We're floored!

Our floors are done!  Trim molding has yet to be installed, and there are some paint touch-ups here and there, but for the most part, we can start putting our furniture back . . .

From the Living Room towards the Dining Room . . .

The Breakfast Nook and Kitchen . . .

From the Living Room towards the Front Door and Hallway . . .

From the Front Door . . .

First step going to the 2nd Floor . . .

Steps going up.  The risers will be painted white . . .

2nd Floor Hallway . . .

Steps going down . . .

And our brand new stove!  Completely installed this very night by my handy husband, who after grumbling a little and making a couple of trips to Home Depot, once again managed to do the installation on his own.  He did need to read the instructions this time . . . imagine that, my guy reading instructions . . . 

I may actually have to crack that booklet open myself.  This new stove has more features than I know what to do with . . .  And I have some catch-up baking to do . . .

If I had a hammer . . .

I'd hammer in the morning . . . at 6:45 A.M. to be exact . . .

Medium Brown on top . . . Early American on the bottom . . .

Refrigerator temporarily moved to Breakfast Nook . . .

Floor installed and wood filler applied . . .

Refrigerator moved again . . .

Big sander waiting its turn . . . tomorrow . . .

We are making progress . . .

One step closer . . .

The hardwood has been delivered for our new floors!

“The strongest of all warriors are these two: Time and Patience.”

– Leo Tolstoi

Demolition update . . .

The Humpty Dumpty rhyme keeps running through my head . . .

Will we be able to put Humpty together again?

Here's the china cabinet in two pieces, resting in front of the fireplace . . .

Coat closet door has been removed . . . we should've moved the coats first . . . oh, well . . .

And when we removed some of the molding in the kitchen, we found a hole . . . Now how on earth does that happen . . . ?  What, did they run out of dry wall . . . ? Was that a mouse's attempt to get inside . . . ?  Argh!  Add this to the repair list . . .

My husband pulled the cabinet off the wall so the contractor can add wood flooring underneath the cabinet instead of butting up the new floor against the old cabinet.  We won't need any quarter round trim at the bottom, but now we have to repair the wall . . . And did I mention that we are also getting a new stove?



The "may-as-well" syndrome is alive and well at our house.  Our existing stove came with the house and we would have been replacing it within a year or two anyway.  We just moved up the timeline a little.  I'm very excited to start shopping for a new stove!  Every stove I've ever owned has come with the house!  This is going to be fun!

I'm trying to stay positive in the midst of this chaos.  I keep reminding myself of the six months that it took to remodel the 2nd floor bathroom.  A month-and-a-half for beautiful new floors and a new stove . . . ?  Piece of cake!

Here we go again . . .

It wouldn't be our normal, unless there was a major remodeling project going on at our house at the beginning of Spring . . .

The time has finally come to take out the old flooring - several kinds of flooring, in fact . . .

First, we have the creaky, imitation hardwood in the Living Room and Dining area, above showing a partially exposed sub-flooring and a still-to-be-removed floor in the Dining Room . . .

Here's a shot of the Living Room.  Five bookcases down and two to go.  We've been packing books for weeks.  The boxes are now stacked in the basement.  Oh, well, I guess I still have my Kindle . . .

Another shot of the debris waiting to be taken out to the curb on Garbage Day.  We found out we could save $1,000 by removing the flooring ourselves -  a no brainer for my husband, who's not used to letting anybody else work on our house.  Oh, and look!  my crocheting project is on the chair!  Another thing to be packed away until the floor is finished. 

Close-up of the linoleum in the Breakfast Nook.  We seem to lose a bit more flooring every time we move those chairs . . .

The floor in the Kitchen is going, too . . .  Too dark, don't you think?

Out with the carpeting!  I CANNOT KEEP THIS CARPET CLEAN!  Notice that the builder carpeted even the sides of the stairs.  Isn't that the silliest thing ever?  A center runner to dampen the noise and avoid slippage makes sense to me, but I'd never have covered the whole thing, especially with light -colored carpeting in such a high traffic area!

More linoleum in the hallway.  Every single one of these floors was sloppily installed, and ugly to boot.  We are ripping it all out and replacing it with warm, beautiful hardwood floors that will unify the entire space! 

So, we've been busy selecting the right contractor and finding the best price, not to mention scrounging around for boxes, packing books and the contents of the china cabinet, and removing old flooring . . . Everything is out of place . . .  I am very tired lately . . .