We literally just purchased a new house in New Jersey last week. The whole house was covered in carpet, which as owners of 2 long-haired cats, is a complete nightmare. It also doesn’t help that all of us have cat allergies. Why do we have TWO cats? Beats me, but I cannot live without my babies, so they’re here to stay. After closing the house, we had to start our whole renovation process. Like I said, the house was covered in carpet. Other than the kitchen and the bathrooms, everything. Closets, basement, storage space; everything. Guess what? Hardwood floors are crazy expensive. They are usually around $2-$5 per square foot. Sounds pretty cheap, right? Imagine trying to cover a house that is over 2,000 square feet with hardwood floors that cost $3/square foot. Plus, the cost of installation usually costs about the same, if not, 1.5 times the cost of the floors. Luckily, we had connections with a contractor, who agreed to help us with the floors for a very good price.
Now that we have a contractor, we need to figure out what floors to get. At first, we wanted grey-toned floors to have a more modern look. Then, my mother wanted more classic mahogany colored floors. We ended up going for mahogany floors. Now, it was time to find floors with a smooth feel that wasn’t going to get us bankrupt. Me, being the queen of good deals, found a complete steal on Lowe’s for mahogany hardwood floors for $2 per square foot. This is literally an impossible price to find for hardwood floors, but these floors were on a huge sale! We found an underlayment that was recommended by the floor company, and we were good to go!
Of course, this world would not let us off that easily. Our contractor had convinced us that the underlayment from the carpet was fine to use for hardwood floors, in fact, it was even better! Well, we trusted him and went with it. The floors for the living room took about a day and a half. We drove to Jersey to take a look at the floors, only to find that the cushioning on the floors were out of this world. It did not feel like hardwood floors at all. If we were to put any heavy furniture, it would have probably split.
My mother somehow convinced the contractor to re-do the floors. Re-do as in remove all the floors that took a day and a half, remove the underlayment, remove staples and nails, and redo the floors. He agreed under one condition: we have to pull all of the staples and nails out. Seemed like no problem at first. At first, it was all okay. After two hours, my wrist started to become sore. Then, my back started to hurt. Then, my head started to hurt. After a good 6-7 hours of extracting staples and nails, we managed to make the whole living room nail and staple-free. That day, I went home with dark circles down to my chin. I was so pale, I took some vitamins and went to sleep.
Two days later, the floors are re-done. They look great. They worked on the second floor and the basement. All good. Now, this is all the work until today. Starting tomorrow, we will be working on the bathrooms, stairs, and the kitchen. I really wonder what other obstacles will be waiting for us in the future. I really hope I don’t have to remove any more staples or nails from the floors. Hopefully, we will be able to move in by Christmas. I guess time will tell. All I want for christmas is… no more issues with the house. Thanks, Santa!
