Sweet Sweat Equity

Introducing adventures in doing it yourself….Our Fantastic Floor Makeover!

After a bear of a project like this, I am happy to exclaim “WE DID IT!” For over a year Chris and I have been talking about our dream hardwood style laminate floor, and now it’s a reality. After countless conversations, calculated planning, months of saving, and days of hard labor, we can finally sit back and enjoy our brand new living room floor.
Very early in the process, I had bright idea that we could make HGTV proud and do it ourselves- saving a ton of money in labor made it a no-brainer. Of course we weren’t alone. Thank goodness for the experienced hand of my dad, who was such a trooper to come up and help us install our floors. After a backbreaking day of hard work laying, hammering and jigsaw-ing away, I’m happy to say that the end result was completely worth it.

Was it unbelievably more intense than I thought? Yes! Did we totally underestimate the amount of work and elbow grease required? Absolutely! Would we consider doing a project of this magnitude again on our own? Debatable, lol!

I’m so proud of my dad and Chris. Both of them were such hard, patient workers! The floors look phenomenal, far better than I had hoped even. This past week has been like Christmas morning waking up to them! Plus, I feel so much cleaner to be rid of that awful carpet! Piper’s a huge fan of the floors as well, and is enjoying the retreat of a cool floor from the hot summer sun.

The finished product!

Without a doubt-and despite the crazy hard work- doing it ourselves was twice as gratifying as it was challenging. I’m glad that we were good stewards of our money, and knowing we put in the hard work to get these floors down gives us a heightened appreciation for their value and care.

While we installed the actual floors in one(FULL) day, the process from beginning to end took a few days, and we still have some minor ends to tie up. It all started with moving the furniture on Wednesday, losing our tv in the process, lol. Then on Thursday we reached the point of no return as Chris and I tackled the daunting task of pulling up our carpet. That part was'nt so bad, it was the glue and carpet tacks that really took the cake, ugh! Not to mention the insane amount of dirt and dust living under our floors…I thought the sweeping would never end. Finally on Friday my dad met us bright and early and we worked all. day.long. On Saturday we moved all of our furniture back and I swiffered like I’ve never swiffered before-I don’t think I’ve ever be that excited to clean a floor! After we finish recovering(it's been a week already, lol) we'll have to put down quarter rounds, and figure out some minor transition details on our own…but after beating this bear of a project, I feel like we tackle anything.

Praise the Lord, we made it! I am SO thankful for the opportunity to finally realize this long awaited goal of ours. Moreover, I'm so glad that we got it done with all of our fingers and toes intact, and with no major setbacks or defeats. God is so good to us :)

Not pictured:

One very loud and unhappy puppy who did not enjoy being left outside all day.

Two pounds of sawdust and wood chips covering our front porch.

THREE pitchers of Cherry limeade drank throughout the day.

Countless trips to Lowes Hardware-yes, we are officially homeowners!