Progress: The Beginnings [Flooring]

Since we had to ditch all the carpet we decided to use laminate wood flooring on the middle level, and new carpet throughout the rest of the house. We really would have liked to do real wood floors, but as I said before our budget was very small and we had heard a lot of great things about laminate.

Spoiler alter: None of those things were true and that floor today is the bane of my existence.

Anyway, we decided to go with a laminate that was a little bit pricier but looked like the dark wood floors that I've coveted all my life. To be fair, they are very beautiful- when they are clean. Because they aren't textured they will show even the mark of a clean bare foot and so they get dirty VERY easily. And the only way to clean them is to go over them once with water to get the dirt off, and then with a vinegar mixture and a microfiber cloth to leave them streak free. They also damage (warp and scratch) much more easily than we were told. If we were going to stay here for longer than we plan I think I'd consider putting down that tile that looks like wood. In any other house we buy it's going to be real wood or bust.

The carpet we chose for the rest of the house was an ugly, much too dark tan. At the carpet store they told me I should take home a few samples and compare them to the walls but time was of the essence (the carpet was installed literally the day before our lease was up and we had to move in) so I didn't take the time. Yet another story of me making a poor decision and hating the results (there are more of these stories to come!) Last year we had new (better quality) carpet installed and it's much lighter. I'm really happy with it but it's been really hard to keep clean. There is just no winning!

 

Here's a closeup of the tile Nate used for the front of the fireplace. It looks MUCH better than the weird red tile they had before. I also cleaned up the entire front of the fireplace, look for that in a different post!