New Floor

In December we had to replace or garage door system. After six years of fixing broken springs, wheels, the button by the wall, etc, we had had it when the door quit opening or was opening spontaneously in the middle of the night. We replaced the wooden rotting door with a insulated energy efficient door and bought a whole new electronic door opening system. We even got a key pad entry.

Then in January we began contemplating replacing our kitchen floor. Well our sliding glass door finally rotted out this winter. Doug stuffed a towel in the crack and we had to walk the dog out the front door and around the side of the house so the dog could get in the back yard.

At this time we got our neighbor, a contractor, over to replace the door. He also priced out a new floor for us as well. Doug and I took the plunge and began a one month hunt for tile. I of course though we'd walk into the home improvement store tell them what we wanted and they would be able to show us the exact thing and off we'd go. Oh No!!

We search and search for the right tan tiles and texture. Doug and I had to compromise on this as I wanted more dramatic color variation and lots of texture. He wanted less of both. Of course price was a issue. We found one great tiles right away but it would blow our budget. I was so proud of myself that I was determined to stay within our allotted tile budget. So a month later we were still shopping.

I was also looking for a small solid colored tile to insert in the corners of the large tiles for visual interest. This proved to be incredibly difficulty. Finally at the first of the four shops we visited, we finally found tiles that would work.

It took a full week to redo the floor. We were out of the kitchen for a week. For two days we had no access to the area and couldn't go into the basement (where the oldest sleeps, bathes, recreates) or to the garage or the backyard for dog potty purposes. Well we didn't have access to the garage all week because the contractor supplies, stove, cabinets, etc were stored in the garage.

See what our home looked like.

This is Sunday night. Doug and I cleared out the refrigerator, china cabinet, table & chairs, baker's rack and all the items in the lower cabinets.

I forgot to mention that from early January till March 17th we had no baseboards, framing, or curtains around our sliding glass door. Our contractor planned on replacing those items after the new floor was put in.

Here is the refrigerator in the dining/computer room. To the right you can see the edge of the kitchen table. We took off the legs and leaned the table top against the book shelf.

That's all for now Day 2 - Day 7 coming up later.