Extreme Home Makeover

OK, so maybe it wasn't that extreme, but we (and when it comes to home remodeling "we" means "Patrick") did some major work in our house a couple of weeks ago. We've wanted to put in hardwood floors in our living/dining rooms for a really long time but have never had the money to do it. We still didn't have the money, but thanks to a very generous donation from my grandfather (who recently sold his house) and strict rules that we could only use the money toward home improvement projects, we decided to go ahead and get hardwood floors. Yay!

Patrick got a number of bids and we determined that they all pretty much averaged out to the same amount - $4 per square foot for the wood and $4 per square foot for installation. We decided on Lowe's because we had just received a 10% off coupon in the mail and we're all about saving some money. Then Patrick called me and asked me the question I was dreading: "What do you think about me installing the floors?" Oh crap. Seriously? When it comes to projects around the house, skill level is not the issue. Timeliness is the issue. I had visions of our floors being torn up until Thanksgiving. But he promised me. And we had a deadline looming - Griffin's first birthday party, which was less than two weeks away. Plus, I needed a few days before the party to get everything back in order and clean the house in preparation for the party. He said he'd be done by Tuesday.

I'm not even going to get into everything that happened that next week, but let me just remind everyone of Griffin's bout of pneumonia that kept him (and us) home for 3 days. It seemed like everything got in the way of this project, including me and my complaining and whining and anxiety-fueled rants. "This is never going to happen!" seemed to be one of my favorites. Wait...that and "Who cares about matching the color, just nail down the f'ing wood!" Poor Patrick. I know that one of the big reasons he wanted to do this project himself (aside from saving us a lot of money) is that he and his dad had talked about doing the floors a couple of years ago. His dad used to be a carpenter and back then, if we had the money, I would have been more than happy to have them do it mainly because my father-in-law really knew how to light a fire under Patrick's butt to get stuff done.

In the end, it doesn't matter when the floors got done (yes, they were done in time for the party). Patrick did a beautiful job and we're so happy with how they turned out. I've got some "mid-project" pictures. I need to take some real "after" pictures, which I will do as soon as we clear Griffin's b-day presents from the living room:

[caption id="attachment_895" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Pulling back carpet in living room"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_896" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The crappy carpet as it looks in the dining room"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_898" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="A before shot of the living room (aka Tools and Crap)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_899" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Patrick planning out how the hell he's going to get this done in a week"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_900" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Oh yeah, and we painted, too..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_901" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="We = Patrick"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_902" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The color is Mississippi Mud"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_903" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="It looks great with the color of the wood floors"][/caption]

Stay tuned for the "after" pictures. Patrick really did an amazing job and I know his dad is proud of him...