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.
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