Not too long ago we remodeled our basement. It was finished, technically, but we ended up taking it down to the studs, demoing the entire thing and starting over. A very pricey choice but one I’ve loved. Since we bought our house I’ve struggled to find a style that I really like. I often like too many things and they clash and am just overall indecisive. The running joke used to be, “what color this year?” since I’d paint our living room a new color every year thinking this time I’ve got it. Well with the basement it took me a very long time to find the flooring that I loved. It’s a huge part of a look and it’s not something that I can just change on the cheap like paint, so major stress on this big decision. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I was at Lowes getting paint for our weekend project (trying to finish the ones I’ve already started) and I like to occasionally go back and look at our flooring. Make sure it’s still there, etc. I could see the yellow sticker from across the main aisle. There were also no boxes there. I get on my phone and it won’t show me what’s in stock here or anywhere. I found the nearest red vest and asked if the flooring was being discontinued. It was. And there was none at our store. None at Goshen, the next closest store. An hour away there was some. “Shit, shit, shit” I said leaving the poor kid that helped me.
I REALLY wanted the upstairs flooring to be the same as the basement. It had served us well so far, it was waterproof, it was just nice. Justin picked me up and I started crying. We weighed the pros and the cons. Yeah, I could find something close. Yeah, we’re putting carpet on the stairs (a battle I lost) so you won’t really be able to tell. Yeah, it was a hell of a deal. Yeah, we didn’t want to spend the money right now. Ultimately, and after lots of tears, we headed to Ft. Wayne calling the stores on our way. We ended up having to go to 3 or 4 different stores to get all that we needed. Thankfully we had a 90 day window to work with to return whatever we didn’t use (or whatever pieces are already broken–sooo many from the last project). The one store had left the skid of the flooring outside apparently. The boxes were disintegrating and had mold on them. I know, I know, I know. I wasn’t thrilled but after going through several boxes with an employee the flooring was all fine. Yes, I know. Who knows what kinda waterproof chemicals I’m putting in my house, but I want it. Thankfully, because of the condition of the boxes and because we were buying all they had in stock they lowered the price even more. We paid 1/2 the price of what we did for the basement.
We put the dark floors in at our house after I had been to a photography workshop and really liked the look of the home. These were a clearance find and they were hard to cut and install. They have really held up great with active dogs and the kids. I just love the lighter look. So we peeled up what we put down. This time I decided that I didn’t want to have a step up between the kitchen and the living room. There were so many layers of flooring in the kitchen that made it higher. We originally thought that it ran under the cabinets but it didn’t. So then it was the flooring Justin’s mom put down, then the blue carpet, then two layers of linoleum.
Today we’ll see what we can get done painting and laying the new floor. Then on the to the rest of the house.
