Well, we finally did it. We finished the floors. (And all God’s people said AMEN!!!!) From the day we first viewed the house, we knew that new floors would make the biggest difference of all the aesthetic plans we had.

Remember the floating laminate and floral lineoleum? Yeah, me neither. (Probably because I have definitively blocked that portion of the programming from my brain.)

Getting the old stuff out and leveling our subfloor was a bear. Thankfully, Andrew is a rockstar and his brother, Will, was such great help!

The hardest part to remove was the 40 year old mortar bed in the foyer. A lot of grunt work and math was required to make everything level for the new floor. We also has to remove a layer of cork board which ran throughout the remainder of the downstairs.

We chose a stained white oak to match the wood-look tile in the kitchen, and I cannot tell you how pleased we are with the results. Dan Johnson Flooring Co. (out of Nashville) laid the new stuff, and I would absolutely recommend their crew. Knowledgeable, efficient, and proficient.

By day two, things really started to come together, and all of a sudden *poof* it was done!

We have been working hard since the contractors left to get the baseboards back in. As of last night, everything is done!! Mama is a happy, happy girl.

And now it looks like we just moved in because I have been slowly selling our old furniture off over the last few months! Mom is coming in June for a decorating bonanza, and I just am beside myself with giddy about fixing this place up.

You may also notice that we replaced the doors! The French doors that were original to the house leaked terribly – hence the picture above where you can see Andrew replacing the floor joists. We will hopefully put a big porch on the back of the house next spring, so we opted for a slider door (much better seal) with that same French lite look. We have one more door into the garage to replace, and that part will be done!

So much better!

You may ask “Why in the world did you wait so long to do this?!” In short, Andrew and I made a promise to each other when we moved in that we would not go into debt over renovating a house. It would have been really tempting to move into a gold, wallpapered house two years ago and immediately rack up $60K+ in debt fixing it up. We have had the benefit of time in our corner, and thankfully were not forced into that decision. I totally understand that sometimes people don’t have that luxury, and it has been a blessing I don’t take lightly to work on this house together as a family and do it debt free. We’ve learned a ton and had more than a few laughs along the way! I do not say this to toot our horn; just clearing the air for everyone who has asked (yes, that has happened) or has wanted to ask! Our motto for this, from day one, has been to do it in a way we consider financially responsible.

Because of all this jabber above, we were able to sneak off to the Dominican Republic for a week to recover! It was such a wonderful time of rest and fun (without the kids!) THANK YOU to the grandparents who have helped us so much over the last month – we could not have done any of this without you.

Thanks for following along, y’all! I’ll keep you updated on all the good stuff along the way!