New Floors

Our Spring Break is the last week of March.  Instead of going on a trip, we spent money on a huge home renovation.

Problem: Not enough room around our kitchen table.

Solution: Knock out the wall between our living room and kitchen.

Wanted: wood laminate floors in living room and kitchen. 

Action: pulled out existing hard wood floors in living room.

Reason: wanted a smooth transition between the two rooms.

Probably should not have done this.

Reason: had to put sub-flooring down before laying laminate floors.

Time: several hours for four days.

Labor: had lots of help from family, friends, and ward members.

Do I like it? yes

Is it hard to keep clean? yes

Was this renovation hard on my marriage? yes

Should we have spent the money on a vacation instead? yes

Was it stressful? 

Yes, because it's taken me over a month to blog about it without having heart palpitations.

Here's an "after" picture taken about a month later.  I love the open feel of the front two rooms, although I still don't have a lot of room around my kitchen table.  I'm constantly cleaning the floors and the dark wood shows a lot of dusty footprints.

Here's a view from the kitchen.  My mom helped pick out the rug and suggested I recover my hope chest with the striped material.  My mother-in-law made the pillows and curtains.  I love that the color of the floors match/blend with the wood furniture I already have.