The new floors are in!

The floors went in the Thursday before Christmas and they look ah-MAZE-ing. It took them all.freaking.day to do 700 square feet of kitchen, breakfast area, dining room and foyer and it left a huge mess of sawdust everywhere, but we're so pleased with the final results.

We went with a hand scraped chestnut hickory laminate wood floor from Lowes. We debated between hardwood and laminate, but ultimately the lower cost and durability of the laminate won out. The floors were actually what finally kick started the kitchen reno. We just happened to be at Lowes and wandered into the flooring section where we saw the installation special they were having--$397 for the entire house, which would save us about $1000 for our 700 sf! Only one day left on the special so we jumped on it right away, and booked our measurement appointment to lock in the price.




The color isn't quite as red as the first picture, but a little warmer than the second picture. I love the hand scraped textured look and I'm hoping it'll help hide any wear and tear from the kids. One of the best parts is that we no longer have a really awkward 1-inch transition from the old kitchen linoleum to the foyer. It was an annoying tripping hazard and I'm so glad it's gone.

Next up is the back splash. Adam has a guy he knows coming on Thursday to do that and the electrical work (to hide the exposed wire and boxes). We're going with a white subway tile with a white and gray mosaic tile accent. I'm so excited, it's all coming together!

The ugly counters are GONE

Subtitle: The house is a mess and we're insane

Why in the world did we decide to schedule our installations before Christmas? Between working and the extra stuff like shopping, baking, decorating, and wrapping...finding time to prep the house for new counters and floors is not easy. Who knew? I think we're just so eager for a change, we just couldn't wait.

Anyway, the counters went in last week, and it's such an improvement already. I can't believe we lived with such ugly counters for so long!

Good riddance, ugly laminate!

But OMG it was so stinky. It didn't even cross my mind that the epoxy and granite polish would smell so toxic. They were installing from like 1:30 to 5:30 so the house didn't have time to air out before the kids and I got home, so we had to go out to dinner. Even now when I open up the cabinets, I can smell it. They look great though. Don't mind the lack of a back splash and the ugly cabinets. I can't WAIT to paint them white!

Maybe it's all in my head, but I think the new counters make the cabinets look a *little* better.

Here's the blue pearl granite up close. The slab we chose is definitely more gray than blue. Love it!



Floors go in on Thursday. Yep, just a few short days before Christmas, like we don't have anything better to be doing. So I spent Saturday afternoon prying off all of our quarter round trim. Such a huge pain (literally, I bled, bruised myself and got sore) all to save a few bucks in labor costs. We're cheap like that.



Adam started ripping up the carpet in the dining room so we'd have a place to put the boxes of flooring, which arrived today.



And even aside from that we've just got crap everywhere. Bags and bags of Christmas gifts, clothes, toys, etc all over the kitchen and living room. When one part of your house is a complete mess, it's really hard to find the motivation to clean the rest of it.

Ew. Don't judge me please. At least I finally hung the stockings. And the floor is mopped.

We've even cluttered up the new counters already. Such a shame.

Notice the electrical boxes just hanging out of the wall? The idiots who built the house took a shortcut and decided to just go behind the laminate back splash instead of the wall. So now we have to pay extra for electrical work. Great.

Wednesday we'll be having fun ripping out carpet, tack strips and our old laminate, and moving all of our furniture into our living room. Wait, when am I ever going to find time to wrap and finish shopping? OMG.

But yay for progress!

Our kitchen reno has begun!

You might have noticed in pictures or if you've seen it in person, but our kitchen is ugly with a capital FUG. We knew this when we moved in 8+ years ago and it's been on our list of things to improve "some day" (aka, when we can afford it). Everything is/was very "base model" including the fixtures throughout the house, flooring, counters, cabinetry, appliances, etc. It's actually one of the things that was a plus when buying our first house since it was completely functional, but a lower price point than a house with upgrades. It was actually only a few years old when we moved in, it's in a great location in our town, in a cul-de-sac that backs up to the woods as opposed to other houses, so we've got some privacy.

We replaced most of the light fixtures and faucets right away and even did some major construction a few years ago to add a fourth bedroom over our two-story living room. Now we're FINALLY able to move on to the kitchen. On the agenda: new stainless appliances, granite counters, laminate wood floors (in the kitchen, dining room and foyer), white subway tile back splash, and painting the cabinets white. Structurally the cabinets are fine, even though they're super cheap looking. Adam and I are really hoping that white paint will make them look better. If not, we'll look into new doors at some later point in time. We also want to add some sort of island (another upgrade the original owners opted out of) and replace the huge bug catcher fluorescent light.

We started off by scoring some stainless appliances on an hhgegg Veterans day sale to match our fridge. Adam and I spent the better part of a Friday evening attempting to install the dishwasher and microwave. Key word is attempting. No matter how hard we try, we are just not DIY-ers. Not handy, we lack the appropriate tools, and apparently the general know-how to accomplish tasks that should be easy. We had to call my wonderfully handy father-in-law who came to our rescue the next day.

See what I mean? FUG! And a complete mess while Adam tries to place the template for the microwave.

That's probably one of the reasons we've put off the reno for so long. If we could lay our own laminate floors, we probably would have been able to get rid of the ugly, peeling linoleum and stained dining room carpet years ago.

And I'm still debating with Adam about whether we should paint the cabinets and do the tile back splash ourselves. Part of me wants to do it, but finding the time is one of the biggest hurdles for us. I have no idea how so many wonderful bloggers I follow find the time. Working full time and entertaining 3 kids on the weekend doesn't leave the hours and hours of free time needed to paint and tile. So we'll see if that happens, or if we get Adam's painters (the guys who paint his apartments, and who have painted several rooms in our house) to do the cabinets and our granite guys to do our back splash.

Next up is the granite. They did the template yesterday, and we get to pick our slab on Monday. We're going with Blue Pearl, but the slab we choose will definitely be more gray than blue. If all goes well, we might have new counters and a shiny new sink by next weekend!

Floors probably won't be until after the new year, but we picked out a handscraped chestnut hickory laminate from Lowes. I went back and forth on the laminate vs. engineered hardwood debate and primarily due to cost and durability, we went with laminate. If money weren't a factor, I would have gone with engineered hardwood, but I think what we picked is going to look fabulous and I just can't wait to get the ball rolling!

Goodbye fugly kitchen! More pics to come once the counters are in so stay tuned.