Home Improvement – New Floors

Home Improvement – New Floors

We finally got new floors in our house. I’ve mentioned this before – when you work from home you suddenly realize how crappy everything is around you and you start wanting to change things up. For us, this started with the carpets. They were dirty and needed to be replaced. I’m actually a fan of carpets, I like how they feel on my bare feet and I like the padding also. I feel like my feet and knees take a pounding when I’m not wearing shoes in a hard floored home. However, the wife wanted them so I acquiesced. We did agree on the color though and keeping carpets in the bedrooms/office. Going forward I’ll just have to wear my Crocs when traversing about the house.

The floors we chose are a gray oak type. They are not solid wood, they are a composite, yet they are wood and not vinyl. The installer we used did such a wonderful job. He really took the time to use floor leveler and get rid of all the dips in the sub-flooring. I’ve come to appreciate this as I’ve walked now on other floors where they did not use leveler and I can hear the creaking. Evidently if it’s bad enough a floor board can crack and you’re really up shit creek. I am glad he went this extra mile, although it added some expense to the original flooring estimate we received and a few days of installation also. Here is where I am glad we used someone. I wouldn’t have known that, unless it came up in a YouTube video or something. I also wouldn’t have known how to get it as level as possible. As far as the cutting and placing, I probably would have struggled with it also. The installer flew through it and banged it out really quickly. We did end up with a lot of extra flooring and board that I’ll need to figure out how to handle. I think the flooring will go downstairs in the little fitness studio we’re building, and the board will probably get installed as part of the furnace room. The basement sits in a weird configuration so I can’t really build a big furnace room, so I am planning on installing removable walls if we ever need to replace the water heater again.

So far we’ve painted the entire upstairs, replaced our kitchen appliances (high end stove/dishwasher/refrigerator), and now our flooring on most of the upstairs. Next we plan on painting the baseboards, installing new countertops, probably new cabinets, and then finishing the basement. The style will be one we both like – a modern blue/gray based modern look that will be clean, simple, and unique. We’ve already received lots of great compliments on our color selection so far. I think when the back porch renovation is complete, we’ll have one of the better living spaces on our block. It will be nice to spend time here during the week.

New Flooring Installed
New Flooring Installed
New Flooring Installed
New Flooring Installed