Floors are in!!!!

Mr. Lee and his helpers came bright and early Monday mornin at 8am and were done by 1:30 and cleaned up and out of here by 2. They were amazing especially for the price. I don't have final pics yet since my camera is full and I need a new memory card but enjoy the progress pics. And hopefully some videos that show how loud everything was all day ! I'm so happy with them.

Let's remember the before several months ago!

 And now for the durings!

 The more modern option to a traditional threshold-they turn the wood opposite and so it sit evens with the carpet. Much more natural to walk on and looks cooler :)

 And now some videos to show you how we lived for a few hours!

Powder room demo and possible replacements!

While I'm confined to the upstairs with the broken and sprained ankle (I have a cast and still can't put any weight on it), the H is demoing our powder room in prep for the floors install on Monday.  We had put this off since it was our only remaining sink downstairs and we were using it for our dishes.  However, I can hear the saw and the sledgehammer so its going away. 

We had a vanity in the small room and now I'm thinking that instead of replacing it with a new vanity, I should do a pedestal sink.  That way we can see more the beautiful floors and it will make the room larger.  I am losing storage space but the only thing I stored there was toilet paper and that should really be stored upstairs anyway.  I'm looking for a modern sink and I think this one might work and the price is really nice.  It is from Overstock and is the Fontaine Wedge model and only $125.

Lighting ideas update!

I think I'm finalized my lighting ideas.  You can see what we are working with here in a past post.  To replace the large rectangle fluorescent light I'm gonna use this track lighting system.  Its very affordable and gets great reviews. Its the Barometer from Ikea.  I like the modern sleek but classic style and I can direct the 5 lights wherever I want them to go.  Plus during the day, the kitchen gets a ton of natural light.

As for the new chandelier over the dining area, I'm considering several and would love your input.  One option is the Ikea Foto Fendant in the 20" diameter size.  It is only $30 so an affordable option.

Another I'm considering is the Ikea PS Vava Pendant. Its $70 but very fun and I'm drawn to the texture of it.

The Ikea Boja is another one I'm drawn to for the texture and its a handmade shade from bamboo and only $60.  It says it give a warm soft light and gives your home a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Exactly what I'm looking for.  I think this is my favorite so far that I have found.

Oh and I'm for sure getting a new ceiling fan for the family room. I was going to try to reuse the old one but I gave up on that idea. Its just too fug :)

I like the Ikea lighting options for their style but for also the price truthfully.  And I know I get tired of things quickly so I can change our the fixtures relatively easily and inexpensively.  My motto is the spend money on things that are not easily changed like our wood floors and appliances and cabinets (we sprung for one of their most expensive doors but they are 100% wood) and get cheaper accessories like lighting fixtures and knob pulls.

Mr. Lee-the man who (hopefully) saved our marriage!

So the H and I started to install our wood flooring ourselves.  We did all the research and spent $400 on tools and supplies.  We had gotten several quotes on having it installed and they ranged from $3 plus extra for trim to $6 a sq foot just for install.  Way out of our budget plus the install process didn't look that hard.

However on Sunday Feb. 6 we changed our minds.  We really had no idea what we were doing and it was just too stressful plus our master bath toilet started leaking and the H's mom was in a car accident (she is ok thankfully!) and we just gave up for the sake of our sanity and marriage haha.  We just aren't big DIY people.  We like to actually enjoy our weekends not doing housework. 

 Some of the wood floor layed out to get the feel for what it is gonna look like.  Mr. Lee is a professional and will lay it out so it looks good all mixed up with different pieces not like this which looks all haphazard.

The "I have no idea what I'm doing " face!

We were ready to take our chances and pay HD to install the floors for the $3 a sq foot price but one of my fellow Bmore Nesties came through for me! She rec'd a flooring store called Wood Floors Plus in  Glen Burnie and several local installers who would do a great job for not super expensive. I called several she gave me and Mr. Lee was able to come right over since he was working in Towson that day. He seems very knowledgable and gave me a great price.  Once I returned all the DIY tools I had to buy, we are only spending an extra $350ish to get them professionally done.  He told me he usually charges more but he likes me but actually I'm guessing he is trying to build business in this area and in this economy he wanted the job since I told him I had several other estimates coming in.  His book of past jobs is beautiful and he had tons of recomendation letters.  The people at the wood store also seemed to love him and they rec'd him to their customers when they purchase wood so I'm hoping that if he wasn't great, he wouldn't get such positive feedback.

When Mr. Lee wrote a price down and handed it to me  he said, "You like price, price is good?" and I was so giddy over it I said "Price is very good" ...so much for any negoiating haha.  But truthfully I think its a very fair price and wouldn't want to haggle over $50 or so. I signed him on the spot and he only asked for a $50 deposit to hold my space in his schedule and the rest is due upon completion of the job.  HD wanted the entire $$ upfront and I wasn't comfortable with that at all. 

The funny thing is is that Mr. Lee is Asian and has a very heavy accent. He understands and speaks English fine but the accent makes it hard for me to totally understand him.  He knows this and speaks really slowly for me. Its fine in person but pretty hard on the phone.  So when I called to move our install from this Monday to next week due to my broken ankle, we couldn't communicate new dates and I gave up and just told him to come and what shoe molding and stair nose I had picked out at Wood Floors Plus since their trim pieces are way cheaper than HD.  Hopefully it works out and he shows up and does a great job on Monday. I'll post updates Monday night.

On a side note, if you are looking for hardwood floors Wood Floors Plus is the way to go. Better products and more selection than Lumber Liquidators which I didn't think was that great a deal at all.  All the WFP products are 3/4" which is industry standard for good wood and LL had many products thinner just to have lower prices.  Our wood from HD was a super deal from them and comperable to WFP prices but WFP has a ton more selection.  I love our wood but would have loved to know about this store before we made the final decision since they had some really pretty stained oaks for cheaper.  They also have great associates who helped me and pulled up pricing and were very knowledgable.  They also have laminate and carpet but I didn't really check it out.  We are actually getting our trim pieces from there since they will match our floors and are a ton cheaper than the matching pieces from HD.
**Not perked in any way to talk about WFP but I just really liked the store and wanted to pass on the info!

A sample of the cheap trim at Wood Floors Plus- a great match for about 1/4 of the price.

Santa brings our wood floors!

We ordered our flooring from Home Depot in mid December.  We decided on 5" wide planks of Shaw Hickory hardwood 3/4" thick tounge and grove wood.  We got an amazing deal on it at $3.95 a sq foot and then I had a 10% off coupon as well.  Thanks goes out to the Edgewood Home Depot since it was originally the 3" wide stips on sale but they were out of stock and the manager upgraded us to the 5" more modern and expensive planks at the store cost which was a few cents less than the other's sale price.  Great customer service. 

It took about a week for the flooring to arrive at the store and on Christmas Eve the H and I drove to the store and rented one of their trucks to bring it home.  They loaded on the truck with the pallet loader but we had to unload each individual box one at time.  Keep in mind each box weighs 80 lbs and we had 24 of them.  That was a great way to spend Christmas Eve haha;)

 Every single one of these boxes had to be lifted off the truck and into the house.  Thankfully I have muscles now haha.

 Our Christmas decor that the H surprised me with on Christmas Eve.  Doesn't look like much but I loved our Charlie Brown tree we used years ago in the apartment and I never parted with. 

 All the flooring boxes chilling in our family room so they can acclimate.  We since had to move those so we could do some leveling of the floor in spots.

 Actual pieces of our wood floor. Its Hickory with no added color stain. It lets the natural beauty and variation of the wood shine though. Most of the pieces are like the 2nd from the left but I think the variety of pieces will be so pretty.

The garage aka our workshop!  You can see parts of the old floor we tore up stacked by the hose and our recycling lol.  We originally cut pieces to block under the family room floor since the joists run another direction under that room but we ended up not needing to do that since our installer told us to run the wood horizontal instead of vertical and the joists would be fine.  The H spent a full weekend crawling around the basement doing this work but oh well. Lesson learned.

Wow have we been lazy!

Haha!  My last post was before Christmas and its February 12 already.  I promise to be better.  We have done some minor things but truthfully with Christmas, New Years and then me being sick, me getting an allergic reaction to medicine and 3 hospital trips later, then a  broken and severely sprained ankle in a cast and me on crutches, things have been slow :)  Since I'm confined to the bed now I'll be posting some pics and updates on what we have been up too!

Cabinets are Up

We have all our wall cabinets up.  We ended up using some shims because our walls aren't flat and square but only the area near the fridge was really bad.  We need to add more once we decide exactly where everything goes in relation to the base cabinets once those get put in.  And we will tighten the holders to raise up the cabinets a smidge but again once everything is set.  It was advised not to have the cabinets flush up with the soffits since they probably aren't completly level and flat and it would interfer with the doors opening.

We won't add shelves, doors and cover panels until everything is done floor wise but its a good start.

I have way more cabinets than I did before!  Now just to get more stuff for the insides.

 The extra deep fridge cabinet made us a little nervous so we have some wood blocks just in case to make sure it doesn't come crashing down :)  Oh and we left space to add a cover panel between to cover the deep edge.

 The white fridge really needs to go!