Demolition Day

Today is Demolition Day at our house.  All of the flooring in the downstairs of our home is coming up.  Stuart left the hotel this morning and got to the house for about 9:00 to let the workers in and give them a key.  They started by putting up plastic sheeting everywhere to help control the amount of dust that would have to be cleaned up.  Then they went to work pulling up the vinyl floor in the kitchen and the wood floor elsewhere.

By the time the workers left for a lunch break, most of the flooring was up and this is what the living room looked like when I was standing at the front door.

 

Here is the entry way with the stairs in front of me.  This part of the floor is higher than the rest and was not affected by the flood.  However, our insurance is replacing all of the other wood flooring so they agreed to replace this small piece as well just so it all matches.  The black tile "landing" that you see below is just inside the front door and it is also coming out.  It wasn't part of the insurance claim but we want all of the flooring to be the same and our contractor is working with us to try to get this included in the work and still stay within our budget. 

Still in the entry way, looking to the left into the school room/formal dining room area.

This picture below is of the living room and playroom from the back door area.  I never noticed how "peachy" those walls looked.  I'm going to repaint them all with the same neutral color we've started using in other rooms that we repaint as needed.  Eventually all of the house will be probably be that same color.  It is a very pale tan color and will lighten and brighten this area more.  I'd love to do the painting before they put in the new floors so I don't have to worry about drips but that would mean working through the night when the workers aren't here and I don't know if I have the energy for an all-nighter these days.

Insurance is covering replacement value of the flooring that we had as well as some other repairs.  We decided to do some of the work ourselves to save some money to put into upgrading some repairs.  We also wanted to be sure to find flooring that was extra durable and wouldn't scratch easily because our kids are still young enough to be destructive.  We decided to not use same wood floor that we originally had but chose something more durable and a little less expensive.  It is a commercial grade laminate that looks like wood.  Click THIS LINK to see it.  It is called Old World Florence and it doesn't scratch or dent easily.  It is a floating floor so it isn't glued down which means that individual boards can easily be replaced if they do get damaged.  Our contractor said that we can actually replace the carpet in the playroom (which isn't part of the flood claim) with this laminate flooring without effecting our budget since it is cheaper than the flooring that insurance paid us for.  I love this.  Not only would all of the flooring have the same consistent look but I would like to get rid of all of the carpeting in our home so this would be a small step towards that goal.  Carpet is impossible to get completely clean and I worry that it is contributing to the asthma and allergy problems that Nicholas and I have.

We are trying to do some of the repair work on our own in order to upgrade the vinyl flooring in the kitchen to tile.  Our contractor laid out a few choices in the kitchen for us to decide on.

We have been a bit overwhelmed with choices.   We want it to meet our needs by being pleasing to us but also durable for our kids.  However, we may sell the house in the next two years so we want to be sure that we make choices that will be selling points for houses in our area.  So we contacted a friend of ours who is a realtor to come by and talk with us and the flooring guy.  It was actually fun going through options with them. 

 

She helped us make the decision between the wood flooring and the laminate wood.  She said that buyers will love the look and durability and the fact that we can get it at a cost within our budget to allow us to cover the entire floor with the same thing is great (i.e. removing playroom carpet and black tile at entry way). 

The laminate we chose is on the top of the porcelain tile that we've chosen for the kitchen.  The tile will also go into the half bath, laundry room and little hallway that goes to the school room.

The tile is definitely an upgrade over the vinyl flooring that we had so that will be over the budget that insurance is paying for.  There are several other things that need to be done that aren't included in the insurance payment.  There needs to be some leveling done before the new floor goes in and some of the baseboards need to be replaced that insurance didn't say were affected by the flood. Also insurance is covering partial replacement of cabinets in the kitchen but we might need to put more money into those to make it look consistent.  But our contractor is doing a wonderful job to try to work with us and help identify projects that we might can do on our own or that don't really need to be done right now so that we can put that money into these other areas.  I'm sure we will still owe money in the end but what a blessing it will be to have new flooring all over the downstairs of our house.