New Entry Floor

While the hubs was gone for a week to the upper peninsula this past month,

I took advantage of having the house to myself 

and getting a project completed that had been put off for way too many years.

I installed a new floor!

Well...I can't take all the credit.

I did have help.

I called Lin up to see what she was doing

and she happily and fearlessly donated her services.

She's willing to try anything 

once

(from what she tells me anyway).

Neither of us had put down flooring before.

What were we thinking...???

But, being women of the 2000's 

and being incredibly inspired by all of the DIY bloggers out there,
and being such a teeny, tiny space ~

we knew we could do it.

We plunged right in.

Pencil?  Check!

Box cutter?  Check!

Level?  Check!

T-square?  Check!

Yardstick?  Check!

Box of new flooring?  Check!

Bottle of FatCat*HappyDog wine?  

Ummmmm.....

"Hey, Lin?"

"Yeah?"

"It's 10:00 in the morning."

"Yeah, so?"

"We better wait on that."

"Okaaaaaayyyy....."

I had ripped up the old parquet floor a couple days prior

with a hammer and putty knife.

As you can see, it was in bad shape.  

It had gotten wet from snowy, salty, dirty shoes over the years

even though we've always had a rug there.

I couldn't keep it clean any more and it just looked
gross.

Not to mention that I've never been a fan of parquet floors.

Too busy for my taste.

Yuck!

The old parquet came up very easily.

"Demolition" = my new middle name.

See what I mean about being tiny? This space looks larger already with the parquet gone.

Ugly gold metal trim.....gone!

I also repainted the risers as well as the little "cubby" which holds our boot tray.

We were laying TrafficMaster Allure Resilient flooring in "Tradition" from Home Depot.

It's awesome stuff.

It looks just like wood, has a distinct wood grain feel to it,

but is actually some type of rubbery material.

You measure, cut, line it up, and stick it down.

That's it!

Looks like real wood, no?

The gray strips are where you line up the planks and stick them together.

After a couple hours of work,

a few choice words,

prayers for said choice words,

a few wrong measurements,

prayers for correct measurements,

a bit of a learning curve,

forgetting to take photos of us in contorted poses with planks in our hands,

lots and lots of laughing about "cheek cracks" while both of us squished together in that tiny, little space,

and not a DROP of wine, mind you...

we had the majority of it done.

Boot cubby

However.......

we ran out of flooring.

We were about 6 planks short.

Agh!

Guess someone didn't calculate correctly.

(Yes, that would be me.

But in my own defense, 
the guy at Home Depot said one box would be enough!)

So, I ordered some more online and it arrived three days later,

which is when I completed it ~

all by myself.

 

This past weekend,

Hubby and I finally took some time to install new baseboard trim as well as replaced the old, icky gold metal strip on the top step with a new pewter colored one.

Ta da!

I would definitely lay this flooring again ~ and have already started eyeing my carpeted bathroom...

We couldn't believe how much larger this teeny, tiny space looked.

No more make-your-eyes-go-loopy, crazy, parquet squares filled with years of dirt and yuck.

Now, just easy-to-keep-clean, smooth, wood-like planks

that are water, dirt, and scratch resistant

to scruffy dogs

and scruffy husbands.

Lovely!

Thank you, Lin!!!

Love you, girl!!!

(Hey, wanna build a house next....?) 

♥

Hmmm, 

now....where's that wine....???

[ Blessings ]

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