Our New Kitchen Floor

BEFORE ---

Dingy, dirty, impossible-to-get-clean floor

 DURING ---




The contractors dug into the floor and found that there were two complete layers of flooring and subflooring.... and of course that would cost us twice as much to have it ripped out. Yuck!



But wait! What's this? Yet another layer of ugly green vinyl... and another layer of subflooring! That's right, three layers. The crew had to go get more tools and call in reinforcements! They couldn't believe it.... claimed they've never seen anything like it. It didn't surprise me. That seems to be the case with everything in this house!



 Somehow I neglected to get a picture of how my kitchen looked for the two and a half days that the crew couldn't come because of illnesses and car breakdowns. My fridge was in the family room, temporary kitchen in the living room. PILES of debris and tons of tools and mountains of dust EVERYWHERE! It was fun!

On one of those chaotic days, Jon came home for lunch and brought such a sweet gift. It really brightened my day!

ICE!!!
Our ice machine had stopped working....
and I HAVE to have my iced tea with tons and tons of ice!

 Finally, after removing shovels full of debris, we could see the true subfloor. The real fun was the hour or so when four guys were pounding down nails to get the surface smooth. Wow! My ears are still ringing.

AND NOW...

We have a really nice, smooth, CLEAN new floor!!! I really like it. I've put a lot of my kitchen back together temporarily. My head cold, Valentine's Day, and other busy-ness derailed my plan to move immediately into cabinet painting.... but it's still in the works. We also need to make decisions about trim and paint. (The new, stripped-down floor sits considerably lower than the old multi-layered floor.... so we have a gap between the paint and the new trim.) I also need to order new blinds and get some new light fixtures and rugs. I knew that once we started messing with the kitchen it would be a never-ending process. But I'm so thankful we are finally able to do some fix-ups! These are the joys of home ownership.... and of making a house a home.