New Flooring – Part II

I posted about the first two days of our new flooring last Thursday morning. The project was completely finished by Thursday evening and we moved the furniture back into the room on Friday morning. Our cats were leery about leaving the basement where they had been sequestered since Tuesday morning and been terrified by the noises overhead….but food and treats being moved back to the normal place in the kitchen were enough to entice them upstairs. The new floor made the kitchen a ‘new’ place for them and I think it did for me a little as well. I still am surprised at how much the new floor changes the look and feel of the room --- and it all for the better.

The wood floor in the entry, my husband’s office and the half bath is wonderful too. We’ve moved the furniture back to his office but not all the computers – so far. The room looks large! We bought a new mat for his office chair – one that is smooth on the back rather than with little nubs for carpeting. I need to remember to take the knots out of the sheers before we move too many other things back into the room.  The items on the shelves were covered with plastic during the sanding; even the Darth Vader came through in find shape!

Now that the project is done – I’m asking myself why I waited so long to have it done!

New Flooring – Part I

After living in our house over 20 years, we are getting new flooring in two areas:

• Our kitchen, breakfast area, pantry, and laundry room
• Foyer/coat closet (refinish), office, and half bath.

The new wood materials for the office and half bath were delivered on Monday so that it would be at the temperature of the house when it was installed. They were put in the office where they would be installed in a few days.

The crew to replace the kitchen and surround area arrived at mid-day on Tuesday and proceeded take out the old flooring (even though at first they were going to simply install the new Congoleum tiles over the old builder installed sheet vinyl….not what we paid for!). The old flooring has been pieced together and was not very high quality to begin with.

When they left Tuesday night, the refrigerator was in the den (plugged in – fortunately) along with the stove, the washer and dryer was in the garage….the space was ready for the installation of the tiles. There was a fine coating of dust on everything in the den…work for after the project is finished.

Wednesday morning, the crew to work on the kitchen arrived shortly after 8. After more stapling, gooping the seams of the material for under the tiles, and measuring – they were laying tile by 10.

Less than an hour after the kitchen crew arrived, the one for the foyer area arrived. The furniture from the office was moved into the living room, the drapery knotted up to be out of the way, the carpeting was taken out, and the saw was set up in the front yard. They were working on laying the new flooring in the office by 11…after hanging plastic on the spaces leading to the kitchen and the living room. I closed the doors to the rooms upstairs and we’ll just have to thoroughly vacuum the carpeting in the upstairs hallway.

By the end of the day on Wednesday:

The kitchen was finished. The crew worked for 12 hours straight to get it done. This morning we will be cleaning up and moving the table back into breakfast area.

The foyer area had the new wood installed in the half bath and office. Everything was sanded. We'd selected the stain from the sample grid. Thursday would be stain day!

Stay tuned for part II for this post…after the project is finished. I think it will probably come out on Sunday, August 21 (keeping my fingers crossed).