The Big Mess: My flooring project

Happy Friday, everyone,

As promised, today’s post is about the fun week I have been having changing out my old tile and carpeting. This resulted in total upheaval throughout the entire house!! With my two old dogs to manage and nowhere to work, getting my posts and other work done has really been a challenge.

As I mentioned, after careful research, we decided to install vinyl flooring throughout–in every room except our three upstairs bedrooms. They have done some really nice work with this product. It comes in planks, just like wood, but is totally waterproof, definitely a requirement at our house! We chose it over tile as we found our previous tile to be quite cold; this product is warmer and softer on the feet.

Here is the before, with carpet and tile:

The vinyl we chose is a wood look in a gray-brown and silver tone, which looks amazing with gray and dark woods as well as with my white eight-inch baseboards. Unfortunately, this floor is lower than our previous one, so they had to reinstall the baseboards and add quarter-round molding around the floor base. Not my first choice, but it works. Our painter will need to do some repair and touching up to make the baseboards look fresh and new again.

Here is the “during:”

Yes, is that a horrible mess, or what??

As they were finishing the vinyl flooring project with just the master bath to complete, they discovered water under the tile outside the shower. So, just for fun, I have been working with the insurance company and leak and plumbing contractors to schedule them to demo the shower down to the studs in order to re-do the shower pan! Which will then necessitate re-doing tile which is everywhere in the bathroom! Boy, when it rains, it pours! Hence, we are living on base wood flooring in our bathroom until this latest issue is resolved. It may take up to a month! As they say with any home improvement project, take the cost you think it will be and increase it by another third or even half. Wise advice, but still shocking.

SO, except for the master bath, installing the bedroom carpeting, and painting and repairing the baseboards and any other damage, we are close to completion!! I know it will be worth it in the end, but it is SO difficult to live through it. You often think you should just be gone so they can do the work, but the truth is, there are decisions and oversight needed at every step. So you just have to tough it through. Not fun…

But worth it in the end! Here are some pictures of the final project for the downstairs and stairway: