Remodeling our great room

Before moving back to our house, we had about two months to fix or change anything and move slowly. We made the decision that we wanted to change the flooring in our great room from carpet to laminate wood flooring. While we were at it, we switched out the baseboards for a larger and nicer design.

Since we wanted to spend less money on the project, we decided to do the work ourselves. We thought that we had tools we could borrow from others if we didn't already have them. Unfortunately, we found that many times what we had or borrowed didn't work as anticipated. So, Andy got a bunch of new tools including a table saw, reciprocating saw, (larger) nail gun, air compressor, and shop vac. Here are some pictures of his new toys that we are oh so glad that we purchased after getting over the sticker shock.

Those two were part of a package deal. He was really excited that the air compressor has a removable chest and is on wheels!

Do you see that big grin??

This buddy is my friend. I don't remember having used one but quickly found out that it was worth its weight in gold (well, maybe not at $1000+/ounce). I can't imagine our mini construction project with out it.

So, over many weekends, interrupted by other small projects, we put the floor in. I laid out the flooring pattern, Andy made the cuts, and we worked together to put in the pieces. Andy finished the quarter round and transition pieces once we moved in to the house.

Before:

During:

We removed the carpet, and Andy worked hard to rip up the carpet tacks and baseboards.

We readied the concrete foundation and laid down this black plastic with the help of friends.

Then, the foam underlayment went down and I started laying out the laminate pieces.

Finally, we are making progress!!!

However, each time we would make good progress, we would find that there was something wrong with a current or previous row. So, we'd have to remove that part to figure out what was wrong. It was two steps forward, one step back. But then finally we were finished with the flooring and moved in to the house.

Finished project:

Great room and kitchen

Living room

Dining room

And now that we've finished that project and have all of these wonderful tools, clearly, we need another project...can't you hear Andy groaning... At least the other projects on our list are smaller and are not immediately necessary.