Floors, Glorious Floors!

Moving in, we knew we need to update the flooring ASAP. However, we also knew it would cost a pretty penny. We are both pretty cheap frugal and have a hard time throwing down a lot of cash at once. We shopped around. A LOT. In our previous home, we laid dark brown laminate throughout the entire main floor, so we'd done this before. And we'd shopped around a lot then. This time, we had already finished our kitchen cabinets dark brown so we didn't want to go with the dark brown floors (although I LOVED them in our last home). We aren't huge fans of light or medium brown, so we decided to go gray.

This picture was before the cabinets were stained, just showing the linoleum floors in the kitchen.

We searched and searched for gray laminate (we like the look of wood without the cost of wood) everywhere. Home Depot, Lowes, Lumber Liquidators, every flooring warehouse, specialty flooring stores. Everywhere. Nothing had the shade we wanted for the price we wanted. Finally, we went to Lumber Liquidators for the second or third time and they were having a sale. And there was a light gray that we liked (not sure if we loved, but we liked). PLUS there was an extra 10% off that weekend on that brand.

Laminate the previous owners had laid in the dining area. I hated the shiny finish. Every single drop of anything showed and I felt like I had to clean it every 30 seconds!

Luckily, Dane's fall break was coming up so we decided that's when we'd get the project going. He carefully ripped up the baseboards (because we did NOT want to pay to replace them all, although I would love to have new baseboards someday). I took up the old laminate the previous owners had put in the dining area. I was pretty careful about that, too, hoping we could sell it (which we did for $60 on ksl). Dane tore up the carpet along the entryway to make a traffic flow coming in from the front door. That was pretty much all we had to take out before we could start laying down.

Entryway had a little bit of linoleum and then carpet until you hit the dining laminate.

Dane's family is all very handy, so his dad and brother spent some time here that weekend helping out which was so nice. We were able to get everything cut and laid and put back together that weekend (except the half bath, which he just finished last week...). While they were cutting and laying, I repainted the baseboards so they at least look clean and white. Brooklyn even helped lay the pieces in the back corner of the pantry. :)

After it was all done, we were in love with it!! It is so hard to tell on a little sample at the store what it will look like in your house. But we were so happy with our choice and the price really couldn't be beat. It ended up being around $1.30/square foot (that included the padding underneath so we didn't have to buy OR lay that separately. Money and time saver.)

We do understand laminate floors will be ruined if they get water underneath. So if our house ever floods, we'd be in trouble. But we are pretty careful about that and little spills are no big problems. Because let's be real, with 2 little ones, little spills happen ALL the time! But these floors have held up so well and clean so easy.