Tore Up From The Floor Up

Holy hardwoods batman! 

As you know one of the items on our home to do list was to replace our damaged hardwoods with a more durable and attractive laminate. After looking at many different floor samples for the past couple months Chris and I finally chose one. So on Sunday we bit the bullet, ordered the flooring and decided to start removing our current hardwoods.

As soon as we started, we knew we were in for quite a task. The hardwoods were heavily glued to the cement underneath, and were VERY, very stubborn. 

After cutting sections with a circular saw, both Chris and I used pry bars and hammers to remove the existing wood. 2 hours and all our blood sweat and tears (not from crying, but from a wood chip flying in my eye), we had only removed a small portion of the dining area. 

Before starting this project Chris told me that if we had to hire someone to remove and install the floors we couldnt go on a cruise next year, so believe you me, we were determined to make this DIY project work. 

So Chris did a little research, talked to some friends and family who've done similar projects in the past and decided to rent a floor scraper from Home Depot. The hope was that it would help remove the hardwoods as well as scrape up the remaining glue and wood remnants. Some reviews online said the machine didn't help at all, but we had our fingers tightly crossed.

Chris rented the scraper, and with the help of our good friend Justin they demoed the rest of the hardwoods in the dining area, kitchen and living room as well as removed all the adhesive in half a day. The cost of the machine was around $85 plus $15 on pizza to feed the hard workers, but that $100 saved us thousands (plus a vacay) since we didn't have to hire help. 

Here are some before and during photos of the demo. (sorry for the bad iphone photos)

Before

During but after  using scraper

During but before using scraper on glue and stuck on hardwoods. (Sneak peak of new curtains)

After removing wood and scraping glue - looks ugly but is so much better!

Currently our new flooring is stacked in the corner acclimating to room temperature per manufacturers instructions. The plan is to install these bad boys this weekend. I Will keep you posted on any DIY drama and of course "after" pics. Wish us (and by us, I mean Chris and handy friends) luck!

House "Before" Pictures

I think I've mentioned before that when Chris and I purchased our house it was a foreclosure. The previous owners used it as a litter box. As in, they allowed their cats to use the carpets as their toilet. Lovely really. 

I've promised some "before and after" pictures of the house so today I'll start with "before". Some of the pictures don't look THAT bad. But remember you cant smell over the internet. 

I think the stairs were the cats favorite spot

As you can see there are a lot of stellar paint colors/techniques as well as awesome brass light fixtures. 

Don't get me wrong, we did luck out with some pretty great kitchen applicances, but the majority of the house definitely needed some cleaning up and updating. When we first got the keys Chris and his dad got to work ripping the carpets and baseboards out, scrubbing the walls, and bleaching the subfloor before sealing it with Killz (I totally would have helped but I was on my bachelorette party - bad timing or good timing? you be the judge). We then had new carpets installed and all the walls, doors, ceilings and trim painted.. Stay tuned for some "after" pics. Maybe it would be more accurate to say "in progress" pics as I don't think I'll ever feel like a room is finished!