Aspie Teen and I Rock!

This is not a humble post, it is a celebrating—Aspie Teen and I are too cool for our own good—kind of post.  You might remember that I have been remodeling parts of our townhouse for the past few months.  One of the things we were intending to do was to rip up all the carpeting and lay wood laminate down.  I hate carpeting, especially with my four boys!  That carpet gets disgusting way to fast for my taste, and I refuse to be a slave to that carpet!  Plus I don’t want to feel like screaming every time there is a spill—God knows there are a lot of spills in this house!

Anyway, I purchased the laminate in February excited to put down the floor, but it has sat piled to the ceiling in the corner of the living room until last weekend. Finally, after much complaining, Hubby started on the floor. Two days of work, and we have some progress….

Here are two pictures of Hubby’s progress from last weekend.  He started the floor in the kitchen (don’t mind the disaster that is the countertops, and sink), and began laying the floor out towards the front door.  The plan is to take it into the living room next. We can only do the project in sections with the kids, so we are cutting out sections of carpet, cleaning the concrete beneath (there is no subflooring), putting down the vapor barrier and then the flooring—a project indeed.

Here is the problem:

The kitchen had multiple layers of old linoleum laid down, and we thought it would be fine to just go straight into the living room without ripping it up.  I mean really, how uneven can thin linoleum make a floor. 

The answer:  Quite uneven! 

All week we have been walking through the doorway into the kitchen over a creaky, moving floor, which should not be happening.  Today, I finally couldn’t take it anymore, and I couldn’t take the thought of continuing this project (flooring going down through the foyer, living room, dining  room, kitchen and master bed room) with a wobbly doorway.

Today while Hubby was at work, Aspie Teen and I ripped the whole floor up. We pulled up the linoleum in the kitchen, reinstalled the vapor barrier, and laid down most of the floor again.  It took us about three hours, and I was hoping to get the whole thing back down before Hubby got home and saw what we did, but doesn’t look like its happening. I ALWAYS underestimate how long a job will take. Now I have to cut some pieces of flooring because either we installed it differently the second time, or we mixed up our pieces, but some of the cut pieces do not fit back where they came from! 

Despite this small set back, I am very proud of us!  We fixed the wobbly floor problem.  Now we can walk comfortably from the kitchen into the living area without the floor moving and creaking.  Go us!  I am very excited about our accomplishment and had to share during break time.