We moved into our current house a couple of years ago. At the time, I thought I would be happy taking gradual steps in replacing and updating. But then our elderly dog became less able to control his bladder. He wore doggie diapers and would occasionally wiggle out without me knowing it. With four carpeted bedrooms, it was a constant struggle to keep them clean.
My husband agreed that the carpets had to go.
We moved into our current house a couple of years ago. At the time, I thought I would be happy taking gradual steps in replacing and updating. But our elderly dog became less able to control his bladder. He wore doggie diapers and would occasionally wiggle out without me knowing it. With four carpeted bedrooms, it was a constant struggle to keep them clean.
My husband agreed that the carpets had to go.
Since moving in, we'd purchased some big-ticket items. New flooring wasn't in the budget. Still, desperation set in, and I researched ways we could DIY our floors. Luxury vinyl plank floors (LVP) would fit the bill for homeowners with dogs. They are less expensive than real wood and water-resistant. We could do it. I knew we could.
My husband and I both took vacation days from work. With the help of a salesman, I ordered the shipment of plank from a company called Cali Bamboo. We would start two more frequently used rooms in the house--the master bedroom and my husband's office. Then we'd tackle the other two guest bedrooms.
You are reading part one on this DIY project. Here all give the big takeaways. Later in a second post, I'll get into the details.
Celebrations...
Win number one: the husband and I make a pretty good team. We had a few moments when our affection for each other came into question, but we made it!
Win number two: We saved a lot of money. It was half the cost to install the floors ourselves.
Win number three: I'm in love with the results. It would be tragic to do all this work and not be happy with the floors.
Epiphanies...
Mistake number one: we started on the master bedroom and also the most difficult. In hindsight, we should've learned installation on the least used room. There will be errors. Ours aren't huge, but I notice them.
Mistake number two: We didn't level the office bedroom floor before installing the floating floor on top. Buckling in one spot required us to rip up that entire floor, level it, and reinstall. There were no tears involved, but it was disheartening.
We are on a concrete slab and the previous homeowners remodeled at one point. They added footage in this particular room and those few added feet are wood at a slightly different level. This lesson taught us to level bedroom number three when we came to that project.
Mistake number three: I'm sad to say that it took us way too long to figure out measuring the odd angles in three of our bedrooms. Why yes, not all rooms consist of four 90 degree angles. Youtube was our best teacher for learning this. Apparently, we'd forgotten every single geometry lesson ever completed in school.
Cost, 4 bedrooms less than $4,000:
As I stated above, we made some mistakes. We also felt the installation in every muscle of our bodies. But in the end, we couldn't be happier with the end results!
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