Hi All,
The past few weeks have been pretty busy for me with a trip up to NY, a visit from Hurricane Irene…
and a few DIY Home improvement projects.
As you may know, my home is always evolving and things are always changing. We’ve recently added to our living room a beautiful new laminate floor. My husband and I decided to tackle this project ourselves with the help of our (moaning and groaning) 15 year old son. Our living room is a near perfect rectangle so how hard could it be….RIGHT????
We got home from good old NY on Saturday night and Sunday we were ripping up our Living room carpet. We shifted the furniture around and cut the rug in sections for easy removal.
All I can say is OMG! I could not believ all the dust that was hiding in that carpet even though I vaccuum regularly! **Note to self **Wear dust masks next time!
Removing the rug and hauling it away was the easiest part of this project. It only took a couple of hours start to finish.
The next morning the fun part began. We started by rolling out the vapor barrier.
Then with instructions in hand we began locking in the laminate row by row.
After a couple of hours on our knees and getting frustrated because we were having trouble locking each row down we decided to take a break and watch a video on You Tube. Even though I read the instructions and THOUGHT I understood them, it turns out we were doing it wrong. I am a visual person and do better by seeing rather it than reading about it.
So back downstairs we went and soon enough my husband got a system going and the installation started moving more quickly.
My back gave up at about 5pm so I had to take a break. My husband kept on going (and I think he did better without me) and at about 10:00 pm we had a new floor.
The next day I added a quarter round piece of trim to the baseboards all around the room and painted it to match.
Then the furniture went back into place. After 3 days of work we had a beautiful new floor that I LOVE. It was worth all the hours of hard work, stress, aggravation with a tantrum or two and VERY ACHEY muscles we both suffered from for days!
So what’s next for the living room????? Here’s a hint….
A brand spanking new sleeper sofa and loveseat, some new drapes, perhaps and area rug, some new accessories and a coffee table makeover.
Stay tuned!
Thanks so much for visiting today!
~Lisa
Kathryn Griffin
Looks Fantastic! What was the brand name of the laminate flooring you used. We are looking into doing the same thing. Found you via A Beach Cottage. Tootles, Kathryn http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/2011/08/little-goodwill-finds.html
Lisa Hogan
Hi Kathryn,
We bought Swiftlock laminate at Lowe’s. No glue required. Just locks in but its not as easy to lock it in as they make it appear. Once you get the hang of it it goes pretty quickly though. We are planning on doing the dining room next.
Thanks for visiting my blog and for your lovely comment!
abeachcottage
Wow, your new floors look great! All your hard work really paid off 🙂 Thanks for linking up at Beach Cottage Good Life Wednesdays.