The Worst Is Over

Maybe???

All the flooring is down in both the living and dining rooms, and the furniture is thankfully back in place.  I was nervous about hooking up the TV/satellite box, but it went back together much easier than I thought.  (On a side note, Joey is also happy to have Robin Meade joining him for coffee in the morning). 

We are ridiculously happy with the laminate.  When it comes to bang-for-the-buck, this is probably the biggest change we've made so far in our reno adventure.  I tallied up our receipts and as far as the flooring and assorted supplies go, we're in for about $850 for three rooms of flooring, a hallway, and a tiled entryway.  Door casings and baseboard will run another $125 or so.  

Standing in the dining room, looking in to the living room on a VERY bright afternoon.  Sorry about the glare!

I included the budget to show that you can make a huge difference without spending a fortune.  Granted, $850 isn't pocket change, but when you think that we've improved approximately 615 square feet of flooring, it's pretty reasonable ($1.37 per square foot).   While we're talking money, take into account one important thing:  food.  I would conservatively say we spent $75 +/-  on take-out over the course of last weekend.  I'll be honest - when the house is an absolute wreck and there are tools and building materials scattered from one end to the other, the last thing I want to think about is cooking.  Food for thought, no pun intended!

Tile entryway and laminate floor.  We still need to add the transition piece between the two, which will probably happen in the next few days.

Of course, there are a few things in these rooms to do.  We removed the old door casings and baseboards - yay! Instead of using traditional molding, we're going with 1" x 6" boards for the base and 1" x 4" for the door casings.  We borrowed the idea from Joey's office, which has a Craftsman feel that we really like.

The living room will get a fresh coat of paint, and in a month or so we're framing and sheet-rocking the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room.  Originally, it was open to the living room, but the previous owners covered the pass-through with a lovely chunk of wood.  We used curtain panels to camouflage their handiwork, but it's time for them to go.

We're going to re-interpret The Wonder Wall from The Lettered Cottage.   Joey liked the idea of adding some built-in display shelves for a few of our "treasures." Also on the list is new blinds for the dining room, taking down curtain rods, and giving an old trunk/hope chest a face lift, inspired by Shangri~La  Lane.  Can't wait to get started on that one!

In the meantime, we're sweeping up dust and measuring for baseboards.  See you later, gator!