Flooring Adventure 2012

We set out to look for new flooring last August.  Our laminate flooring kept being ruined by a returning leak in our Air conditioner.  Even though we had that problem fixed, I just couldn't guarantee it would never happen again, so we looked at porcelain tile.

First stop was Interceramic Tile showroom.  We had Ava with us.  She had a great deal of fun rolling around on the floor helping us look at tile!  I had to take her to the beautifully tiled bathroom and wash all the dirt off!  I guess they don't wash their floors very often!

It took us a LONG time to decide on what style we wanted.  We finally narrowed it down to the FINAL FOUR below.

I have a lot of different colors going on in my house already.  First place we set the tiles to study them was  under the cabinets in the kitchen.  Then, the paneling in the living room, then against the brick walkway we have around our fireplace going into the den.  This was really a difficult decision.  I know which one of the four we chose, I think...  See if you can figure it out!

Before we could have the tile put in, we had to remove the old flooring.  Now, the laminate was a snap to remove, or  I should say, for Rod and Renzo to remove.  Have I told you lately how much I love my son-in-law?  They had the laminate  up in no time!  Only to discover that we still had linoleum underneath!  Have you ever removed a linoleum floor?  Jay has, and it took he and Sarah a long time and a lot of scrubbing!  But, Lowe's has a solution that worked just fine.  Renzo and Rod had all the floor up in two days.  (It was still hard work, though!)

Before Pictures:

Did I mention we had the laminate flooring in most of our house?  We had it in the living room, kitchen, breakfast room, dining room, and laundry room, and two closets and the hall between the kids bedrooms. We also still have it in our den.  It is not connected to the other rooms, so we left that room alone.

Here is Rod beginning to take out the laminate:

I really thought I had a picture of the linoleum being removed, but it seems to have disappeared.  I wanted to remember that!  If anyone replaces our new floor, they will not have to go through that!

Here is a picture of what the floor looked like when they were done:

I washed it with a solution of ammonia and water and could not get it to look much better!  Just had to hope it was good enough for the tile guys.  And it was.  Below a picture the night before the new tile was to go in.

The tile guys arrived  on Tuesday before Easter.  If I were them, I might have turned and run when I saw just how much flooring there was to put down!  And they had to move all the furniture, in addition to tiling!  Rod and Mike moved the TV the night before, and Mike and I took the china out of the china hutch just to make sure it would be ok.  It took them until Good Friday at noon to finish.  They worked hard, and did a wonderful job.  In the meantime, we could not use the front half of the house!  I was SO glad we had doors from our room and the den to the patio.  Our dog Belle and I spent the time walking between the two rooms a lot!  Luckily, by the next morning each day we were allowed to go into the kitchen.  We didn't starve to death.  (But we did get to eat out a lot, too :)

That was also the week we had two (or maybe more) tornadoes in the areas around us.  One of those days, the sirens in Euless are blaring, but the guys just kept on tiling.  (Belle and I headed for the closet).

We did not have a tornado, but lots of hail!  (Now we need a new roof on the house and my car!)

Below, the tile is in, just waiting for the grout:

And now a few pictures of the finished flooring:

It is hard to tell in the pictures, but it actually blends well with our paneling.  And you don't have a picture of the brick floor to compare with.  I intended for the grout to match the floor.  I picked out the darkest grout, and it still did not match!  Oh, well, it still looks good.  And I could always painstakingly dye the grout one tile at a time....

Ava misses the laminate, however.  She used to have a great deal of fun putting on socks and siding all over it!  Oh, well, she can head to the den!

Putting in new floor was so much fun that I did not stop there.  But that's another post!

"If the LORD does not build the house,

the work of the builders is useless;

if the LORD does not protect the city,

it does no good for the sentries to stand guard.

It is useless to work so hard for a living, 

getting up early and going to bed late.

For the LORD provides for those He loves,

while they are asleep."

Psalm 127: 1-2  (GNT)