Love is Patient: Finally...New Floors!!!!!!!

So...Cody and I have been talking about and wanting new floors pretty much ever since we moved into our house back in 2008. However, we decided to update everything else first and then do the floors last. We weren't sure how long we would stay in this house at the time and we didn't want to spend an obscene amount of money on new floors, only for someone else to enjoy. But, we have wizened up in our old age (totally kidding about the old age) and have decided that our house is absolutely perfect and there is no reason for us to move. The only reason we could ever see moving out of this house is if we are busting at the seems and growing out of it...which I doubt will ever happen! It will be five years this summer that we have lived in this house and we have literally updated every single thing, except the floors. When we first moved in, we updated all the gold fixtures, door knobs, lighting, cabinet knobs and pulls, and anything else that was gold to the oil rubbed bronze. We also had our fireplace and cabinets repainted. They were that light oak color, and neither one of us were a big fan. So, we opted to have a professional come in and sand them down and paint them a chocolate color and the fireplace got painted white. Then, we had our living room, kitchen, and hallway repainted the next year (thank you Christa Ellis!!!). The third year we decided to focus on the outside and put in some landscaping in the backyard. We are now wishing that we would have hired someone to do it. Cody did a phenomenal job on it, but we have both said since then that it would have probably held up a lot better if someone who really knew what they were doing would have done it. And...I don't do yard work...so I would forget to water sometimes...oops!!! The next year, we bought all new stainless appliances and had our countertops redone with granite and the back splash and area in front of the bar done in stone. This was something that we didn't really plan on doing. But, we had just replaced our dishwasher because our old one had gone out about six months before Thanksgiving. And then, our stove went out the week after Thanksgiving break. Our old stove was one that was set into the cabinets. So, when we went to pull it out, we had to cut into part of the countertop and bottom of the cabinet where it was set in. We figured we might as well get a new microwave and fridge and just replace the countertops when we did all that. So, that's just what we did! Thankfully, that was all done right before Christmas. Then, in the spring of that year, we decided to extend our back porch and put a pergola up over the extension. We bought some wicker outdoor furniture to go under that and then a bar and some bar stools to go up on the original part of the back porch. I came home one day from work and Cody had bought and installed a flat screen above the bar so that he could watch tv outside while he grilled. I have to say...that has come in very nice! I love to go out in the mornings on the weekends, during holidays, and during the summer to drink my coffee and relax with the pups. We eat dinner out there some too...it's wonderful!!!

So...this year...we really had decided to not do anything. But, our carpet was really getting disgusting. We are the third owners of the house and we have three dogs...so it's had some wear and tear. We happened to go into Lowe's one day and were kinda wandering around when we decided to go look at the flooring. See, over the summer we had a company that specializes in flooring give us a quote and it was way more than we thought it would be, and way more than we really wanted to spend. Our next door neighbors had just had Lowe's come in and replace their carpet and it looked awesome and the price was great too. We wound up picking out some carpet and setting up a time for the carpet master at Lowe's to come out and measure, then give us a quote. The carpet we picked out was a little nicer than what our neighbors had gotten, so the price was a little more, but not too much for a nicer quality of carpet. We wanted something that would last a long time, hold up to dogs and humans, be plush and thick, and not show dirt and hair and all that jazz. When we got the quote back, we went in to sign the paperwork and while Cody was talking to the guy, I decided to go look at the tile. I hated our tile...and I wanted that replaced just as badly as I wanted new carpet. I have always wanted to have wood floors. But let's be real. They are so expensive and the laminate stuff would not even think about holding up to dogs. So, I go to look at the tile and Lowe's had just gotten in this beautiful new wood tile flooring. It's tile that looks like wood. So, you can clean it just like regular tile and it holds up to anything you could possibly think of. I held up the tile next to the carpet we chose and it looked beautiful together. Since we were already there, I asked Cody if we could just see how much it would be to do the tile and carpet all at once. He agreed and we set-up a time for the tile guy to come out and measure and give us a quote for that. We figured if we were going to have to move out most of our furniture to do the carpet, it made sense to just have the tile done too. That way, we only had to be out of our house for one time instead of moving furniture twice and moving out of our house two times. When we got the quote back, we were pretty pleased with the price. So, we signed the paperwork for the tile and set-up a date for them to start!

The week before we had the floors done, we began moving out of our house. We literally had to move every piece of furniture and all the odds and ends and decorative things out of our house. The only thing that we left inside were the appliances and the clothes in our closet. We packed up a week's worth of clothes for work and working out, pre-cooked all of our meals for the week, gathered up the dogs, and headed across the street to move in with my parents for a week. So, picture this. They have two labs, we have two labs and a boxer, there's three of them (including my brother), and two of us. There were five dogs and five humans living in a house together for a whole week. You'd think it would have been a mad house, but it was actually pretty seamless. We were only there Monday-Thursday night and no one got in anyone's way and the dogs had a continuous play date! The tile and carpet guys were able to get everything done a day early because we were completely moved out of our house, so they could work as early and stay as late as they wanted/needed to. So, on that Friday, I took off from work early and came home and started cleaning off everything from all the fine dust that had settled from them breaking off the tile. They cleaned pretty much everything. But, I went behind them (cause I'm OCD) and extra deep cleaned everything. Later that night, Cody and I moved all of our furniture (I cleaned every piece as we moved it in) back in and the next day, I cleaned all the little odds and ends and decorative things and had the entire house put completely back together by Saturday night! We are IN LOVE with our new floors. I am so glad that it's done, I am so glad that we did it, and I am even more in love with our house than I ever have been. Everything is completely updated. It finally feels like us and it truly makes our house feel like our home.

Here are the before pics...