After having owned the house for three weeks now, it is finally beginning to feel like home. My biggest accomplishment of late has been completing two floors! The interesting thing is that these floors were completed in two very different ways. First of all, the first floor of the house turned out to be a cop-out: the hardwood that we observed under the carpet during the intial showing turned out to only extend 2 feet from the wall--it was entirely inset with subfloor. So, I unexpectedly have had to decide what to do with all these floors. Here's what I decided to do:
Living room: we painted the subfloor (a risky move, I know) dark brown. (Of course, I'm sparing the details of how the floor was prepped for painting, which was a massive undertaking of carpet stripping, nail removal, rusty-staple wrestling, and endless repetitions of wash-rinse-repeat). Subsequently, we used tape to create a large lighter brown diamong over the dark brown surface. I realize that it's a little hard to picture this---I will post a photo ASAP. For now, picture a country-look dance floor with a contemporary twist. My mom calls my house "French Country" style; take this as you may.
Sun room: this is my crowning achievement for the weekend, and I am 100% not above bragging about it. I actually layed a real floor and I accomplished this by myself! All of the carpenters of the world are no doubt snickering at this, and, I have to admit, I would have been among those who belied the skills needed to complete this task. Nonetheless, I was able to lay a beautiful laminant floor with a very convincing wood look (at least to the amateur eye) with nary a problem. And I learned to use a Miter saw and a jigsaw, to boot!
On other floor news: my mom discovered an excellent product for paint removal which she has great faith will restore my second-floor hardwood to its original splendor. The nauseating work of painstakingly dabbing the floor with potent neurotoxins will have to be undertaken slowly--even my cat Little Cat got a little woozy as he careened past the fumes. As is my anthem these days, nothing is too difficult for the first time homebuyer to undertake!
Financial front: got great deals on fixing up the floors. Dining room (this week's project) and sun room together were $400, including tongue-and-groove flooring and underlayment. Paint for the subfloor was about $75 and some surplus vinyl flooring for the bathroom was only $50, so the whole first floor flooring project came in just over $500. Not bad!
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