I’ve been MIA for a while on the blog, but everything is still going full speed ahead in our lives and home. For starters, our floors FINALLY arrived from home depot, without warning, on Easter. The “finally” entails that our order had “disappeared” from tracking records and neither in-store (who we did it through), nor the online Home Depot retailer, could get us any information. It pushed back our project times, which was disappointing and frustrating, and when we had about threw in the towel (along with demands of a solid discount on our next purchase), low and behold, they actually showed up. We loaded our economy Honda Civic and Toyota Camry to near exploding point and slowly meandered all the floors back to our house.
In addition to our floors we also picked up our laminate floor installation kit, and many rolls (plus some) of laminate flooring underlayment. We used a skill and table saw to cut the floors pieces where needed. The weekend after we got the floors we got the puppy. I mean why not do it all at once? (…we thought we were crazy too.)
We’re loving 1) having real floors again and 2) the floors themselves, they’re just what we wanted! A mix of light and dark with a hand scraped texture across the top.
Here’s the guys getting to know each other..
A while ago we finished our tile additions in the kitchen with what was leftover from the previous home owner (score). We also fully put in the range hood.
I wish I had documented the sweat my all star husband put into getting it installed with our small attic/roof space, but he’s a stud and made it happen.
We’re excited with the pace of progress while working our jobs, raising the pup, and trying to get out sometimes on a weekend. At least with floors, the house feels like a home again! Here’s a little before after to show you what the progress as been so far…
I’ll have to take some more legit pictures in the daylight sometime for ya’ll. I love getting to see our dreams for these spaces actually happen. For some reason I think I doubted it would. Still plenty to do, but we’re taking it one weekend at a time. Let you know what else has been going on soon!
Hannah says
I love those floors, Karisa, and your house looks amazing! So excited for you both.
Sarah @ Little Red Brick House says
Love the new floors, Karisa! Beautiful choice. I love the progress of your kitchen so far and can’t wait to see the final reveal!
Petite Modern Life says
Thank you Sarah!
Carrie @ Kenarry: Ideas for the Home says
Your new floors are gorgeous, Karisa! I love hand scraped wood floors.
Petite Modern Life says
Thank you Carrie! We’re really happy with them :)
Erica says
So glad you guys picked that flooring – I know how hard of a choice it was! I’m constantly inspired by your handiness :)
Petite Modern Life says
Erica, I blush :) haha and yes that choice was ridiculously life consuming for a time…
Nicole says
I love the reclaimed chestnut flooring and its the top choice right now for our new home. I’m so glad I found your blog because I was having trouble picturing it on a larger scale, thank you so much for the photos they have sealed the deal with this flooring! If you don’t mind I have a few questions. Is it easy to install without being a handy person or should we bite the bullet and have it installed? Also now that you have had it awhile are you still loving it, any issues? We have four boys that are very rough on our floors with toys and spills so I’m concerned with how they will hold up! Thank you again, I’m off to explore more of your blog for more inspiration.
Petite Modern Life says
Hi Nicole! I’m so glad that I could help. That’s my whole hope with this blogging thing! I know what you mean about finding large scale pictures of floors, it was so hard to imagine it! We stared and stared at the different options between lowes and Home Depot and we’re both so happy with what we chose. It brightens up the space wonderfully, hides dirt, and is super easy to clean.
As for installation. My husband and I bought the amount plus ~10 boxes, knowing we could return it. Don’t order it in store, it was a fiasco. The online people were much more organized, but couldn’t help us when we had a huge delay because we ordered through the store who seemed continuously confused. Some of the boxes had too many of the same pieces so extras were needed to keep the varied look. Laying it down with a flooring kit (like I show) was easy. The harder part is cutting the pieces to fit on the edges. Some of our pieces had to be cut to an inch wide to fill the spaces by the walls and cabinets. Not too hard if you can use a saw, just tedious at times. If we would’ve had some more hands we could’ve finished it quicker!
As for durability.. We have 3 active (& messy) pets and have been buying and moving furniture often. I was super hesitant to move things and scratch it, but it is really hard to do that. Dropping something really heavy is more likely to break the wood. We have one such place that we can’t remember what happened. Some pieces will inevitably come chipped, be careful not to install those ones. We get water on it from the dog slopping but we wipe it up and haven’t seen any issues. I want to put it in the whole house now! It would look great in bedrooms.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more questions :)
-Karisa