What we've been up to: Update

This week has been a whirlwind. We've gotten a lot done around here, but its not without a lack of sleep or energy and we're both really looking forward to the Canada Day long weekend!

If you've been keeping an eye on our project list ("What we've been up to"), the "To Do" list is definitely getting shorter!

So here's a quick update (we'll be blogging about a bunch of these projects next week):

The upstairs floors are DONE:

and they match the bedroom floors :)

We are so happy with how they turned out-phew!

The nursery room floors are in, and we're in the process of putting together that room:

Nursery room closet system has been installed (Ian did an amazing job!):

and we installed a few new lights outside the house (some for style, some for function!):

so there you have it! We're working away and things are getting done around here!
Are any of you working on any projects this weekend!?

Have a great long weekend everyone!

Melissa and Ian

Flooring Mishaps

Flooring woes. Honestly, this family has a lot of issues with flooring...and I don't just mean Ian and I. My parents have struggled with their own flooring issues and I can't say this is the first time Ian and I have struggled...if you recall our marble bathroom flooring problem. In each of these cases, the issue hasn't been a flaw with the materials themselves (thankfully!), but rather the install or the store we purchased them from. So you can probably see where this is going....we've had issues with the bamboo floors upstairs.

Lets start from the beginning shall we?

We debated and debated on what kind of flooring to choose. After finding a great deal on our bamboo floors we decided to go with them and happily took home the 25 boxes of flooring that we needed.

We didn't bother checking the flooring inside the boxes, since we had already installed this EXACT floor from this exact store in the past. We've loved how these floors look, in our living and dining rooms, office and master bedroom you can see here.

We saw the sample in the store and it looked perfect and the boxes were the exact same as what we'd had in the past. Lesson learned: even if you are 150% SURE that you have the right flooring, check the boxes. Seriously, it will give you a piece of mind and could save you money in the end (if something were to be wrong).

We hired an installer and he showed up right on time to start with the floors. About halfway through the morning, he mentioned to Ian that something looked a bit off. Ian was able to tell right away that the floors were not the same floors we had already installed in our bedroom. Since he had started from the bedroom, the old floors were right up against the new ones, and it was easy to see the difference. It was subtle, yet noticeable. Ian told him to continue with the install, thinking it could just be the lighting or the fact that the bedroom floors had changed over the past year from the sunlight.

We came home from work that evening and the installer had finished the majority of the hallway. I instantly noticed the difference and did not like the new floors. Since we had never had problems with these floors before and the boxes were labelled the same we assumed it might have been a different dye lot and that we were being too picky.

The installer came back the next day, finished the hallway and nursery and Ian managed to re-install the baseboards, fill all nail holes and caulk and paint them before I get home. I came home (and I'm going to partly blame it on pregnancy hormones, ok?), but I looked at the floors and started to cry. Like really cry. I honestly did not like the new floors AT ALL. So, we debated and finally decided to go back to the store. You can see here that the difference is pretty noticeable:

We brought them a piece of the old flooring (that we had leftover from our bedroom) as well as the new flooring and the sales associates were honestly shocked. They brought over their sample and of course the new floors looked nothing like it. They went and checked all of the boxes of flooring and they all had the "new" floors in them. They went through a box in every pallet and finally when they got to the back of the piles, they found the old style of flooring. The manufacturer had changed the staining process and had not told them. The new floors looked more red in colour and did not have that same "bamboo streak effect" that the old floors had. The sales associates were pretty surprised and thankfully felt sorry for us. They had enough of the older style to give us as a replacement (and did not charge us for that).

The problems were, that we had already installed 10 out of the 25 boxes of flooring so we were only able to return 15 to the store. Also, we already had paid our installer for 2 days of work and now had to start all over again. As well, the installer had custom cut multiple pieces to fit around our railing (which had taken him hours) and he would now need to do that all over again.

That night, we spend the rest of the evening ripping out the new floors. Ian would rip up each board, I would fill a crate with as many as I could and Ian would carry them downstairs and dump them in the garage. 4 hours later we were done and back to where we started from. We left a few pieces around the railing so the installer could use them as a template.

Our installer was great and said he would be fine with starting over with whatever we wanted.

The next day we went back to the store, picked up the correct flooring and brought it home. We let it acclimatize over the weekend and the installer planned to start Monday. Sunday night, Ian and I went through each and every box (allll 25 of them) and checked each and every piece of flooring to make sure it was correct. It may have been overkill, but hey, better safe than sorry (and we are honestly not going to fix this a second time...could you imagine!?)

So there you have it. With the amount of renovations we do, we expect some set-backs here and there, however flooring has been a constant problem of ours. I would highly recommend that you double and triple check any materials that you bring home for renovations. It might take a bit of time, but in the end you'll feel better knowing the right product is being installed. Back to square one!

With this mishap, we now have to pay more for the floors than anticipated, however in the end its still going to cost us less than what we budgeted (barely, but we made it!), and my true feelings are that anything worth having is going to take time...so I'm expecting the floors to look awesome :)

So there you have it, not all projects go perfectly...but it makes it all worth it in the end when they do. Have any of you experienced any similar "mishaps" during a home reno project?! Please tell us we're not the only ones!

Melissa and Ian

Choosing a Hardwood Floor

So now that I've shared the details on our flooring choice with all of you, lets get into the specifics, shall we? We chose to go with a bamboo flooring, rather than a hardwood and I'm going to explain what helped us to make our decision.

When we first decided that we wanted to replace the flooring in our living and dining rooms, we knew a hardwood of some sort was what we were after. There were actually hardwood floors already installed in those rooms, but the boards were pretty thin, not in the best condition and would have had to be stripped and stained. We decided that rather than take the risk of stripping and staining (and potentially spending a lot and not liking the end look) we would rip them out and start fresh.

The living room began looking like this (previous homeowners decor):

After we installed the new floor, we ended up with flooring that looked just like our bedroom floors:

 

We love the final product and are very happy with how it has turned out in every room we have installed it in.

We had previously installed laminate flooring in our last home and it was a great choice for that house. We knew it was not our forever home and based on the value of the house, we didn't want to put a lot into it, so laminate seemed like a good choice.  We were also hoping that it would slightly increase the value of the home when we sold it (since the carpet we replaced was AWFUL). We purchased a medium-dark coloured laminate and installed it ourselves. It took a few days (and a bit of getting used to!), but once we got started, it was smooth sailing. We bascially laid each board on the floor and tapped it in, using a rubber mallet. Some pieces went in smoother than others, but once you get the hang of it, its not that difficult.

Upon putting that house up for sale, we actually had people asking us if the floors were in fact hardwood (despite the high gloss finish), so we figured we made a good choice in the flooring.

Fast forward to our current house and although we liked the laminate, we decided to upgrade slightly and install  some type of hardwood instead.

The first decision we made was the type of wood. We loved the look of maple, however one of the downfalls to maple is that it is a softer wood. For us, that wasn't very logical. Not only do we have an 85 pound dog, but we also didn't want to have to worry about scratches and dents from kids in the future. So maple was out.

We knew we had to pick a harder floor and were recommended to consider oak but we didn't like the look of oak as much. Oak tends to show a lot of grain and that wasn't a look we preferred, so oak was out. There were a lot of other choices in wood floors, however we couldn't seem to find a wood or stain that fit our preferences. Many of the wood floors we looked at, were way out of our price range and we needed to find something that fit within our budget.

Through our research, we started to see a great deal of postive information about bamboo flooring and this intrigued us so we decided to investigate. When we went to look at a sample of bamboo, we compared it to a sample of maple and with a dark stain, the grains of the boards looked very similar. Bamboo definitely has a very specific look to it, but when comparing it to hardwood, it had a similiar look to the maple.

You can see in this picture here (bamboo on the left, hardwood on the right) that there is a very distinctive look to it:

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We also found that bamboo does come in a fair amount of colour options. We often read that bamboo only comes in light or dark colours, but we found a fair amount of colours in between- it all depends on how it is manufactured. We chose a dark colour called "coffee" and although if I were to choose flooring all over again, I might go a bit lighter, I love the colour we picked. Since we went with a darker colour, its more likely that the flooring was produced through a more complex process which can make it slightly softer, however we haven't found this to be an issue yet.

So we liked the look of the grain, liked the colour options available, the next step was to find out the postive aspects of choosing bamboo over hardwood.

First off, we loved that bamboo floors were helpful to the environment, as they are a renewable resource. Bamboo floors are believed to be more sustainable than synthetic flooring products since they are generally made from natural sources-such as FSC-certified wood, bamboo, cork or eucalyptus. Bamboo is also a rapidly renewal resource. Since bamboo grows incredibly fast (much faster than tree's that can take decades to grow), bamboo is ready for harvest in about 4-6 years. As well, bamboo is not a tree, rather a grass which means that its root system is left intact when it is harvested, so it can continue to re-grow. Another positive aspect for the environment, is that bamboo requires less pesticides or chemical fertilizers (if any) compared to hardwoods during production.

This information helped us to understand that bamboo was an very environmentally friendly, but we also wanted to learn about the construction of bamboo flooring. Bamboo floors are constructed as the bamboo stalks are cut into strips and assembled in a variety of different ways. I thought this basic guide from TLC was an easy way to explain the different ways in which the construction is completed and the floors are stained a variety of different colours.

So in doing our research, we loved the look, loved the functionality of the wood and thats why we went with the flooring we did (bamboo). In the end, Im really happy that we chose to keep with the bamboo upstairs. Its going to be easy to clean and I think its going to look great. We've had a few set-backs with the flooring this week, but we'll update you on all of that next week :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Melissa and Ian

Carpet v.s Hardwood

Over 2 months ago, we ripped out the carpeting in our upstairs hallway and got rid of all the laminate flooring in our upstairs bedrooms. Our master bedroom had already been given the update of new bamboo hardwood, but we weren't sure what we wanted to do for the rest of the upstairs.

We still hadn't made a decision on what we wanted to do, however we had decided to install pot-lights in the main floor hallway. In order to properly install these, we had to cut into the ceilings from upstairs....which meant removing any flooring we had upstairs:

This wasn't a major issue, since we knew we were planning on replacing these floors anyways. We decided to rip everything out, have the pot-lights installed and then decide later on what flooring we wanted to include. While ripping out the carpet, we ran into some issues. The previous homeowners had 3 cats, which hadn't had a major impact on us yet, however Ian is SERIOUSLY allergic to cats. When we ripped up the carpet, it stirred up all kinds of cat hair, dander, etc- that didn't impact us right away, but did eventually. Once the pot-lights were installed, we had made the mistake of setting the carpet back on the floors (just so we had something nice to walk on before we replaced the flooring) and Ian was barely able to function for weeks- we finally threw out the carpet and this seemed to help. After seeing an allergist, Ian was told that despite the cats, carpeting really wasn't the best option for him to have in a house so we kept this in mind.

Fast forward 2 months and we've been getting pretty tired of walking on the subfloors...it was time to replace the upstairs flooring.

We had narrowed down our choices to either carpet or the same bamboo that we installed in our bedroom/office/living and dining rooms. Our first choice was to install the bamboo/hardwood. We liked the idea of consistency upstairs and felt it would help with the value of the home, along with Ian's (and potential kids) allergies. However, after looking into carpeting, we felt this might be a better option. Softer to walk on, more cozy feeling for kids rooms, potentially more durable for kids and babies, etc.

We went back and forth on our decision for a long time, however in the end the main factor that played into our decision was cost. We knew the bamboo was going to cost us about $4.00/ sq ft for the purchase price (based on what we paid before), plus the cost of install (around $2.00-$3.00/sq ft) and the cost of additional materials- subfloor, etc. With 560 square feet to do, we couldn't afford the hefty price of $4000-$5000 for the bamboo floors. We wanted to be able to do all the floors upstairs for under $3000 (if possible) so whatever fit into that budget was going to be the final choice.

We even made a pros and cons list for both carpet and flooring:

Pro's for Bamboo/Hardwood:
* May increase home value
* Consistent look upstairs
* Easy to clean
* Good for allergies (Ian)
* Easy to use in designing
* Environmentally friendly
* No off-gassing effects
* Know exactly what to purchase

Con's for Bamboo/Hardwood:
* COST
* Can see dirt easily (dark floors)
* May get scratched
* Not as soft for kids/baby

Pros for Carpet:
* COST
* Soft for kids/baby

Cons for Carpet:
* Allergies
* Not sure where to start- what to buy
* Off-gassing = Must install soon- (so off-gassing can occur before baby goes into nursery)
* Colour matching- hard to find colour design to match with walls, etc
* Durability- will it wear well?
* Not as easy to clean?- spills, etc
* Not as good for re-sale

We stared at the list for a while, but in the end carpet won. Well really, cost won. Based on what we expected carpet to cost, we figured carpeting was our only option.

So we went carpet shopping. We did our homework on carpet and although wool carpet was highly recommended (highly durable and super eco friendly), we couldn't afford the hefty price tag of $7-10/sq ft.  I had an idea of the style of carpeting I wanted, and this was the look:

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I loved the look of carpet with a stripe/line pattern, however this was NOT easy to find. Every store we went into, did not have any carpet samples with this pattern...even the one company that had a brochure with this pattern in it, did not have a sample of it.

We had also decided that a combination carpet (cut pile and loop) would be the style that would work best for us and a polypropylene or nylon made carpet would last longer. However, most of the sales associates we talked to, kept trying to talk us into a high priced carpet and we felt very lost. There were so many options and possibilities with carpet, we had no idea where to begin.

While running into multiple carpet stores, we drove by the store that we originally purchased our bamboo from and decided to just take a look inside and check the cost of our flooring again. Lone behold, we walked over to our bamboo and the flooring gods were smiling on us. There was our bamboo, on clearance for $1.99/sq ft as they were no longer carrying this product.

They had plenty left in stock and we were able to purchase all of the flooring for our upstairs for under $1350.00. Boom.

We didn't even debate on it. We literally just looked at each other and said "done". This had solved our dilemma and we knew in the long run, hardwood flooring would be best for us. The other major reason why we were so keen on the hardwood, was because of Ian's allergies. Not only have they been ridiculously awful this spring (the worst in years), but also brought on asthma (which has hasn't had since childhood) and we worried that if our babe were to have these same allergies that carpet might not be the best for the nursery.

So now that we had our flooring we needed to find an installer. We called around and found someone who was able to start this week (because of a delay in another project) and was willing to charge us $2.00/sq ft for install (all in). So $1100.00 for the install, plus the cost of the flooring ($1350) came to $2450 all-together. Amazing! We beat our budget of keeping it under $3000.00 even with the cost of the additional materials for install ($180) and the cost of areas rugs for the bedrooms ($300 for rugs for all 3 rooms)!

In prepping for the install of the new floors, we had to remove all of the baseboards, which was a bit of a pain since Ian had just painted, caulked and fixed them all up, however it had to be done:

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully all of the baseboards came off fairly easily and we don't think we are going to have to replace any of them. Not only is this easier when putting them back in, but also helps to keep our costs down. In order to make the process smoother when putting the baseboards back, Ian labelled the wall and the back of each baseboard with a number, so we know which ones go where:

 

So come tomorrow, the floors are going to be installed and we can finally start putting the upstairs back together- including the nursery :)

Our house is a bit of a disaster zone right now. We wanted to make sure to acclimate the new floors to the house before the install (which I would highly recommend). You want to make sure if you are installing hardwood floors, that the wood is in the house or room they are going to be installed in, for at least 48 hours before install.  This allows the moisture content of the wood to adjust to the conditions in the room. You don't really need to do this with engineered hardwood floors, however I would still recommend taking the precautions.  So, the flooring boxes have been taking over the hallway and mudroom for the past few days. Here's just the tip of the iceberg...

Now, although we have decided on hardwood floor for our upstairs, we have nothing against carpet. I personally like the warmth it brings to a space and softness. We have decided that when renovating our basement (dont hold your breath for that one!), we will do carpet as it makes the most sense down there. So, this carpet hunt will happen again eventually. Hopefully we'll be a bit more prepared at that point!

Melissa and Ian