Days One and Two: Flooring Update!

Well hey there! I’m THRILLED to announce that the great floor install has begun!! Wait -- that should probably be The Great Floor Install. It deserves caps cause I’ve been been waiting for this for a loooong time. (Six weeks and three days. But who’s counting?)

;)

The process started bright and early Tuesday morning – the handymen came to pull up all of the carpet and laminate. But first all of the furniture had to be moved out! Initially we were going to try to move furniture back and forth (from the front of the house to the back) but I’m SO glad we didn’t mess with that. It would have been a total hassle, and I’m not even sure we would have had room for all of the furniture in one place.

By the way – before this I didn’t think we had much furniture. We do. Have much furniture.

While the guys moved furniture and pulled up flooring, I took all of the little stuff – lamps, baskets, knick knacks, pillows -- down to the basement.

Can I get a hollaaaaa for basements? I don’t know what we’d do without ours. Double thump to the chest at it.

After everything was out, the flooring guys got going pretty quick – they started with the front of the house and moved back. I was shocked at how fast the floors went down – it’s just the measuring and cutting that takes time.

By the end of day one, the dining and living room were DONE!:

I am SO IN LOVE!!! Even in the natural color – I. am. giddy.

I cannot even express to you the difference it’s already made in our house! It feels HUGE! I know the whole no furniture thing plays a teensy roll in that, but STILL. :)

They worked their tails off today, and would have gotten all of the floors down, but we had some little problems to work around in the family room and kitchen.

Thousands of them:

See that line of itty bitty staples? When we had the laminate installed years ago, the installers had to put down a layer of plywood to even out the floors. The plywood came up easy – the staples did not.

It seems like there are (pinky to mouth) meeeellions of them.

So the guys have to pound down each and every one before they can install over them – it took hours this morning. Tomorrow they will finish that up and finish the floors!

We were told the whole process would be done by this Friday, and HA! that makes me laugh. ;) It will be next Tuesday at the earliest, unless things go magically fast over the next few days. I’m going to plan for mid-next week and be pleasantly surprised if it’s finished up earlier.

The finished on site process obviously takes much longer than a prefinished or engineered wood would take. With either of those, they would go down and then be done. The version we chose is installed, spots are filled, the floors are sanded, then stained and finally coats of poly are put over all of it.

So a one or two day process for prefinished will be at least five for the finished on site.

There is one BIG reason that we went this route. I know myself. :)

The little crevices in the prefinished flooring would have driven me nutty:

Quite a few of you mentioned this (actually, a TON of you) when I asked about the floors on this post. You all were so helpful!!

Many mentioned how it drives you MAD when you have to vacuum out those little cracks. I know it would put me over the edge. Really. You just have to know what makes you tick. Or itch, in this instance. ;)

I had hoped to do the wider boards – maybe four inches wide. But the contractor and installer both explained that the wider the boards, the more the chance of cupping. Indiana weather isn’t exactly what I’d call stable – we get freezing cold, super hot, insane humidity and major dry spells – all within days of each other sometimes. (You think I kid.)

The extremes in weather are a great recipe for cupping floors. The thinner the width of the board, the less chance of that happening:

Ours are 3 1/4 inch wide I believe? They are also 3/4 inch thick (top to bottom)– so there will be plenty of chances to sand them down and restain in the future – which is another reason for this method. They should (please Lord) last forever.

That’s also the reason we didn’t go with the hand scraped look – we were told those can be hard to sand down and stain because of the texture. I’m not sure if that’s 100 percent true, but it makes sense. They’d have to be sanded down to almost flat if they were going to be restained.

I decided to go basic and what I hope is timeless – flat, crevice-free wood floors. ;) I can already tell little bumps and nicks aren’t going to bother me – scratches yes (I may cry the first time!!), but the rest will give them character. :)

I told myself I wouldn’t work on any projects this week because the house is such a mess – but that lasted all of ten minutes. I just can’t sit around watching – I have to do something!

One of my dirty little secrets was revealed when they moved the furniture out – I had even forgotten about it!:

Ha!! I never painted or finished the molding when I did this project a couple years ago.  (I posted a how-to video in this post!) I always meant to go back and do it, but the sofa hasn’t moved in years. ;)

So I’ve been working on that…painting and installing the additional boxes. And then because they finished the floors in the office:

I took that opportunity to finish up the baseboards in there. I’ve been waiting forEVA to do this and I’m SO thrilled!! When I installed the B and B in there, I put the mdf right over the top of the baseboards:

It didn’t really bother me – but I knew when the floors were installed that I could fix this, and I’m SO happy with how it turned out!

One of my lovely readers mentioned that they just installed baseboards right over the top of the whole thing – and I thought that was brilliant.

Because our old baseboards were a bit thinner than the mdf I used on the walls, I used a bunch of paint sticks and nailed them over the old baseboards:

I offered to pay for them, but Paint Guy at Home Depot told me to take what I needed – rock on Paint Guy!!

Doing this prevented the bottom part of the new baseboards from caving in when I nailed them in – does that make sense? Otherwise the bottom part would have been against the old baseboards and the top part would have been sticking out – it gave them an even surface to lay on.

It worked like a charm!:

Sorry for the night pic! I got this done late!

Here’s a before and after to see how looks:

 

OH MY I am so happy to have this done! After the floors are stained the quarter round will go down, completing the baseboards.

Goodbye shorties – helloooo tall baseboards!

You could easily do this over carpet as well…I plan to. :)

So, that’s the update on our new floors – it’s not the easiest route but I think it will be the best one for us. So far I’m dealing pretty well with the mess. I’m just so excited about everything I don’t even care!

I won’t have any reveals to show off till next week -- I’ll talk more about our stain color then. (Cause I’m still deciding!)

So…can you see the potential? I think it’s going to be gorgeous!!

Great white!

Well, first of all, thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes! And everyone who guessed 26 was RIGHT!! I am 26! Plus 10.

Everyone who guessed 32 and younger has a check coming in the mail. ;)

As many of you know, our new hardwood floors are being installed this week. I’m a jumble of so excited I could pee and totally dreading this – I’m so confused.

They start Tuesday and at least for right now, I’m definitely leaning toward the excited part. Actually, I’m GIDDY at the thought of lovely hardwoods throughout our main floor. By Thursday, when we’re covered in an inch of dust, I may be signing a different tune. ;)

Check out all this hardwood waiting patiently!:

I’ve been trying to get a few projects done before they get started, especially since I won’t be able to get much accomplished this week. One project I’m ITCHING to get finished up is the office.

I started painting the board and batten six weeks ago – just days before the water issues and the kitchen island was placed in the office for a week and the whole house basically imploded.

At least that’s what it looks like. ;)

So I haven’t gotten back to the painting. Because it’s just not been a priority and OH YEAH, I despise painting board and batten. For reals…it is one of the most dreaded activities EVER.

I’m exaggerating. A wee bit. But not much.

I was out with my friend Beckie the other night and she reminded me that she used her paint sprayer to spray her (awesome!) board and batten project. I kept pushawing it though – whining about taping off walls and protecting floors and wah wah wah…

And then I realized I didn’t need to worry about the floors. Cause they were comin’ out! I could spray right over them and it wouldn’t matter one bit! WHOO!

And then Beckie told me about this awesomesauce plastic stuff for the walls:

The bottom part is painter’s tape. You just tape it along the surface, and then the plastic opens up and sticks to the wall all by itself.

It was not cheap -- $8 for the roll. But it was the best eight buckaroos I’ve spent in a long time.

It worked like a charm!:

Then it was time to bust out the sprayer. My Dad got me one for my birthday, at least a year ago – if not two. I just used it for the first time two months ago.

I kept putting it off cause I was sceered. Not sure why, cause it is SO easy to use, and it works GREAT! Mine is the Wagner Paint Sprayer:

You can see it on Amazon here. The reviews are mixed, but I LOVE IT. There’s a few tricks I’ve learned as I’ve used it, and I’m doing a post about it shortly. So far I’m very happy with it!

Even though I use primed mdf, I still start with a primer when painting it. I used that in the sprayer, and I couldn’t believe the difference after just that coat!:

When I did a wall by hand a few weeks ago, I did one coat of primer and two of white. It still looked like it needed another coat. It was driving me MAD.

But when I used the sprayer, I did one coat of primer, and one coat of white – that’s IT.

(I use semi-gloss or high gloss white on all of my moldings.)

It was so, so, SO much easier and quicker than brushing it on! THANK YOU BECKIE!! ;)

I am so in love with the crisp white against the walls!:

It’s exactly how I envisioned it 18 months ago all that time ago when I started this room redo!

I’m such a sucker for contrast – I could eat it up with a spoon. I can’t get enough of it:

It feels so good to finally have this done. And now I never have an excuse again to paint the board and batten. Which means you’ll probably see it in every. single. room. :)

I realized after the fact that taping off the floor wouldn’t have been a big deal – next time I’ll just get another roll of that plastic and use it along the floors. I did the whole room and used it on the windows and doorway and still have a ton left.

Now you know why I’m giddy – how fantastic are the floors going to look up against all this white??:

Even MORE contrast! Be still my heart.

Here’s an idea of the difference the white paint makes:

  

It took all this time, and it was so easy to get done. I should listen to my bloggy friends more often. ;)

And this room WILL be done this month. I don’t care what it takes – it will be done. It’s soooo close already…just a few or 15 things I still need to do. ;)

Now, I’m off to bed because I need to be up at the bum-crack of dawn to start moving stuff to the basement. The contractor we’re using covers all of the moving of the furniture, but there are a few delicate items I want to get out of the way myself. :)

I will give you some updates on the progress soon! I hope to post on why we picked this installation method and how we decided on all the other details – stain, width, etc. – this week. It was a lot to figure out so hopefully it will help some of you too!

Wish me luck! ;)

P.S. I always get asked about that drum light, and you can see the how-to for that here!

Closet turned book nook

Hello all!! I’m SO EXCITED to show you the fun little project I’ve been working on over the past week or so. Well, the space is little, the work was not. ;)

The idea for this project came to me over time…the first idea was to just replace the wire shelving in a closet off the playroom with wood shelves and then paint the inside a fun color. I picked out the paint forever ago to do just that....and it sat. And sat. 

As time went on (and I avoided building those shelves week after week), another idea came to me that I liked SO much better. I mentioned before that we weren’t using this closet anymore (thank you decrapification!) – so it was just calling out for something FUN.

And fun it is. :)

I have this thing about nooks – I just think they are the coolest. I think kids are drawn to small spaces too. I know I was growing up – a space to read, play, dream, whatever. We don’t have many nooks in this open floor plan house, so when I got this idea I was in luuurve with it before I even started.  ;)

I began with the help of an electrician – which we were going to do anyway because we have no lights in our closets. (I’m hoping to add them here and there over time.)

I saw the end result in my head, and in my head there was an adorable lantern/outdoor-type light. When I found the light that was in my head at Menards a couple of months ago, well…it was meant to be:

The fact that it was only $12 made it even better. ;) WHOO!

(I did some research and asked a few electricians to make sure the outdoor light would be OK installed inside – all said it was fine.)

Once the lighting was taken care of, I started the building process. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I did what any good DIY gal does –  I called Dad.  ;)

He talked me through it and then left me to try it. All by my lonesome. Did I mention I’ve never built anything like this (on my own)?

I wasn’t sure it was going to work, but I went for it! I started with a bottom shelf:

And once that one was done, I did the next one, which was the actual bench:

I was totally winging it, but it was working! And I was using only scrap wood from other projects. About half way in, I was challenging myself to keep it up and see if I could do the whole bench without buying anything for it. And I did. :)

The top was a bunch of scrap pieces:

Which was OK, because I was going to cover it with a cushion, which I threw together with scrap particle board and foam:

And finally, I created some shelves:

And when I was done, the cutie patoot book nook was born!:

Shut the front door – I LOVE IT. I think it may be my new favorite room in the house!

Well, favorite nook in the house:

I had planned on closing off the bottom part, and making it look like a built-in bench, but then I realized it could be great extra storage. And it works perfectly for those big honkin’ books.

I considered a curtain of some sort, but I’m leaving it be. I love having it open…for now. We’ll see how if it stays this organized. ;)

And originally I planned on making the board go vertically, but because I’m lazy inventive OK, lazy…I made them horizontal to hide most of the holes from the wire shelves:

I covered most of the holes with those boards. SCORE!

The bookshelves fit perfectly in the little recess inside the closet:

It was that little recess that started my mind rolling on this project. ;) (The door used to open out to that side, and I’m guessing that’s why there’s extra space there.)

You might notice the light changes a bit throughout the pictures – I had the electrician install a dimmer (first one in this house I haven’t put in myself!) so we could keep it low as a nightlight (since the door is staying off) or up high for reading.

I painted the walls and ceiling above the molding with a beautiful deep blue/green color I found at Lowe’s:

I picked this color out months ago to work with the new drapes in the playroom, and it’s so so SO pretty.

I wanted to create a little space for the Bub to get away and dream, and I think I accomplished it:

The fact that it’s new storage for half of his books is just a bonus. :)

And I’ll admit it…I’m dreamin’ in it too:

BIG FAT SMILEY FACE.

:)

I’ll share the whole process of how I did everything in the closet later this week – the bench, shelves, paint, cushion, costs -- all of it. There were little things that tripped me up here and there and I’ll show you how I dealt with them.

We all love this little space so much. :) Hope you enjoyed the tour of our new favorite nook!

Accidental redo

OK Squeezies. Hang in there with me on this post. I’m going to try to make sense of the way my mind works and the stream of thoughts that go on. Aren’t you so excited to get a look into how my decorating ADD happens? My mind can be a very scary place.  ;)

As I mentioned last week, I’ve started a little redo of our playroom/loft. I can’t even pinpoint when it started, but it’s been in the works for months. I’m just finally getting the projects going.

I’ve told you before, I’m nothing if not efficient. :)

Let’s look back at how the playroom looked for a while:

There was a time when I didn’t care for our wall color (the one I had them paint half the house with) – and I thought I had to match everything to it. Hence the reason I used so much red. (I thought it was the only color that worked with the hue of the paint.)

I’ve grown to love the color, and realize it’s an excellent neutral paint. And it’s opened up my world people! I now know I can use more than red to decorate these rooms! ;)

Anyhoo, remember when I told you back here how I took a couple trips to IKEA in a couple weeks? (Gleee!) Well, the reason for my first trip was to pick out this beauty:

It’s the Hemnes dresser and I thought it was going to be perfect for the Bub’s room. I planned to paint it RED (OK, the red isn’t gone for good) to go with his room. Because of that, I got the navy blue version of this dresser, so it would be a good dark base for the red paint.

Well…the reason I loved this dresser was because it had so much storage. What I didn’t realize (even though I measured the space before I got it) was that it’s MASSIVE. I mean, seriously. It’s SO stinking big people.

So I put the MONGO dresser together, and moved it into the Bub’s room, knowing full well it wasn’t going to work. It was too tall and too deep.

Drats.

I was freaking out just a little. What in the world was I going to do with a gigantic navy blue dresser? We certainly don’t need anymore dressers in this house. (You know my dresser obsession.)

And then…it hit me. I could use it in the playroom. Ah HA!! (You can see how I resolved the Bub’s dresser issue here.)

We have had a cheapy laminate TV stand in their for years and years – and a while back I tried painting it. Most of it held up OK, but some parts were flaking off daily:

I’ve been wanting to toss that thing (it was literally falling apart) forever, so I knew this could work out perfectly. Oh yes, my evil plan always comes together…even when I didn’t have a plan to begin with. And it wasn’t evil.

So I crushed the laminate stand (it. was. AWESOME.) and put the new dresser in it’s spot. LOVE.

Even the insides are adorable:

I changed it up just a bit by adding some fun green knobs (half off!) from Hob Lob:

The blue and green color is so FUN – and will make even more sense in just a minute. :)

Because the dresser is ginormous, it works insanely well for toys and games. Between another purge and this dresser, all of it is hidden away. And there are even empty drawers:

Glorious.

Because the dresser was a lot wider than the old TV stand, it created a few more issues. I had to take down the mirror and the art pad off the walls to accommodate the width of this monster.

And doing so left lots of these:

But we don’t have matching paint to touch them up. And even if we did the wall is about ohhhh…20 feet tall? I’m not painting it, and I don’t know anyone who will. :)

I decided to hang the TV above the dresser, so the need to repaint continued when I went to take the vinyl off the wall:

NICE. What the ??

Good. Ness. See how these things happen? It’s just a tidal wave.

But tidal waves are good around here. They give me an excuse to get creative. And in my mind, creative usually equals putting wood on our walls. Or mdf, in this case. :)

I used about $40 of the good stuff and did another board and batten treatment on that wall:

Oh my, I never tire of how fresh and crisp and classic it is! Nevah!

The height has no rhyme or reason to it – I just wanted to cover the big holes that showed up when I took down the bottom shelves. ;)

I used this method to fill the other holes, painted a couple coats of primer on the wall, installed the mdf and then gave it a coat of primer. I covered everything one more time with glossy white paint.

It gives the large wall a base and grounds it – which is a very good thing in this space:

By the way, this whole room is still so in between – nothing has been accessorized, so many projects aren’t done. I just couldn’t wait to show ya. :)

Onto the final project (for now), which may have been the first project. I have no idea. It’s all jumbled in my head. Remember that beautiful fabric I used for the kitchen window treatment?

Well this is the space I got it for:

I wanted to inject some more fun, make it fresh -- but keep it an adult space too. This room has morphed from a playroom to a game room over the past year, and I’m going with it.

And the new fabric was the a beautiful change – still lighthearted, but more grown up at the same time.

I don’t know. All I know is I LOVE it.

A couple weeks ago I found a couple of pillows at HomeGoods that happened to have the exact same colors on them:

And the Bub loves them because the one side has pirates, and he’s ALL over pirates lately. They a little whimsy in the room.

So far I’m loving the changes – so fun and bright!:

That new coffee table is for another post – a Craigslist find a few months ago:

It’s Pottery Barn and it’s fantastic! And no, it’s not staying red. :)

I love looking back to see how our spaces have changed – here’s the playroom a couple of years ago:

And the new game room, as it is today:

There are so many things left to do – the chairs will be replaced with our family room sofa…when we get a new family room sofa. :) The lights will come down, and my plan is to put built ins on each side of the windows. (Dad? You there?) The gallery wall is coming soon, and I’m figuring out a couple of other changes as well.

For now, I’m so pleased with how it’s coming together! All of the voices in my head are making sense…finally. ;)

P.S. To see a few of my board and batten tricks, go here to watch a short video. :)