Monday, December 19, 2011

the kitchen floor...finally....

the kitchen floor was a long time coming....we lived with builders grade vinyl flooring in our kitchen for 9 years.  it was ugly, stained and gouged.  when we bought our home it was a new build spec house.  it was done except for the flooring and countertops. so we got to pick those.  that was way before i had any design sense blogs and pinterest were around.  i wanted to extend the wood flooring that was in our hallway (which you can see beyond the dark floor)
 into the kitchen but the builder told us the cost of doing that would be $3300.00.
what???  uh, no thank you...
so we went with the cheap vinyl flooring.  it was fine in the beginning but it went bad fast.
when i just couldn't stand looking at it one minute longer, we decided to redo the floor.
the timing sucked though, because don had lost his job a few months before and we really could not afford to put wood flooring in.  i stumbled upon a blog where someone had redone their floor using a wood grain peel and stick vinyl plank that was 4 x 36 inches.  it looked great and it was really inexpensive.  i researched it and read reviews from people who used it.  they had it at lowe's, and at a dollar a plank, it was something that we could afford to do,
if at least as a bandage until we got real wood flooring.
we installed it
we were impressed with it
and it looked great.
for about 6 months.
then it looked horrible.
it shifted and separated at one end and overlapped at the other.

despite what we had read about this product, and all of the reviews, our kitchen looked like crap.
and it scuffed something awful.
i know it was inexpensive, but c'mon, really?
we contacted the company by email and i sent these pictures to them.  thankfully, we had kept our
receipt, we sent a copy to them and they refunded our money.  with no questions asked...hmmmm, i wonder how many times they had to refund homeowners money!
we took that money put it toward the wood flooring i waited 11 years for.
  lumber liquidators cocoa birch hardwood
don started ripping up the old flooring and what a bear that was....we had installed the vinyl plank flooring directly over the original vinyl flooring so we had to take up two layers.  the original builders grade flooring was really glued down.... wow!
it took the better part of a week to get it all up but it was finally done.
my brother-in-law came over and helped get us started on the new flooring and show us how to use the nailer thingy with the hammer...
which scared the dickens out of me at first but made the flooring go in really fast.
we did have a problem with the nailer because if it wasn't lined up just right on the board,
it would chip it.
fortunately, i was able to sand (because they were slivery) and stain these little marks and you could not tell the difference.

they finally let me try the nailer and i finished the floor at the doorwall when don was at work.

here is how it started out last year...
i loved it at the time but...
i was really ready to lighten it up....
and here is how it looks now....

i think it looks great.
finally!!!
i finished painting the bottom cabinets the day before we started installing the floor.
i think they look great too....
the color is more like the above picture than the one below....

the rubber band on the door is because my dog thinks that the trash can in there is a snack bar....
i found some cup pulls for the drawers that have a victorian feel to them.  now i just need to find knobs to match....
sorry about the white balance differences.....said the photographer  :D
i finally got the trim up on the top cabinets. i dry brushed them with cream paint because i had sprayed them with a darker paint than the lower cabinet paint and i was too tired, lazy, busy to repaint them.
(i fixed the discrepancy above, though)
 i am very happy with the floor.
except.....
it is really dark. which means that it shows every speck of dust and dirt.
but hey, it is the cleanest floor around because i am constantly dusting, vacuuming or washing it.
and it looks beautiful....
finally!!




33 comments:

Anne said...

What an ordeal! It looks absolutely beautiful, and I'll bet you are just lovin it.

We have some scratches here and there from our dog on our hardwoods-- and they're only a year old! Hoping we can smooth them out and touch up where we need to...

Amy Chalmers said...

It does look great! YOu must be thrilled it is finally done!! I love dark floors and white floors~hubs and I put in a wide pine plank floor and I used that stapler nailer thing for the boards...and I realized I missed my target on a bunch of them and had the nails showing through the wood and had to do it over....ugh. So I totally get that part! The kitchen looks so pretty, ready for the holidays now.

Musings Of A Gem said...

I'm glad you finally got the floor you wanted after such an ordeal with it all!

It looks so nice! Your Kitchen is beautiful.

I love seeing men hard at work : )

Merry Christmas!

Gemma x

Unknown said...

I love it. And yes, it can be an awful ordeal. I love he dog looking, probably thinking, thank goodness I don't have to help. lol
Enjoy yr new floors and Happy Holidays to you and your beautiful family! xo J

Handyman in London said...

Perfect way to repair wooden flooring. Thanks for sharing with us!!!

Rebecca Miller said...

"Wow, that is a very fancy house Aunt Cindy."
Caleb

Rebecca Miller said...

I love your taste:) It looks beautiful.

Kristin @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia said...

Your kitchen is amazing and beautiful! I just love it lighter, brighter and the contrast of the floors is perfect! The floors look identical to ours, oh the dust :(
Thanks for linking, I'll be feauting you tomorrow.
XO
Kristin

Jennifer @ Town and Country Living said...

Your kitchen is beautiful and I really like the color of the flooring. Dark floors just make everything else pop.

Linda @ It All Started with Paint said...

Oh, I so very much love it! I'm pinning this for inspiration. My cabinets look like your before. I did that last year, but now I think I need white & gray like you (I have a beautiful quartz/Silestone bright solid white countertop.

And we are both featured over at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia today ... the post is up!

Renee said...

What a difference! It's beautiful...love, love, love the light and airy feeling. Loads of work, but in the end this was well worth it...you should feel proud.

Noble Vintage said...

really pretty! I like the light colors :) the couch that you have at the table is spectacular. nicely done!

Jenny said...

What a beautiful, light and bright space! You must be enjoying every minute of it after all of that hard work! Well worth it!

SLR said...

it's so pretty! what a job that was to paint over those black cabinets...they look amazing!! love the floor and your pretty furniture too!!

Amy R. said...

I love it! We got dark floors too and they do show dirt but it's worth it, right? I want to paint my bottom cabinets gray. What color did you do yours?
Thanks!
Amy
athomeamy1@windstream.net

Cristina Garay said...

Yeah! it looks like a lot of work but I know that at the end of the day it's all worth it!! Good job! it looks amazing!

Pamela said...

Wow! What a great makeover! I feel your pain and now how long it takes to finish such a large project. We ripped up our flooring in our home last April and it was not finished till mid July. Mind you it was the main living areas of our home. Drove me insane but now I am in love! Again heart make over!

Cathy M~(checkitoff) said...

gorgeous...just beautiful! the whole kitchen!! enjoy, cathy

KellyH said...

Your kitchen is fabulous. I'm just starting the process of painting my cabinets and thinking of a color like your lower cabinets for most of them (painted the island black.)
Your new floors look great. I feel you about them looking dirty so quickly we had dark wood floors in our last house and it was impossible to keep them clean. Especially with a crazy dirty 80lb dog drooling and putting foot prints all over!!

Chrissy @ Adventures in DIY said...

Wow, wow, wow! Your kitchen looked great with the dark cabinets, but great with the lighter color. I absolutely love your new floors also. Great job!

Anonymous said...

Why did you lay your hardwoods against the sun, instead of with it? Was there a design reason for this?

Dee said...

Your kitchen is GORGEOUS! I LOVED the super dark cabinets & the whole time I was reading your post I was saying to myself, "NOOO! why would she repaint these again?" Then I got to the re-remodel & omgosh they are BEAUTIFUL! Love your floors too! :)

Keshet said...

It looks beautiful!!

Lisa said...

I think black chairs look great in a kitchen. On a side note that dog is huge.

London Builders said...

I like the way you presented this project. Very good job, looks great

Peter Cillins said...

A kitchen is the most important part of the house and needs special attention. Wow, your kitchen was in the worst condition! It's better you change the flooring. It's looking too good after you finished it. Remodeling need to be done so that you can get the best out of your kitchen. Thanks for sharing it.

Square Limo Blogs said...

Nice article >thanks to share this
handyman london
handyman se1

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