New Floors

Ok - so we got new floors back in early November and now it's the end of January. It's about time I posted some pictures.
I'd been telling our landlord since the day we moved in that the floors needed to be replaced. The original linoleum from the mid 90s was still in and very worn and stained and scratched,etc. The worst was the kitchen, downstairs bathroom and laundry room. 
For the first 2 weeks we lived in this house I couldn't bring myself to walk barefoot on these floors. After some serious mopping, I realized even though it didn't look it, the floor was "clean".

Kitchen patch job

Downstairs bathroom

Laundry room

View of the kitchen and family room

 So as part of our lease renewel, the landlord agreed to replace the floors. She had me help pick out tile and has also given us free range to paint the walls whatever color we want (the walls were all in pretty sorry condition as well). This house has come a long way since we've lived here.
With Matt gone, I removed all the kitchen furniture to the front entry and the family room stuff to the living room and the laundry stuff to the office. The tile people moved the fridge, washer and dryer for me. My friends gave me a hard time for doing it on my own and have since learned to call and ask for help. I have fantastic neighbors and friends! What I was hoping was going to be a 3 day thing was actually 5, but hey! I'll deal with it because I'm getting beautiful new floors.

Day 1
Good riddance to the carpet and linoleum!

The tile guys were nice enough. They'd argue like an old married couple all day with each other. My sister Rachel would've gone crazy because one of them chomped very loudly on gum all day long. Burping, farting, and scratching was all put up with because I was getting new floors!!
Day 1 - the floors were easily ripped out and a membrane to protect the tile from cracking was laid down.

Day 2 - tile's going down. The red stuff is the membrane.

This is what they accomplished on day 2

Day 2 went very smoothly. The tile ended up fitting perfectly from wall to wall so very few cuts needed to be  made. Day 3 and 4 were very different because that's when they had to start cutting pieces to fit into all the smaller spaces.

 Since they had the baseboards off, I wanted to get the walls painted to save myself all the taping and careful edging that would've had to be done. My friend, Becca, and her oldest daughter helped me get it all painted. Many hands make light work.

 I love, Love, LOVE my new floors and the new wall color. 

But, my kids like to wrestle and be crazy. Hard tile floors are not good for that. I don't want heads cracking open (even if we do have a neurologist friend living across the street). So, next step - area rug. But it's a big area. No 5x7 will do. So, since November I have been searching for a non-crazy-expensive rug that I actually like.

One idea was to get two 5x7 ft rugs that were really well priced at Costco (and super soft and fluffy - seriously. You gotta get your hands on these.) But the color wasn't right, so we took them back. Gotta love Costco's easy return policy. Luke rode the rugs all the way back into the store and was sad to see them go. The search was still on.
Then I got the idea from my friend to go to a flooring store and by a remnant - have left over pieces binded. So this is what I did. But my sectional is huge and I figured if I'm going custom made I might as well get the size I want. My couch comes out from the wall between 10 and 11 ft. So I went with a 12x12 ft. That is not a remnant because carpet is made 12 ft wide, but it was still much cheaper than buying any other area rug. I just paid per sq ft and they had the edges binded for free and free delivery.
Once I get it, I have to move my big old couch out of the way. Like I said, I asked for help this time. The sectional is hard to hook together because it's been damaged and warped with the couple of cross country moves it's been through.

So my neighbors came over. A hacksaw was brought out because the metal frame of one was getting caught on the other thanks to moving damage and just needed to be shaved.

 Here it is. Tile, painted walls, rug, couch put together, and 3 happy kids who can wrestle and comfortably watch TV on the family room floor.

Everything needs to be jumped on