We're floored!

Let me show you what has been the bane of my existence for the past 10 months:

Ewww! What an ugly way to start a blog entry. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but this is what used to be the doorway between our dining room (carpet) and kitchen (faux wood linoleum). It wasn't our doing though! This is what the previous inhabitants left us, and what I wanted to change since the day we moved in.

I mean really, who thinks beige carpet in a dining room is a good idea?


Maybe if you're lucky enough to have one of those fancy only-used-when-company-visits dining rooms, or maybe if you don't have messy eater toddlers, but this is our only eating space and Sage is a beast when it comes to eating. So, obviously, was the kid who lived here before us. A close-up:


And then there was the linoleum. I'm guessing it was installed in the 60s or 70s. Vintage! Retro! except not. Usually I love stuff from this era. This floor, however, was unlovable.


So. . . for the last 10 months we saved and researched and shopped around for estimates and this month finally got the renovation under way. It wasn't without its snafus though. They measured wrong and ran out of tiles so for over a week we had to live with this in the laundry nook:


They even tried to charge us for the extra labor and expense but I put up a fight and held them to our contract. I argued that in my line of work, when I do commissions for people I tell them the cost up front and they agree to it. If later on I find I did my math wrong or it's going to take me longer than I thought or I have to pay extra for materials (and this has happened) I would never contact the customer and demand they pay up for my mistake. In the end they saw my point and finished the job. Beautifully, I might add.

The dining room:


Yeah, I know, there's a lot of wood going on there. But look at the floor!


And no more nasty transition to the kitchen:





Okay, so that wasn't your run-of-the-mill kokoleo post - there are no crafty pictures or yard sale treasures to see. But it's not every day a person gets new floors! Also, no "Made by Monday" pictures this week because, I'm ashamed to say, I didn't accomplish a single goal I set for myself last week. So now I'll re-set them all for next week, and if by next week I don't have any new creations to show for myself, well then I'll just stop setting goals.