The white carpet in our house that has never stayed white has been the bane of my existence since...always.
It was gross. It had to go. We thought how hard can this be?! Andy put new floors in Mary Flair and there is You Tube. We got this.
We.had.no.idea.how.hard.it.would.be.
Because...you see we are not carpenters. We are optimistic DIYers.
But this. This was huge.
We started moving furniture out, taking out the floorboards and carpet and carpet padding on a Friday night after volunteering at the school Back To School Bash for 3 hours. Meaning we finally started at 9PM.
We lasted till about 1AM and were stilling cleaning up the nail strips and dust when we got up a few hours later.
By mid day Saturday I was tired and discouraged with our lack of progress when an angel came by...our neighbor bringing survival snacks. Seriously these snacks are the only reason I was able to push through this project.
I put down foam while Andy worked in the hallway.
This felt like a victory. I was ready to live with foam flooring.
Once we finally got the first long row in we were in business snapping flooring in. That first row was a bear. Because our hallway has all theses cut outs...with rounded corners. Which translates into DIY pain in the ass.
While Andy continued cutting and installing flooring I took out all the nails from the floorboards, cleaned each one with a friend on the driveway, and painted all of them. Seriously my floorboards never looked so good.
By Sunday night we had almost all the flooring in except a couple final tricky pieces. But the weekend was over and nana and papa were bringing the kids back. Meaning work pretty much halted.
My curious little helper was not so helpful Monday morning...
But we were getting close...so close.
So after Andy came home from work Monday I decided to take the kids to the pavilion to ride bikes so Andy could pound out the last of this hellacious project kid free.
We were at the pavilion for 15 minutes when Brody rides his bike at full speed into the rock wall and comes up screaming, blood gushing down his face. At this point I grab him and go running down the street to a neighbor's house, yelling for help. Another neighbor go get Abby and AJ that I left behind in my frantic departure. After we wipe the blood away it is pretty clear Brody needs stitches.
So off to urgent care we go, and the floors wait.
2 stitches later we make it home at bedtime.
Thank God for incredible neighbors.
Later that week Brody and I venture to Home Depot to buy a replacement floorboard piece for one of our "oops".
About a week after the start of this epic DIY project we have floors with brightly painted floorboards back up...only transition pieces to finish...
And the great hunt for a new area rug begins.
6 stores later we have a rug and we feel accomplished.
Chance: 8 blisters
Brody: 2 stitches and another awesome scar on his face
Andy: a killer backache
New floors: priceless
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