Flooring renovation 2023

House renovation project #5867 began today. While on hubby's list and not on mine, I agreed with his choice. The flooring in my Steelers room needed an upgrade. Our soon-to-be 14-year-old dog had done quite a number on it, not to mention the girls, and the carpet was past its prime.

The problem with projects is arriving on the same page. Hubby is good about deferring to me on color, but he does have his opinion. And that usually doesn't coincide with my own.

I recommended vinyl flooring. My friend SueG has it in her home. It's waterproof and looks nice. I reminded hubby that the dog was still with us and still making messes. He agreed to look at it. Thankfully, the merchants of these flooring places talked up the vinyl. It's very 2023.

We started with Lowe's. Like the paint department, we had two women helping us. We picked out a couple of samples to take home and scheduled an estimate, despite both women assuring hubby he could do the flooring himself. When I went to collect the final calculation, I discovered the flooring we wanted was no longer available. 

Say, what?

What are the odds? They gave us an estimate on our second choice and on one they thought we might like. We did not.

We went to a flooring place I happened upon while in the passenger seat of someone's car. It's down the road from Lowe's in a big blue building I've never noticed, even though they've been there for twenty years. The man was helpful, and we left with several samples. They were okay. Off we went to a store hubby had heard about from a co-worker.

It was a huge warehouse. They had so many options my head spun. The gentleman assisting us didn't like my first choice. He kept pointing me to one he thought would work. While I'm happy to take an expert's advice, especially regarding topics I'm unsure of, I was sure of the color of our doorway, door, and floorboards. I picked out something different.

We took it home, and Madison was the deciding factor. She went with me.

We bought the flooring. 

We also bought the tools necessary for a do-it-yourself project because everyone insisted that hubby could lay this floor. He wasn't so sure. 

Him: "I can probably do it, but there's the other stuff."

Me: "What other stuff?"

Him: "We have to remove the carpet that's in there. You don't know how hard that will be."

Me: "I watched them take it up the first time we replaced it. It's simple."

Him: "There could be issues, and we don't know what's underneath. There will be glue. How are we going to get that off? And there are tacks. Sharp and dangerous tacks. We have to clear out the room! Do you know how long that will take?"

I pooh-poohed every objection, insisting we could leap the hurdles. The very next day, I began clearing out the room. I used one of the office chairs to cart belongings to the entrance, where I then moved it to the guest room and the dining room. It took me two days, and then I had to enlist the help of hubby and Madison for the bigger items.

I insisted we ready the room for the project. 

Me: "Let's just pull up the carpet and see how hard it will be."

Tom: "The question is, where are we going to put the carpet if we do get it up? The garbage isn't going to take it."

Me: "Let's take it one step at a time."

With Oleg's help, the carpet was pulled up in ten minutes. I know because I timed it. 

We cut it into four strips, and it came right up. We rolled it, and then I suggested we call the dump. It was open and cost less than ten dollars for the carpet. Off went the men. I pulled up YouTube and watched a video on how to remove the tack strips. This guy suggested a shovel, so that's what I did. Unfortunately, the shovel method also pulled up some of the concrete, so I watched a video on how to remove the glue, and was in the middle of doing that when Darcy arrived.

Darcy: "Why are we doing this before we go to dinner? I look adorable, and now I'm going to have to change clothes to help."

Me: "It's not even noon."

She changed and joined me. When the men returned, one used the shovel and the other the tool Tom had bought for tack removal while Darcy and I got up the glue and swept behind them. Boom! Room cleared.

Next up - flooring!