I never knew replacing flooring is the homeowners....If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

[Tap]

I want new carpet....enough said.  Ha Ha! Jokes on me!

Edited June 28, 2019 by Tap

[MysteryJen]

Once you decide to replace flooring, I think about paint.

then why not window coverings?

furniture?

art?

My dh hates it when I complain about the floors. 

[easypeasy]

This is why our living room/kitchen area have remained in a state increasing shabbiness. We need to start with the floors... but it always turns into an enormous project "while we're at it," after all. So, we scrap the whole idea and deal with the floors just a little longer...

[EmilyGF]

56 minutes ago, easypeasy said:

This is why our living room/kitchen area have remained in a state increasing shabbiness. We need to start with the floors... but it always turns into an enormous project "while we're at it," after all. So, we scrap the whole idea and deal with the floors just a little longer...

Then you can have your water heater explode while you are on vacation... and then you no longer have a choice!

We've been talking about replacing our kitchen for a few years now. My dad, who is a furniture engineer, designed a new kitchen for us about seven years ago. With the flooring and baseboards out, there is no time like the present! This is going to snowball...

[Shoeless]

50 minutes ago, Paradox5 said:

I thought you start at the top--paint the ceilings, then paint the walls, then rip out the floors. That way, if you drip paint, (which I do) it doesn't matter cause you are putting in new floors.

Light fixtures were the the first new things we did in this house. 

 

But then what about the trim/molding? Do I replace the trim before or after I deal with the floors?  Before or after I paint the walls? 

This is where the whole process stalls for me.  

[easypeasy]

15 minutes ago, EmilyGF said:

Then you can have your water heater explode while you are on vacation... and then you no longer have a choice!

 

Oh, how we WISH this would happen!!! Alas, our water heating episode and our oven over-heating episode happened while we were at home and could deal with the situations quickly and they caused no lasting damage. *sigh*

[Shoeless]

2 minutes ago, easypeasy said:

 

Oh, how we WISH this would happen!!! Alas, our water heating episode and our oven over-heating episode happened while we were at home and could deal with the situations quickly and they caused no lasting damage. *sigh*

Careful what you wish for.  My MILs water heater rusted out and leaked all over her house for 3 days in the Texas heat. Every time the water in the tank would leak out past a certain level, a pump would kick in and try to refill it, (I am fuzzy on the details of how exactly this could happen and why it was set up like this, but my FIL had everything in that house rigged up in a weird way, so who knows).  Everything in the house was ruined because of mold and it was a $30k insurance claim.       

[Liz CA]

44 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

 

But then what about the trim/molding? Do I replace the trim before or after I deal with the floors?  Before or after I paint the walls? 

This is where the whole process stalls for me.  

 

Trim came off with the carpet. We painted the walls and ceiling, then put in new flooring and dh painted the trim before he installed it again.

[easypeasy]

25 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

Careful what you wish for.  My MILs water heater rusted out and leaked all over her house for 3 days in the Texas heat. Every time the water in the tank would leak out past a certain level, a pump would kick in and try to refill it, (I am fuzzy on the details of how exactly this could happen and why it was set up like this, but my FIL had everything in that house rigged up in a weird way, so who knows).  Everything in the house was ruined because of mold and it was a $30k insurance claim.       

 

Our rental house had extreme smoke damage due to an electrical short (sidenote: if you rent... DON'T try to install a ceiling fan yourself!! OMG!!) and the whole house got a major facelift. I think it cost us like $500 through the insurance company & we hired out all the work. It was glorious. DH was so bummed that it didn't happen to our house instead (of course, on a day when we were out of the house with all the pets...).
 

When our water heater bit the dust, we caught it at a small trickle in the garage. *sigh* Would've been perfect scenario to have the kitchen re-done... 😀

[frogger]

Everything you touch in a house falls under "If you give a mouse a cookie". Always.

 

We had to tear out a brick wall due to earthquake damage but it had an attached brick bench that stuck out into the living room 18-24" which left an open subfloor. If we take out the old carpetting that no longer reaches the wall then it's time to rebuild the stairs. The hand railing would no longer hold up someone's weight anyway and we will rebuild the stairs straight down but since there is no longer a landing due to straightening the stairs we will have to change the ceiling in the stairwell below.

 

Since the bricks are off the wall we might as well get spray foam insulation installed since the fiberglass was installed incorrectly and was just stuffed in. Fiberglass doesn't insulate when squished together but since the spray foam guys are here we might as well tear off the wood paneling in our room which is already half torn off so we could reach the actual structural wall since the rim joist was ripped in half and the wall was leaning out (from the earthquake) . If we finish pulling off the wood paneling and already have sheetrock dust in the house we might as well finish pulling off the ceiling and other walls in our bedroom too so we can get the whole room sheetrocked. By that point we might as well replace the carpet (pretty sure the original carpet from the 70's) rather than destroy vacuums trying to clean out the sheetrock dust.  Since there is already sheetrock dust everywhere might as well fix all the earthquake cracks around the house and patch the ceiling where the tub leaked years ago.

 

I am NOT touching the outside of the house. I will ignore the half deck and the lack of siding around the chimney chase and the half a patio that needs dug out because once I touch it we will be onto "If you give a moose a muffin." and I can't handle 2 in one summer.

[cjzimmer1]

Yep, this has been my world this year.  Although it started with a broken bathroom cabinet, turned into new flooring in upstairs bathroom and then new countertop and new faucet and new light fixture and of course new paint (and shower curtain and hooks) and in the process discovered the "perfect" flooring for the downstairs bathroom, which led to new shower curtain, hooks and paint as well.  The great results turned into investigating new flooring for the kitchen/dining room but was going to be derailed because of cost.  However it was discovered there was a unknown longstanding leak and the underlayment, subfloor, and ceiling in the room below were damaged. So that had to be repaired which necessitated finding the money for the flooring because now it was all ripped up to repair the water damage and of course fixing the water damaged turned up that the door frame is rotted (and the source of the leak into the rest of the house) and now that has to be dealt with too.  We also know there is a leak in another area of the house because after moving a bunkbed that had been in place for at least 6 years, there is mold and the drywall has disintegrated. I know there is more than that ahead (like carpet) but right now I just want to close my eyes and plug my ears and pretend none of exists because I'm already so over home repairs

Edited June 28, 2019 by cjzimmer1

[Ausmumof3]

Yep!  Going through this now.  Started painting and discovered the ceiling wasn’t far off collapsing so fixing the ceiling and the floor tiles are breaking up.  Also the door frame doesn’t line up and the window sill is broken.  😬

[alisoncooks]

We replaced our kitchen floor due to subfloor rot. What followed: painting the ceiling, walls, trim, and kitchen cabinets. New curtains. New rugs/mats. 

Basically a complete kitchen overhaul. 

[G5052]

Yes, it's funny how that goes. We sold our nearly-perfect, upscale house last summer, and the college kids and I moved to rent a shabby split level I found in a great neighborhood. 

And in a way it's nice. The walls are a mess in some rooms. The carpet is worn. The kitchen floor has dents. But the layout and location are excellent. One of my college kids is always telling me that I should ask the landlord if they want to sell.  And we just live with it as-is. And there's nothing we have to do about it but keep it clean and the yard decent.

I might just rent for awhile. LOL.  

[Pen]

17 hours ago, frogger said:

Everything you touch in a house falls under "If you give a mouse a cookie". Always.

 

Yup!  This!  So very true.  Sigh.

 

[Garga]

22 hours ago, easypeasy said:

This is why our living room/kitchen area have remained in a state increasing shabbiness. We need to start with the floors... but it always turns into an enormous project "while we're at it," after all. So, we scrap the whole idea and deal with the floors just a little longer...

 

Yup. Shabbiness here, too.  I started another thread about how I have to stop watching HGTV because it’s making me feel really bad about my shabbiness.  It’s not really all *that* shabby, until you spend a few hours watching home improvement shows, and then suddenly, everything seems extra shabby.  

But...I don’t want to get on the Give a Mouse a Cookie treadmill.  So, I’m embracing the shabby and turning off the HGTV.  

Edited June 29, 2019 by Garga

[theelfqueen]

I think every project is homeowners "if you give a mouse a cookie" ... we want a new bed for the guest room, but that means I need to make room for it so I need to buy two new bookshelves to reorganize all that stuff and then I need baskets and containers for the shelves... not to mention bedding. And an underbed box to store the new bedding.... and a nightstand and a lamp....

[hollyhock2]

This is very true. Ours started with fixing a hole in the ceiling and when we were done, we had replaced all the flooring in the entire house, painted many rooms, knocked walls out and I had a new kitchen. It was all stuff that we had planned on doing anyway, but it all started with that darn hole.

[Pippen]

15 hours ago, Garga said:

 

Yup. Shabbiness here, too.  I started another thread about how I have to stop watching HGTV because it’s making me feel really bad about my shabbiness.  It’s not really all *that* shabby, until you spend a few hours watching home improvement shows, and then suddenly, everything seems extra shabby.  

But...I don’t want to get on the Give a Mouse a Cookie treadmill.  So, I’m embracing the shabby and turning off the HGTV.  

Mine is truly shabby and outdated. I have been avoiding doing anything due to finances while kids were growing up and the treadmill, but I'm to the point where I'd feel so much more motivated if I'd just do something. I also have an elbow injury so painting, etc. is out right now. I know it's out of order but I think I'm going to start with kitchen flooring first,. Kitchen cabinets are structurally good so we'll probably paint or reface eventually.

 It's been so long since we've done any flooring I don't even know where to begin. I don't even watch home shows. Where to start? What do you love?

[Garga]

50 minutes ago, Pippen said:

 

 It's been so long since we've done any flooring I don't even know where to begin. I don't even watch home shows. Where to start? What do you love?

I have 8 different types of flooring in my 1400 sq ft home:  2 patches of real hardwood, one wall to wall white carpet that’s so old that it’s gray, 1 room of white ceramic tile, 1 room of laminate wood, 2 rooms of a roll of linoleum, 1 room of some type of dark tile, and an upstairs with shag carpet from the 1970s (I think 70s...maybe 60s.)  (The upstairs is only a hallway and a single room up there.)

On the tv shows, they will do the entire downstairs in the same flooring, which is always some sort of hardwood or hardwood look-a-like (like a laminate perhaps), except for the bathrooms, which will be some sort of tile.  The upstairs is often carpeted, though some people continue the hardwood upstairs as well and use an area rug around the beds.  The idea is that you want almost everything in the house to have the same flooring as it pulls the whole house together.   The hardwood will be a mid-range color: not too dark and not too light.

In a lot of the shows I watch, this is the minimum of what they do to get a house to be ready to sell for the top price in their area:  they will install the hardwood flooring downstairs, the tiles in the bathrooms, and the carpet in the upstairs bedrooms.  They will paint everything a neutral color in the grey range.  They will update the kitchen and bathroom counters in some sort of rock (granite or something like that), and either rip out and put in new kitchen cupboards, or else repaint the cupboards and put on new hardware.  They’ll update the light fixtures in the kitchen, bathroom, and dining room.  

 

 

Edited June 29, 2019 by Garga

[Tap]

For me it started with my desire to replace 18yo carpet. I can shampoo it clean, but the pad is gone and it gets dirty again in a month because  it is old and a dirt magnet. The same carpet is in the entire house, except baths, kitchen, entry/hallway.  We don't really have an open floor plan, but it is laid out in such a way,  that if I make any changes to the living room, I have to make changes to the whole house, because everything can be seen from there (except bedrooms).  Soooo, replacing carpet means 2000sqft of carpet...not a room.  Then the worn out 18yo linoleum will look horrible so that means doing the kitchen, downstairs bath and entryway. The upstairs baths need flooring too because they are missing some caulk and curling on the edges. So add a few hundred square feet of other flooring choices, which now involves pulling up 3 toilets etc.  We desperately need to paint and since the base boards will be off, it is the perfect time.....again...the whole house, including ceilings.  Have I mentioned yet that dh doesn't do household projects...so it is all me and/or hired labor.

And...dd12 punched a whole in the outside of her bedroom door a few years ago and they don't make the same one now, so I need to replace all the interior doors too. The trim and doors are all plain wood-colored laminate so I can't really fake it with something similar. Her bedroom is at the top of the stairs (view able from the entry way) and within 10 feet of 6 other doors.....so all must go!  That means closet doors must get replaced too, because they all match.  UGHHHH> one punch and it is quickly a $1500 project (for cheap doors/hardware).  10 regular doors, and 4 sets of bifolds. I  am considering painting the trim because the entire house is trimmed to match the doors. Even the closets and window casings are trimmed with the same material. I don't want to think about how expensive it would be to replace all the trim.  Painting it will be laborious, but 5 gallons of trim paint and a sprayer will make it do able. 

Then, the kitchen cabinets look terrible.  Truely! Water damage from the builder using the wrong finish has left them looking like they spent some time outdoors!  Ack

My $5000 carpet project is now a $20,000 remodel.

I work one day of OT a week to slowly pay for it all. I will get there in probably two years, but it will be a long wait for carpet that I already saved the money for. LOL

[Ellie]

On 6/27/2019 at 10:53 PM, Tap said:

I want new carpet....enough said.  Ha Ha! Jokes on me!

Oh, yeah...

Two years ago, our two front windows (one in the living room, one in the dining room) leaked during a bad rainstorm. It was crazy. For some reason, it did not occur to me to call the insurance company. And then we had more rain over the next year with no leaks, so there you go.

And then last June we had a rainstorm, and there was leakage, so I called the insurance company. An adjuster came out, and yes, the insurance company would pay to fix the damage around the windows, paint all of the living room and dining room (because although they are separated by an entry way-sort-of-space, they are essentially one big room and it wouldn't look right if only the walls that the windows were on were painted, and...replace all of the hardwood flooring, because apparently there was water damage and it wouldn't be possible to repair only those). Well, actually, they would pay to refinish the floors; but the contractor we hired said they couldn't be refinished, they would need to be replaced, and the insurance company said oh sure why not. And then they would paint all the window sills (very tall windows, which come to about 11" from the floor), paint all the baseboards, and paint/replace all the shoe molding. In the whole house.

Well, see, here in Central Texas, there is a significant area where the soil is some sort of clay stuff, which heaves and pitches and wrinkles when the weather changes, such that ginormous numbers of people have had to have the foundations repaired in their homes. Such was the case with our home. We knew there was damage, but gosh, insurance doesn't cover it, and we just hadn't been able to suck it up and get it done.

However.

We knew that there was a possibility that any foundation repair would involve drilling holes *inside* our house, through the cement and any existing flooring, so when the rain leakage and insurance claim happened, we figured it was time to do the foundation, because we wouldn't want our beautiful new floors damage. So we got a couple of estimates (the back corner of our house was almost 4" lower the the opposite front corner!), and the foundation repaired. Meanwhile, we figured as long as the contractor was going to be installing new flooring and doing all the baseboard painting and whatnot, we should have him repair all the cracks in the walls and paint the whole downstairs; and we had been looking at replacing our plain white formica counters in the kitchen, so yeah, let's do that now; oh, and also, let's put the same stuff in the laundry room; and hey, we had been thinking about stripping the wallpaper in the kitchen and texturing and painting it the same as the rest of the house, so now's the time; and oh, look--we really needed to paint our office because [insert long decorating story] but we hadn't wanted to because the desk was actually built by Mr. Ellie and hung on the wall and we didn't want to mess with that, but since the desk was going to have to be removed to replace the flooring might as well paint it, too...

A small home equity loan later and it all looks pretty good...

[Pippen]

On 6/29/2019 at 1:28 PM, Garga said:

I have 8 different types of flooring in my 1400 sq ft home:  2 patches of real hardwood, one wall to wall white carpet that’s so old that it’s gray, 1 room of white ceramic tile, 1 room of laminate wood, 2 rooms of a roll of linoleum, 1 room of some type of dark tile, and an upstairs with shag carpet from the 1970s (I think 70s...maybe 60s.)  (The upstairs is only a hallway and a single room up there.)

On the tv shows, they will do the entire downstairs in the same flooring, which is always some sort of hardwood or hardwood look-a-like (like a laminate perhaps), except for the bathrooms, which will be some sort of tile.  The upstairs is often carpeted, though some people continue the hardwood upstairs as well and use an area rug around the beds.  The idea is that you want almost everything in the house to have the same flooring as it pulls the whole house together.   The hardwood will be a mid-range color: not too dark and not too light.

In a lot of the shows I watch, this is the minimum of what they do to get a house to be ready to sell for the top price in their area:  they will install the hardwood flooring downstairs, the tiles in the bathrooms, and the carpet in the upstairs bedrooms.  They will paint everything a neutral color in the grey range.  They will update the kitchen and bathroom counters in some sort of rock (granite or something like that), and either rip out and put in new kitchen cupboards, or else repaint the cupboards and put on new hardware.  They’ll update the light fixtures in the kitchen, bathroom, and dining room.  

 

 

Thanks for the heads up on the flooring and room trends.

For those of you with hardwood or laminate floors, do you find that good quality floors are durable?  The vinyl flooring in my kitchen is probably 30 years old and except for the sun damage spots, it has worn exceptionally well. The people we bought the house from said it was top of the line Armstrong at the time.