing this kind of stuff all the time.
When we lived in our last apartment, I would dream of all the projects I would make my husband do if it was a condo we owned.
Our house is 111 years old and has original hardwood floors. I assure you they’ve lasted through many, many assaults. I’m sure subsequent posters will have a field day with this but your life is so blessed. Just remember how much worse everything could be when you’re stressing out over relatively benign things like nails and wood and dust.
Glad to hear your floors have made it so long! You are right, I absolutely am blessed. It’s a fantastic life. It really is. I work hard not to take it for granted or trivialize other’s more significant struggles. Sometimes I’ve just got to make light of my own situations and bitch a little. 🙂