Home Sweet Home Improvement

We bought our house last February under the assumption that we'd "have it all fixed up" within a year.  Then, we got engaged.  We got a puppy.  I quit my job.  We were busy planning a DIY wedding that included spending a huge chunk of our time drowning in burlap and mason jars.  (We'll save those stories for another post.)


But there are things that we have (almost) finished!  As I mentioned, we got a puppy.  Puppies, apparently, do not come potty trained.  If we didn't already have a reason to tear up our nasty old carpet, we did now.

Our gross carpet, Exhibit 1:

The carpet was extremely thin, and every little whoopsie that Murray (the pup) had soaked straight through to the pad and onto the cement underneath.  We removed all of the carpet and linoleum in the kitchen (there were no accidents in the kitchen, but it was equally disgusting) and bought some laminate floor to install ourselves.

Behold.. Our boxes!

After the carpet was removed, we tediously plucked out nails, poured cement to even out the crooked flooring, and installed a moisture barrier.  We also poured a vinegar mixture over the cement to help squelch the urine smells.  Thanks, Murray.

And then the fun finally got to start!  We got very well acquainted with a rubber mallet and went to town.  Andrew was in charge of measuring and cutting, and I was in charge of hammering.  We went through a few dozen saw blades and a bottle of Asprin, but we did it!

here we go..

Murray, The Supervisor

We started this project on a 4 day weekend to ensure that we would have enough time to finish it all.  It took 3 weeks.  The most difficult part was definitely the kitchen, because there were a lot of cuts and measuring to fit around cupboards and walls.  We also had to use glue in every seam in case our dish washer or fridge decide to betray us someday.

Before:

 After

We still need to purchase some rugs to warm the place up a bit, but overall we're stoked about our floors.  Thankfully, since we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the floors, I am not completely against the fact that I have to clean them every single day.

Dirty Murray strikes again.