Vintage Home Love: July 2016

Wow! I cannot believe it has been over a year since I last wrote a post!!! How did that happen?! We have been very busy here; so with out further adieu.. our latest projects...

New flooring in the Living Room and Master Bedroom:

Since Prince Charming and I are both teachers, we do most of our projects over the summer. Ever since we moved in (5 years ago) we knew we wanted to replace the blond colored laminate flooring in the living room. Having two very large and very furry children, we needed something tough and textured. Our oldest is 14 and has had both knees (ACLs) repaired so we had to have something that was easy for her to walk around on without slipping. After tons of research, we settled on floating plank vinyl. It is waterproof, so I can mop my little heart out, and the one we chose has a nice grain that gives it a little grip for the pooches.

Allure Ultra vinyl plank flooring is sold at Home Depot and is touted as the "Easiest Floor Ever!" At first I thought they meant easiest floor to install...now I know they meant easiest floor to clean and maintain. While it doesn't require a Mensa member to figure out how to install it, it is difficult to get it all lined up and "clicked" into place. After a awhile you really get the feel for it and it goes much faster; our poor knees though!!! But thanks to a good friend who recommended gel knee pads, the second half of the project was much more ~~enjoyable~~ manageable. The color is Sawcut Dakota and we LOVE it!!!

The BEFORE....

Not bad...just not us...

Wa-La,all gone!!!

I used the old laminate as our wall spacers since they were the right thickness and they were much easier to tape up than the tiny little spacer wedges. We also had to let the flooring acclimate to the house for 48 hours.

Prince Charming measured and cut while I laid the planks and locked them in place. These planks were SO easy to cut! All we had to do was score the plank with a utility knife and then snap them over our knee (or against the corner of the wall.)

At this point I abandoned my foam knee pads because they didn't keep my knees from killing me and they gave me some nice blisters on the backs of my legs. I opted instead for a rolled up foam yoga mat. It did the trick! ***GEL knee pads with one strap are the way to go! Thank goodness for my friend Joel who gave us that little tip!***

Rounding the corner into the ~~hallway~~ hellway. This tiny little space took us 2 days to finish! So many intricate cuts, in addition to us being exhausted from the day before, we were really creeping along.