WOOD for the dining room, kitchen, and stairs!!

I last left off from our wood flooring project on Saturday 19th. We had just finished the living room and were looking forward to a little break. We'd stayed up until about midnight for three nights in a row and that Sunday, January 20th, Noah had a Suzuki piano recital. 

Afterwards we were relaxing and I caught Terry's worn out look while observing the new living room flooring. He doesn't look too satisfied does he? Too tired.

But it looked amazing! 

However, we couldn't take it easy just yet when we were so close. After the kids went to bed we thought we'd pull up the dining room and kitchen laminate "real quick." Four hours later we were done. 😵

Well, as you can see, it was super simple to pull up. 

What consumed all that time was removing the kitchen island. That was very challenging. Terry was starting to go nuts on the thing when I finally pulled out a drawer on the other side of this contraption and discovered some screws holding it all together.

Two separate cupboards were nestled into that built-in support.

The power came from underneath of course. We planned to move that power and the entire island a foot over into the kitchen so we could have a larger dining room. Our dining room has always been too small for our family!

If I hadn't checked facebook I would've missed the eclipse that night! 

Shortly before midnight we finished up with the Kilz paint. It was midnight...again. Sigh.

The following morning we brainstormed how we were going to get the fridge to fit with new flooring under it. As you can see, it was about a quarter inch too tall!

Initially Terry borrowed Russ' belt sander to rectify the issue but quickly realized that there was trim supporting all four edges of the cupboards that hung above the fridge. The cupboard would have to come down.

Removing it wasn't nearly as tough as the island and it much simpler to sand a half inch lower once  on the ground.

Terry took that Monday off, January 21st. We did school like usual like Terry plugged away at all the small cuts for the desk and fridge areas. Noah was about to go for a run after lunch at this point.

It took a long time to measure and cut all those small boards. This is how far he got that night, stopping earlier than before at 10:30pm.

Once he finished for the night, he put the cabinet back in so we could use the fridge normally. 

Tuesday, January 22nd, Terry went back to work and asked for me to send him pictures of the floor  progress in order to show the staff at church. To my surprise, when he came home he said Russ wanted to come and help that night at 7pm!

Russ' help was invaluable. Now that's a good friend! 

We fully expected him to leave around 10pm but he insisted on staying until it was done...which didn't happen until 1:30am.

They went a lot faster with two of them who knew what they were doing. They even got the wood under the dishwasher, which thankfully still fit afterwards, although we did have to lower it a little. 

This is my favorite video of the entire project. Terry comes in from the garage at 1:15am, holding the final piece aloft like Simba and singing like the Circle of Life from Lion King. And then at the end Terry missed Russ' handshake completely due to exhaustion and distraction and they have to go for it a second time. Love it. 

Boom baby!

So beautiful!

After that we let the project sit for a while since the last weekend of January was too busy. The island didn't get put back for eight days.

Terry decided to put it back on Wednesday January 30th before he went to work for the day. 

That Friday, February 1st, was Samuel's 8th birthday. We had a special breakfast, watched Price is Right, made plans to go to Jump Craze, and started tearing out the last of the carpet. Woohoo!!

While Terry and Noah loaded up the trailer outside, I went to work pulling staples and nails out of the stairs. It took forever since there were SO MANY. I gave myself a couple blisters because of the repetetive work. And to make it worse, I didn't even have needed to do any of it. We ended up having to replace all the boards! 😩

The bare upstairs missing a board because it was split in two. We removed the upper landing carpet and I painted Kilz on it before we left.

The downstairs.

It was a crazy beautiful day in the 50s, which was one of the reasons Terry wanted to go to the dump...which was another reason for pulling up the carpet and being done with it. 

Terry didn't do more work until the following Tuesday, February 5th, when he did the first two steps that I didn't take a picture of. The following night, Wednesday, Pastor Dave ended up cancelling youth group and Awana due to extreme cold so Terry had the night at home. He got two more steps done. 

By the following night he finished them! 

The next day was his day off, Friday, February 8th, and we got quite a lot done. Here's the landing before.

And after! He had to stop that night by 5:30pm because we had David and Jazmin over for dinner. Even though he was so close to being done, it was just as well that he stopped though since finishing the doorways the following day took a lot of consideration and time. 

So the next day, Saturday the 9th, Terry finished the landing. 

He also removed and replaced all the old downstairs floor treads. He had done the same to the upstairs. The reason for this was so that the stair noses would work. This shot is from the basement's utility room.

He got a lot done that day, including even three more stairs. He made plans to finish the rest off the following night by cutting out and laying out the next set of risers and treads. 

So even though we had church that morning and he had an elder meeting at 4pm, he still managed to completely finish! 

Here's the final piece of the whole project. I had him do the whole Simba Lion King thing again, though Ezra didn't think much of it. 😂

DONE!!!

Before

After! Notice the island is moved back into the kitchen. 

Before

After!

Before

After!

I didn't have a picture looking down the stairs but this is what it looks like. 

Now February is almost over and we officially love our wood floor. I dust mop it every day and enjoy immense satisfaction when removing all the pet hair. I love clean. And I love how it looks! Plus, no more vacuuming! Oh, and just this last weekend Terry put away all of his tools and also reinstalled all the quarter round trim along the kitchen and dining room floor edges. We still have normal trim to do everywhere else, as well as replacing the landings, but those projects can wait until it's nice enough in the garage for staining the wood. 

new living room flooring - WOOD!

Way back in November 2018, just after Thanksgiving, Terry and I went on a random date. We happened to go to Menards after dinner, we happened to walk through the flooring section, and we happened to become fairly interested in some hardwood flooring when comparing quality and price of their other options.

By the time we ordered flooring the price was lower than this.

I like browsing flooring when we're there since I've always despised the carpet in our house. Despise is a strong word, but it is accurate. The carpet was old, worn, and dirty. Notice the linking verb tense there? *Was?* Yes, the carpet was gross but it is no more. We took the plunge and bought flooring! Finally! After six years, finally! We decided if we ever have to move again, we'll do it right away like at our Gburg house.

Yes, and what made it even better is the deeper discount after the 11% sale began and took another few hundred dollars off. We ordered the flooring, picked it up in mid-December, and Terry and Noah spent over an hour hauling it all in and down to the school room. They were sore the next day.

 The flooring spent the next month just sitting there since we were committed to not starting until after the holidays. No need to add more chaos to an already chaotic time (though of course having Nathan and Steve's help would've been awesome...but less of a vacation for them 😂)

When the third week of January arrived, I managed to convince Terry it was as good a time as ever to get started since we had a relative break in weekend activities. So on Thursday, January 17th, we deemed it was time to get started. Here is the living room before. 

And after!

From the back of the living room...

...and after!

The view from the dining room...

...and after! I don't think I'll ever get tired of the change. 💜

Notice that loose, frayed area of carpet at the border? 

This was another reason the carpet needed to go. This fraying had always been there but had only got worse with our four kids trampling on it the last six years.

We had made plans to start moving the furniture the following Friday morning, since it was Terry's day off. But I had the bright idea to surprise him and do all the work with Noah's help!

From the other direction. That worn section in front of the loveseat testifies to the old age and worn nature of the carpet. It was supposed to be white!

I was so pumped to see Terry's reaction when he got home. He totally underwhelmed me though. C'mon!

So we were able to get a big head start on the project that night which was awesome. We started removing trim and I labeled it. It was pointless to label it though. We just threw it all away. 

Once the kids went to bed, we immediately started pulling up carpet!

It went super fast. Nearly done here.

His grossed out face. 😂

Because yeah, it was DISGUSTING...especially this section next to the dining room. So so gross. I am a nurse and am not bothered by blood, puke, and other bodily fluids, but the dirt trapped in the pad under that carpet made me gag. I mean, it would be one thing if it was all our dirt. But that carpet was old when we moved in six years ago. It was other people's filth! Nasty. 😵😷🙀

The next thing to be done was pull up many, many staples. It was somehow satisfying to me.

After I swept, vacuumed, scraped, and vacuumed again, it was time to put Kilz paint down to ensure it was clean and unstinky. We stayed up til past midnight to get that far.

The following morning the kids were very surprised. 

Evie was less surprised since we had kept her up til like 11 or 11:30pm (her bedroom borders the living room).

That morning we watched our traditional Price is Right in the dining room! 

After we cleaned up breakfast, we got started on the next project, somehow removing this slate tile. Terry had used a chisel and hammer on the corner the night before and only succeeded in splintering the tile like glass. We were afraid we were stuck with the stuff.

However, after texting Jeff and some google research, we discovered all we had to do was, "Smash it with a hammer!" The Emperor's New Groove anyone? 😂 

Turn sound down because it's noisy. Also as soon as I finished this video I got shoes on the boys. **Nobody was hurt in the process of this renovation** (Except for Terry's sore knees...and my blisters from removing stair staples later on). Also notice their ear protection. We all wore those for days since the compressor was incredibly loud.

It was the easiest part of the entire flooring process. 

Good little helpers.

Next Terry got on Facetime with Nathan and asked for advice about how to do the threshold pieces.

Meanwhile we brought up the very first box of flooring! 😍

Terry wanted several boxes to choose pieces from so the boys got to work emptying that box.

And now it was time to wait.

It took a long time to figure out how much space he needed to leave next to the wall for wood expansion, and before long it was time for me to go to work for the afternoon. #earprotection

I was bummed to miss out on the project starting so I asked the kids to sent me some pictures or Marco Polos. This is one.

Slowly but surely.

Meanwhile at work...

He'd done a lot by the time I got home six hours later.

Ezra and Samuel helped staple the black stuff down.

Nearly done for the night.

He'd been working pretty much nonstop all day and by 9:30 or 10pm he needed an ice cream break.

Ice cream always helps.

Friday's progress. We didn't stop until nearly midnight again!!😵😴

It looked so amazing though!

The following Saturday morning he had to prepare for his Mormon Sunday school class with Moses, Tori, and Zoe, who went with him to Utah last summer. It took them a long time! Meanwhile we watched Fellowship of the Ring. After a week with no furniture upstairs, we sure missed our couches. #softlife

We made cookies...

...played cars on the gloriously smooth new floor...

....wrestled...

...and set out many new rows for daddy to nail down when he got home.

He got straight to work when we returned rather later that afternoon.

We borrowed this nail gun from our friend Jeff. It had to be pressurized (hence the compressor behind Terry) but worked amazingly well. Those nails were two or two and a half inches long and the gun shot them into the floor at an angle. So in the end the floor had more than 2,000 nails holding it down. I don't think anyone will ever be removing it. 🙊

Nail gun in action. If you watch closely there's a spark or two when he gets to the end of the row. The nail must've hit another nail or staple holding the subfloor down.

Losing his mind...and the feeling in his knees.

I was just there for moral support...and crowd control...and an extra hand...and laying out rows. I had to cover poor Luna's ears when we was around. Usually she and the cat didn't hang out with us.

Saturday night we finally finished the living room.💙 We had really wanted to finish this section since Noah had a Suzuki piano recital here the following afternoon. 

We quit at 11:30pm.

It looked amazing but we were dead tired after three late nights and no sleeping in. We vowed to do no work the next day, which was Sunday in any case... I'll save the rest for another post but here's a video for the full effect.