Remodel 2012 :: a summary of laying wood floors

I LOVE wood floors.

in my dream home they'll be everywhere!!

well, except for the bathrooms which will have heated, marble floors ;)

after this last project we now have wood floors in all the main areas.

totally obsessed.

Here are a couple of "before" pictures ...

Actually taken when we had the carpets cleaned a while back.

I will admit that I chose this carpet. ugh.

Now that we have that out there, let me follow it with saying that it is 

the decision I regret most in the 3 years of decorating our house.

Mind you, this is our first house and I didn't have too many opinions starting out. 

That face has definitely changed. Just ask Hubby :)

What I maybe hated most of all, 

was the weird jutting angle of the tile into the family room carpet.

(see first pic)

The house came that way, but it made the rooms so choppy!!

For the last two years I have been dreaming of laying wood floors throughout

the kitchen/ breakfast room/ family room.

This is the story of how Hubby made my dreams come true!

A few weeks ago I wrote this post to inform you of what craziness we were

embarking on.  It got crazier and crazier before the floors were finally finished.

ripping out carpet and busting out tile

Truly thought I'd never clean out all of the dust.

Truly.

Geez.

Hubby worked SO hard swinging a sledge hammer and using some crazy

power tool that I don't even know the name of.

I promised him I'd never ask him to do this again.

It was kinda terrible.

Round 1. Hubby laid all of the floors. He did an AMAZING job, even took a day off work to finish.
We walked around and noticed a few uneven areas.
Come to find our foundation wasn't completely even... 

(what?!??! I didn't even know that was possible.)

here are some pictures of the initial progress ...

sometimes when people have traumatic incidents in their lives their brain basically erases the memory of what happened because it's too much to handle.
pretty sure that's what happened after this next set of pictures.
 i just don't remember a whole lot about the following.

Round 2. He ripped up half the floors and moved most of the furniture out,
throughout kitchen and breakfast room.
Then he laid the floors for a second time using one method to try and fix the floor issue.
but it didn't work.

(ahhhhhh!!!!!!)

I mean I can only complain so much, he did 90% of the work but

I got to live in the house all day, every day with two kids...

Round 3. Third time is a charm. He spread self leveling cement and re-laid the floors, again.

This time everything was much better.

but the process was still a nightmare.

It was a rough 10 days, but it was SO worth it.

Our wood floors have been laid and they're gorgeous.

Busting out tile, laying and relaying those floors was an incredible

act of love by my hubby, and I am so grateful that he did that for me.

He knew how much it meant to me and how much I'd love them! 

We both love them and even Cade, who is 2 1/2, says

"Mommy, I love your new floors!"