laying our floors {& our sources}
Blood – yep.
Sweat – yep.
Tears – big yep.
It took us a month, but we finally finished our floors. Everyone asks why we decided to do our floors ourselves. Wouldn’t it be easier to hire them out? Yes, of course, it would be easier! Did you want to do them yourselves? No, no we did not. So, why? There was a lot of floor to lay and not a big budget.
We saved close to $7,000 by purchasing our own wood flooring and installing it ourselves.
This is where my kitchen sink will be one day…progress photos.
It was a big debate what kind of flooring we were going to put in the addition. I really wanted concrete, but we are on a crawl space, so that was not an option. Our downstairs already had 2″ white oak floors. My favorite local coffee shop Laurannae Baking Co. has beautiful 4″ white oak floors that always caught my eye. It took me a while, but I finally decided to do both.
We opted to keep the 2″ white oak downstairs. The 2″ flooring was Grade 1 (highest quality) and what we put upstairs was Grade 3 (lots of imperfections and holes). The nicer flooring made sense for downstairs with food and more traffic. Since it was Grade 1, it was also more expensive.
I ordered the 5″ boards from Native Character Hardwoods (only on Facebook) for $1.59 per sq ft. There was a small delivery fee and we had a crew of tweens ready to help us unload it all…and my dad…and my super strong friend Cindy. It was hard, heavy work.
Chris ordered the 2″ boards from Hardwoods4Less.com The wood was shipped to a transit company and Chris picked it up with a trailer…and we unloaded it. Crossfit – functional fitness. (Make sure you have a big enough trailer for pick up). 
Our friend Nick of BA Restored had a floor nailer he let us borrow and we got to work. Laying the floor was easy in terms of the technical side. It was not easy on the back!
The boys helped us lay all the flooring downstairs, upstairs, and they are still finishing up the attic. Friday afternoons and nights were flooring parties. We made 10pm runs to Sonic for shakes, had pizza delivered way past dark, and I taught them all the best 90s songs. There is new meaning to Hammer Time now.
It was important to me that the boys learned to lay flooring and that they do it alongside Chris and I. There is an appreciation for things that comes when you do it yourself and you fully understand all that goes into something as simple as a floor. They were tired, exhausted, and pretty proud of what they accomplished.
We used Woodwise Powdered Wood Filler for filling all the tiny gaps and such.
Once the floors were laid, we rented sanding equipment and spent hours sanding. After the sanding, I stained the downstairs floors using Dura Seal Country White. This was the same stain that was on our original floors. We knocked out parts of the living room wall and had to create a seamless transition between the house and the addition. So much work.
I stayed up until 4am staining the floors. It was terrible. I didn’t do all-nighters in college. We woke up a few hours later and realized there was an issue with the sanding and everything had to be redone.
That is when all the tears were involved. I was so upset over the hours wasted and that we were going to have hire someone to do the sanding/staining anyway. Ugh.
Well, we hired a crew…and despite being pros, there were additional mistakes made. It was just a big mess. There are still areas on the floor that drive me nuts every time I see them, but in order to get them right we would have to re-do everything a 3rd time. I’m working on letting it go. Its pretty disappointing and frustrating though.
One night I couldn’t sleep because I was so frustrated about it all. Frustrated over the time wasted. Frustrated over the additional expenses. Frustrated over areas that weren’t done right.
Then I was frustrated at myself for being so frustrated and upset over wood floors. I’ve sat in homes with dirt floors and it was not lost on me how ridiculous it was that I was feeling all this. Ridiculous.
In the end I was trying to deal with minor disappointment while being extremely exhausted physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Not a good combo.
I got some sleep and things are much better. The ‘mistakes’ still drive me nuts because that is just part of my personality (hello to all my fellow Ennegram 1s)!
But, I’m moving on.
Here is a side-by-side of the downstairs and upstairs floors. It is hard to get the colors to look right. They look better in person.
We opted for the white stain downstairs because I liked it so much from before. We also chose a commercial grade sealer because our house is basically like a business with the amount of foot traffic around here! We used a water-based sealer to prevent the floors from getting an amber hue.
Upstairs we just did a satin water based sealer. We did not hire any help for the upstairs. We opted for a more affordable sealer, knowing we still have more floors to lay upstairs and will need to tie them all together (sand a bit of sealer at that point). Our budget also meant we needed to go the less expensive route upstairs, but I am incredibly happy with how the upstairs turned out!
OUR SOURCES:
Downstairs Flooring
2″ White Oak Flooring from Hardwoods4Less
Wood Filler – Woodwise Powdered Wood Filler
White Stain – Dura Seal Country White
Upstairs Flooring
