small house, big INSTALL

So this week was FLOOR time!  It was dusty, dirty, and FUN!

We were blessed to have David Jeffries here from Monday-Tuesday helping with the BIG install.

Remember, first was the RIP OUT of the sub-floor and the old padding:

Then we put down new underlayment--the purple stuff.  David and Matt measured, laid the first row, and then kept clicking!  The engineered hardwood floor is a click lock system.  No nailing or gluing involved--just a bit of man labor and LOTS of cutting!

Ah!! So exciting!!

All was going great until the front door decided NOT to open.  Notice the shop vac IN FRONT of the door serving as a reminder not to OPEN the door.

There was a reason for the old ugly linoleum directly in front of the front door, it was LOWER than the old laminate that was put in everywhere else in the main living areas.  This allowed the front door to swing open.

So what do you do with a STEEL door that is too long?

CUT IT!  Credit to Bruce Jeffries.  Discredit to Lowe's who tried to tell us you could not cut a steel door.  Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of this process, but the end result WORKED!  We were able to keep our former door and it swings open beautifully, without scraping the new flooring.

Here are the guys after DAY 1 of the floor install:

 On DAY 2, Matt decided to leave our mark on this house, indefinitely:

Awe!!!

Then, after the floor was INSTALLED, it was time for TRIM:

We painted:

And realized that 12 ft. pieces would be more helpful than 8 ft. pieces in certain rooms of the house--thanks David!

Although the little VW did a good job bringing home the 8 ft. pieces, the 12 ft. pieces mandated borrowing the VK's truck (accurately named BIG BLUE):

Once the 12 ft. pieces were painted.  Ryan, Matt's brother, came to help install the new trim:

So by Friday around 4:00 p.m. the big INSTALL was complete, well almost (we have some caulking and painting to finish with the trim).

The end result is LOVELY giving the small house a NEW feel:

Also, there is a new area rug in the small house!! Take two:

While I loved the COLORS in the first rug I tried (click here to see FIRST rug), it made the room feel like fall.  Not a great concept heading into SPRING.  

So one of my coworkers tipped me off, thanks Ashley, saying she found her new area rug at HomeGoods for 1/4 of what I had paid for the FIRST rug.  

So I checked out HomeGoods and found the cream/gray subtle pattern wool rug shown above.  I loved the rug, the price, and that it is REVERSIBLE. 

And just like that, the small house, big INSTALL was complete.

Clearly, the WHOLE family is enjoying the hickory...