My Husband: Flooring Master!

Dear Diary,

Well, give the man "the go" and it'll be done in no time!

Garrett and I bought this house November 2008. We loved the neighborhood, the layout and the possibility of what it could be as our first home. The previous owner, Sandra, who we refer to as "the old lady," had just that, an old lady type of home. From wallpaper borders to a bedroom decked out in Red Hat Lady garb, it took a little imagination to convince us that with us a few weekend projects and new paint on the walls we could really turn this place into a home we loved.

With the help of family and friends we have scraped wallpaper, painted walls, remodeled two bathrooms, painted A LOT of trim, had the exterior painted, created a playroom, got a new front door and turned one heck of a wallpaper mess bedroom into a nursery. It has been a long standing goal of ours to replace the mid level carpeting with wood floors. Garrett has researched real hard wood vs. laminate, having it done vs. doing it himself and the best way to tackle our stairs and spindles situation.

While I have hated the carpet in the living room for some time, I never really thought I wanted anything different than new carpet someday. In fact, laying flooring in the space wasn't really an option at all until one thing after another convinced me otherwise. With a dog going in and out of the backyard frequently, and the two of us coming in and out of the garage on a daily basis, the carpet is near impossible to keep clean. I guess you could say the final straw was the morning our lovely dog Philly got into some mud in the backyard and tracked footprints all over my carpet. As I am down on my hands and knees, scrubbing it clean, I realized that different flooring was a pretty good idea.

All it took was the go ahead from me, and one week later Garrett was laying new laminate wood flooring down in our living room. We got a heck of a deal and I must say, I was a little nervous as to how it was going to go, but with the help of his buddy from work, they finished in no time and it looks great! I had a feeling if I liked it I would want the mid level done sooner rather than later and that is exactly the case. It is a bigger area and will be a little more challenging but hopefully it will go as smoothly as the living room did!

So here's the before, during and after pictures. As with most pictures, it is much better in person, but regardless I think you'll be able to see how nice of a job Garrett did! We have a few trim and transition pieces that need to go in still and I am on the search for an area rug I love, but here's the mostly finished project!

Before: With Carpet

Before: With Carpet

Before: With Carpet

During: Furniture and Carpet Removed

After: New Flooring

After: New Flooring

After: New Flooring



Sincerely Yours,