Disney went swimmingly. I spent a bit more money than I anticipated - maybe about $50 more - but overall, it was good. Buying snacks & fruit in advance definitely helped. By the time we go back for the next race (in two years), I'll be a pro.
Today, I want to talk about our next big purchase: Re-doing our den. Which, actually, will be a series of smaller purchases. Last night, we decided it's finally time to stop procrastinating and start doing. The reason is kind of gross. For the past two summers, Molly has gotten fleas. I don't know how she's getting them because we put the drops on her (and now, she wears a flea collar too), plus I vacuum and wash everything more frequently than I'd like to. I've come to the conclusion that they must be living in our Berber rug and the only way to totally eliminate them is rip it all out and start over.
We don't plan on staying in this house very long (if it were up to me, I'd put it up for sale tomorrow), so we're looking to do some smaller updates instead of spending a large amount of money on a total renovation. Our first objective is to figure out what kind of flooring to put down.
I've been in luuurve with the idea of staining the concrete underlayment since I saw Chris & Julia do it in their basement. The hubs is digging it too, and it's currently the front-runner. My favorite bloggers on the planet, John & Sherry at Young House Love, did it too (& then, they re-did it with an oil based floor paint).
The second option would be to install some kind of hardwood or laminate flooring to match the existing flooring in entryway/living room/kitchen. We estimated we'd need about 300 square feet of flooring; The room is shaped like a wide "L" & is 21' feet long.
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| rough rough rough sketch |
Our design dilemma is how to make the room function. Currently, the TV is mounted on the wall directly across from the sofa, about 6 feet away, which means you're always kind of staring up at the TV & it can get uncomfortable (we watch a lot of TV). That also leaves a lot of empty space on the other side of the room. We're having a hard time trying to integrate the room as a whole or divvy it up into two separate, but equal spaces.
But this isn't a design blog- it's a money blog. Back to the flooring. Staining the concrete looks like it might be our best bet financially. To tell the truth, I had a bit of sticker shock when looking at flooring prices. Of course, everything I liked (bamboo/cork options) was between $3 and $5 per square foot. Realistically, we need to be under $2 per square foot, plus any additional tools we'd need like underlayment. We haven't set an "official" flooring budget yet, but I think anything over $800 is out of the question (& that's for everything, not just the flooring).
Yesterday, I spoke with our contractor/handyman, Jack, whose done most of the work on our house so far and he's going to email me a quote for prepping the concrete that's already there. While this is a step we could do ourselves, I think buying or renting the tools we'd need might be about the same as paying him to do it. Plus, we can barely hang a picture, so I'm not sure this is the first major project I want to jump into.
We don't have many local flooring places in our neighborhood (in fact, I can't think of any), so we'll most likely be shopping at Lowe's. The hubs has a credit card there and we'd get 5% back on any purchases, which is nice. I'm going to do some Craigs List-ing, too, but I don't know how successful that will be considering the amount of flooring we need.
Any one else have a current house project going on or have any experience with flooring? The hubs and I are definitely not DIY-ers; I prefer reading about it to doing it any day of the week!
