Are you ready for this? LOL

Ok first I’ll show you the before and after pics of the transformation, then I’ll just ramble and either (a) make you feel really sorry for me, (b) make you laugh at my stupidity for tackling such projects, or (c) cause you to shake your head and really not know what to think. 😉

When Floor Guy arrived Tuesday afternoon, he and his helper guy started by moving the fridge into the dining room, and stove into the living room. Wouldn’t have been bad if it weren’t such tight squeezes in those space, and as a result the 1/2″ thick floor moldings are now gone. That’s just the boring part. He started to pull up the flooring. We’re on a concrete slab, and when we moved in we tore the base cabinets out of the kitchen and put in new ones. What I didn’t remember was that the plywood went down on the floor – UNDER the cabinets – with some kind of inpenetrable adhesive. So the only parts of the floor that didn’t have adhesive were the parts that were buckling and cracking from moisture. (See second “before” shot above. The light differences on the floor are hills and valleys. That makes cooking in the kitchen interesting!)

Pulling up the floor was insane, as he had to cut into it with a circular saw and then pry it up in tiny pieces (mostly shards of plywood) with a crowbar. Oh yea. What a mess.

THEN to make things more interesting, moving into the utility room I was certain that it was that rolled out vinyl flooring over concrete. So when he started carrying out pieces of that floor (which I haven’t finished laying yet, will get to that today), I asked if there was anything underneath it, to which he replied “oooohhhh yea.” Uh oh. Can you guess? Try. Think of one of the worst things imaginable that you could have in your home, that usually results in having your house encased in a giant tent where the only people in your house are in white suits. I’ll just leave it at that. (No, E.T. wasn’t in my laundry room.)

Floor Guy was finished around 5PM Tuesday.

Cut to me, on a gardening knee pad thingie, armed with a putty knife, knocking back the ridges, ledges and lumps left behind from floating the floor. I finished that at around 10PM, and then had to spackle the holes left by the baseboards – man was it ugly under those. Unpainted, orange wallpaper from the 50’s, just a mess. I finished spackling around 11PM, and then decided to create even more work for myself!

The sides of our cabinets that are unfinished, on the outside by the little hall into the utility room, and insides by the stove and fridge, were painted to match the walls. Iew, huh? I mixed some acrylic in a “wood” color, and did a faux finish on those three areas. Now the fan is pointed on the spackle, I’ve painted the sides of the cabinets, and it’s about midnight. Do I go to bed? NooOOOooOOO. I start laying the flooring!

I started where I left off in the dining room, marked the line through and all that jazz, and put about 20 tiles down before I gave up for the night. 1:30 AM, cut to me crashing on the couch with my magnetic bracelet giftie from Erikie on, because I am already in a good amount of pain.

6:00AM Wednesday. WHY? Jeez. I get up, get the girls moving, and get back to it. Now the spackle has dried, and I wetsanded everything down all purdy-like and vaccuumed up my dust. I must have had the vac on about 50 times yesterday. No, maybe 100. I’ll defer to Carrie on that one. (She watched as I turned my webcam on, it was like a live home improvement show, eh Care?)

Spackle – dry & sanded. Ok. Now I have to paint, you know, because the walls behind the fridge, stove, and where the baseboards once were just weren’t gonna cut it for me. Now I’ve got about 1 cup of my original base color left in the can, so I mixed more of my acrylic paints to match my original wall color and painted that, then went back and ragged the lighter shade over the top. It’s such a warm gold, really pretty!

This is how crazy I am, I even polished up the daggone outlet and switchplate covers. I am either insane or glutton for punishment. You decide.

Walls finished, all pretty, now I get to work on the floor. I laid the kitchen floor in about 4 hours, so it was about 3:30 when I finished it. Floor Guy is supposed to stop back today to move my fridge back in, move the stove in and reconnect it, and finish the edging on the carpets. But guess what? Leanne has no patience! Yes, I moved the stove in myself, and with Caitlin as my spotter, I moved the fridge, too. That was nuts. The wheels on the fridge only go front/back, not side/side, and I pushed it thru my dining room doorway – sideways on a new floor. Caitlin kept checking my furniture mover pads, and we got it back in there! YAY! Well by then it was almost 6PM, and man was I hungry.

BTW, I drank 18 cups of coffee yesterday. LOL

We had dinner, I took a MUCH NEEDED bubble bath, got the girls to bed, and then guess what??? YES! I was up until midnight laying the floor in the utility room! And it’s NOT done yet!

Ok now, my hands hurt. I have open wounds on every knuckle. Every single one of them. I can’t close my hands around anything right now. And guess what I did this morning at 7AM? Ohhhh come on, it’s the funnest thing you get to do in the winter here in the midwest!

SNOWBLOW! We have about 6 inches out there, and Miss Caitlin forgot it was winter (or something) and left her boots at school. So mommy had to dig our way out of the driveway to get her there. I have to admit, this is the only time I miss that junker of a Rodeo. 4×4, I didn’t shovel or snowblow. I put it in 4WD and backed up. LOL

Ok now I’m here, I’m sitting still, and it’s been about half hour. This has to be a record!

I better go finish this daggone project!

Looks beautiful though, and so spacious, doesn’t it?!?! I do love it. It is so worth all of this pain. As Jayden says, “Daddy’s gon’ be so pwouuud!” And that is the goal, to have daddy walk in and just feel wrapped up in comfort and coziness, after 18 months he deserves it, eh?

BTW, this project cost is under $400!! 273 Sq. Ft. total.