Pages

Monday, August 15, 2011

How about flooring?

Nothing is straight in this house, floors, ceilings, walls, etc. We've decided to go with it, gotta love an old crooked house, right? It's only horrible when you have to do flooring or try to measure up or down from a wall. But yet, I hated the carpet and it had to go. With 2 dogs and 3 cats carpet is so not a good idea.
 Here is the horrible matching carpet and walls. Keep in mind that ugly box step to the kitchen for later.
My rug even looks horrible against it.

So one day while browsing pinterest, I came across a flooring post that would be WONDERFUL for my floor! The idea came from Quarry Orchard, even though they didn't even know what it would be when they started. I was happy to learn from them and took it all to heart!

 We ripped up all the carpet and padding. Gross huh? We (he) then removed all the carpet tack strips and together we pulled out the 5 million staples from the padding. The couch stayed in here the entire time because I ran out of room to stash furniture, it was like a maze in my house.

They didn't know they were staining the planks, we did. So when we found minwax stain for $2.50 a quart at ReStore, we knew we would stain the sub floor a darker color than our planks to show through the grooves. And it dries much faster than paint, so it was perfect! Somewhere along in this mess, I decided the horrible already painted to look like brick fireplace had to go, and before I knew it, I was priming it too.




Since this was a big job, we went to Sutherlands for the plywood and had THEM cut it into planks. We used 1/4" sanded red oak and had it cut in 5 7/8" strips so they would come out even. The living room joins with the guest room, sun room, kitchen and our bedroom/parlor. The kitchen has allure flooring in it that was chosen so it could get wet. The guest room has original hardwood floors that are kind of dark. The sun room floor is hard wood that is painted red. The bedroom/parlor has carpet but oh what a surprise I found under it. We weren't trying to be all matchy matchy so we decided to go with wide planks and a light stain because of the dark walls. We chose 1/4" so it would be flexible with our crooked floors.

We used ipswich pine for the plank stain, also purchased from Restore KC, nice huh? We did all the staining outside and between the 2 of us it didn't take too long because it dried quick. We also did the poly outside but it took a lot longer because we didn't have the room to lay it ALL out to dry between coats. That and it finally rained here on and off all week the week we decide to work outside, figures huh? We used 3 coats of poly on each plank. We used a poly made by Rustoleum that was only $24 a gallon versus twice that for other brands. They didn't have much feedback on it at Home Depot but since it was Rustoleum, we thought why not? It looks good and I see NO problems with it so far. I'm sold!




Now that's what I'm talking about! It looks 2000 times better in here now!


Remember the little box step? I told him my vision for the new step and he made it come to life. Even better than I imagined. Yep, that's one of the things I love about him! Isn't it fabulous?

I'm off to take care of some more details in the room now.......


I'm partying at:

Flaunt it Friday
and
Show and Tell Friday
and
It's a HodgePodge Friday
and
http://www.thethriftyhome.com
Wallet-Friendly Wednesday


Transformation Thursday

8 comments:

Janine Green said...

The flooring for your home came out great! Love the little box step's new look.

Chlvie said...

Hi Michelle,

I just wanted to stop by and take a peek! You have a beautiful room too! The flooring really made a Huge difference. I am with you, I really want to pull up our carpeting too and put down wood flooring . . .I looooooooove wood flooring!

Thanks again for stopping by. I'm going to continue looking around and see what else you have to share.

Chlvie

Shannon said...

WOW! IT looks great! Glad you could learn from our mistakes!! :) Ours is still holding up well! We're still happy with it and are SO happy that we did it!

Shannon

Unknown said...

It sure doesn't look like plywood! Great job!

Angie Holden said...

WOW OH WOW!! :)

Natasha in Oz said...

I love wooden flooring. We have it in our house too and it is so warm in winter. Your floors look fantastic!

Thanks so much for linking this up to my Pinning & Singing Party. I hope you will be able to join in again this weekend!

Best wishes,
Natasha @ 5 Minutes Just for Me.

Deborah@Green Willow Pond said...

Great job! I found you through Quarry Orchard. Can I ask how you attached this flooring? Did you use liquid nails along with nails like they did at Quarry Orchard?

Also, since you finished it before installing, did you have to touch up nail holes after installing?

Eva Brown said...

You can get the best Living Room Design in Budget. If Buy Brick Slips Online will be great. The Stone Cladding will be also an option.