We Almost Got Wood Floors

But as for now all we have is exposed concrete.

The long story:

We moved into this house in August and we love it. We've been fortunate not to have to deal with real issues. We did resurface the pool and put in new windows, but overall when we flip the switch, or turn the knob stuff works.

There are lots of nice details that Linda put in that I would have never spent money on like the chandalier in the dining room. It's very sparkly and I fell in love with it the minute I saw it. Several of the windows have wooden shutters on them and now I "have" to make the rest of the house match. Love the shutters, would probably never have done it on my own. She also put tile in the formal living area and the formal dining area and she has re-done the cabinets. They are white, which I love. At the same time, the carpet in the living room and bed rooms is a bit of a mess.

This section of carpet is in the living room under the window. See the bleached out section and then the section across the top that is just an entirely different kind of carpet. I was afraid there was water damage from the window, but she assured me no. Since we replaced the windows and there was not water damage and since that's Baby Girls favorite pee spot, I figure the owners before Linda must have had a dog. When she replaced that section of carpet, they didn't put a pad down so BGs pee soaked through to the concrete. We are having fun with that.

Baby Girl and the cats added the stains to the carpet in the hallway, and check out those wrinkles. We had those in the living room as well. I guess the carpet just wasn't laid very well. And I guess Linda lived with it for 6 years. She spent her money on pretty shutters and chandaliers and lived with the yucky carpet.

We decided to get wood floors. We had a company come out and give us as estimate. They said they could lay real wood floors (that's the subfloor, the wood, the sanding and the finishing) for about $7/square ft. Now I've dreamed of wood floots for a long time and I should have known that price was too good to be true. We sent an installation date of 4/9. Knowing that BG had pee'd in a corner (although at that point I didn't know how bad it was) I 'd left a message and sent an email asking if sealing the concrete was part of the estimate. I didn't hear back. I didn't think much of it and we proceeded on Saturday to pull up the carpet.

Oh it was stinky. That darn BG had made a mess of it.

Within a couple of hours we were to bare concrete in the living room and the hall. This is what the house looks like right now. The boys ran off to go play and I went to Home Depot to check out stain options that would match the tile in the living room. When I got home, CD called. There was a mistake with the estimate. The guy at the supply house had mis-estimated by half. So the cost was going to double. As I was looking across my barren living room, I couldn't say anything. You know how you usually say, "That's OK." I couldn't even begin to form those words on my lips. Because it wasn't OK. She said they'd been looking for something that would work in our budget and she gave me an item number and said it was available at Home Depot.

The more I thought about it the more I realized that this is why she hadn't called me back or answered my emails. She had a problem and wanted to figure out what to do before she called me. But...couldn't she have at least let me know not to pull up the carpet.

Well, I'm not that keen on what she found. So I'm on the hunt for the right wood floor to fit in our budget. Marshall is being good. We've decided not to rush into anything. We want to make sure we both love what we put down. That's good.

In the meantime, we are looking forward to a tad warmer weather. The bare concrete is chilly on the toes. We are looking for a new resource to lay the floor. And we are living in the formal living room with no TV.