Summer Project #3: the floor

The front door to our house opens to a small entry and a large living room. Near the door is a linoleum-floored entry and then cheap brown carpet covers the rest of the floor. The furniture is placed in the large room to create 2 separate spaces: the living room and the entry way. 

Our dog, Tiki, often sleeps under the piano in the entrance, and thinks the entry way area is both her "bedroom" and her "bathroom". Not only does she often sleep there, but she has also thrown up multiple times in the entry way area. I've cleaned up after her so many times in that area that I knew the flooring in the entry way needed to be replaced. Not only because of the dog, but because the floor in that area gets so dirty due to the amount of foot traffic that covers that area between the front door and the rest of the house. 

I started looking last fall into the cost of replacing the flooring, but I couldn't afford it at the time due to other financial commitments I had. Ever since then, the floor has REALLY bugged me! Especially one spot in particular that was really close to the kitchen linoleum floor where Tiki threw up a couple years ago: no matter how many times I shampooed that spot, the stain would come back from the carpet pad underneath, which was so frustrating! I couldn't just cover the spot, either, because it was right in the center of the walkway between the home entrance and the kitchen. I knew replacing the floor was a project I DEFINITELY wanted to pursue this summer! 

When Josh and I were at Lowe's at the end of June purchasing the DeckOver to paint on the deck, I also purchased and picked up the supplies needed for the flooring project. We were happy with the laminate hardwood flooring that we installed in the family room December of 2016 (CLICK HERE to see that project), so we decided to get laminate flooring again. They didn't have the exact same kind we had used before, but we decided on the closest-colored wood to it so it would be similar enough. Josh didn't enjoy installing the flooring in the family room a couple years ago, so I told him I would do this project myself this time--after all, I'm the one who had the time, the patience, AND the desire to re-do it!! 

The living room is long--the entrance door to the house is in the back corner.

This is the entrance area behind the couch.
The spot at the bottom of the picture is the
one that just kept coming back no matter
how much I shampooed it!

This is a different view in the entryway area. Tiki lays on the floor to the left
of the piano bench. You can see different stains in the floor that I've shampooed,
towards the bottom left and right of the photo, where she'd previously puked.

It took me about a day and half to complete the project from beginning to end. I knew it would be about 2 days because that's how long it took Josh to do the family room floor, so when I had two consecutive days that were free, I began the project in the middle of the second week of July. 

The first step was to remove the furniture--which amazingly, I did completely by myself!! It took me about an hour and a half. Everything was moved into the family room, the kitchen, and the living room. The hardest piece to move was the large armoire that serves as the coat closet (p.s. I really dislike that this house doesn't have a coat closet, a broom closet, or a pantry!). After moving the furniture, I realized how disgusting our carpet really was! The week before was July 4th, which is a hard one for Tiki, because all the firework sounds scare her. Apparently, she had cowered under the piano and wet herself several times. The area was still wet, and reaked of piss, and I hadn't even realized it until then! It was the perfect timing for a flooring project!! 

Furniture all moved out. The top right corner shows the evidence of her
urinations during the July 4th week...

I cut the carpet along the back side of the couch with a razor and pulled it out (we didn't replace the entire living room floor, just the entry way). That was pretty easy. It was interesting to see the damage done to the carpet pad under the floor...you can see the evidence of the traffic flow and the worst stains made by Tiki--including the recent urination in her "bedroom" area.

I pulled up all the carpet padding, threw it out, and the next step was to remove all the staples in the floor. I enlisted the twins' help in this job--last time it was Ammon who helped me do this task in the family room. When all the staples were removed, I pulled out the linoleum entrance as well. I vacuumed up all the debris, and finally, the new floor was ready to be installed.

I found it so gross the stains that made it all the way to the floor base!

I borrowed a nice round saw from our friends the Hobbs' to do the job. I laid down the plastic sub-floor, and after Josh showed me how to work the saw, I was able to get to work cutting and placing the individual pieces. I made a lot of progress, and by the end of the day, most of the flooring was down. I only had a few rows left to do, but I had somewhere I had to be, so I left it for the evening.

The next morning, I started right where I left off, and got the last pieces in rather quickly. By this time, I had a system, and knew exactly what to do. I then got to work on the borders. I had some border trim that I purchased a few years ago that I hadn't used, and it came in handy for this project! I cut the pieces to fit along the piano wall and the door wall, where the wood flooring started/stopped and the cuts in the wood were uneven. I didn't use any on the long wall where the armoire goes (because I didn't have enough border trim), but the wood is even there, and mostly covered by furniture, so I wasn't too worried about it. I purchased a small piece to go in between the kitchen linoleum and the new laminate flooring. I stained it to match the trim, cut it, and stapled it into place. The last part was to put in the carpet trim. I accidentally cut the carpet back too far that morning, and didn't leave enough to fill up the inside of carpet trim piece, so Josh used tools to pull the carpet up to the trim, and then hammered down the trim to keep the carpet end in place. When Josh had done the family room flooring, I had done that task for him--putting in the metal carpet trim piece where the laminate floor met the hallway carpet, so I felt okay that Josh did the task for me this time around (so I guess I can't say I did it ENTIRELY by myself!). We finished the floor around lunch time, and then [thankfully] Josh helped me move all the furniture back in place. 

I loaded up all the old carpet, padding, and garbage into the back of the truck and hauled it to the dump. Before I took the carpet, though, I cut out one nice block of it that the armoire had stood on. I cut out a section of that carpet block to fit under the piano for Tiki to lay on. She didn't like the new flooring at first, and refused to use it as her "bedroom" and "bathroom" for a few weeks. Finally, she started laying on that carpet piece again in August.

I'm hoping the floor will be easier to keep clean. I think it's so beautiful, and I'm so glad I finally got this project done!