A look at our wood
Everyday we’re shufflin’.
As I mentioned before, our house has been a bit of a giant construction mess for a few weeks. Totally worth it.
My dad came over and helped the Pilot install wood floors in the master bedroom,
closet
and loft.
Eventually we would love to do the entire upstairs -5 families have lived here before us and the carpet is gnarly- but wanted to start with one large area, see how time consuming and costly it was, and roll from there. After this experience, we’re hoping to finish all of upstairs this summer, making the house carpet-free. Carpet has always kind of skeeved me out -you vacuum and clean it, but it never feels really clean- and our once-white carpet was already grey when we moved in. We’ve wanted to do wood floors for quite a while and finally decided to go for it.
We ordered the wood from Lowe’s
my dad came over with all of his tools and equipment, and the boys got to work.
My dad is a ninja at anything house-related (he designs and builds custom houses here in Tucson), so they were able to crank it out fairly quickly. We’re so happy with how beautifully they turned out, and so thankful that he came over to help us. Now that the Pilot knows how to do it, the rest of upstairs shouldn’t be too terrible to finish later on.
As soon as the floors were finished, we shuffled the rooms around: Liv moved out of the loft to her big girl room, the guest room went into the office, and the office was moved to the loft.
We’re still working on finishing Liv’s room and the other guest room, but here’s the new office. I love how open and bright it is:
Moving her into her big girl room was pretty sentimental for me. We’d had her in the loft -attached to our room- since she was itty bitty, and for quite a few months before that, she slept in the basinet next to our bed. When she moved to her big girl room, I worried that there might be a transition phase or she wouldn’t sleep well, but nope. She sleeps SO much better in an enclosed room… she’s on hour 3 of her nap as I write this post. Of course, I think it would have been easier to just start her out in that room instead of the loft, as it’s not the most conducive for baby sleep, but I’m glad we did it the way we did. We loved having her close to us and it was especially convenient during the era of frequent nighttime wake-ups and feedings. I’ll post a pic of her big girl room when the last piece of it arrives later this week- I love the way it’s coming together!
While our wood floors make the spaces seem much bigger, it also made us realize how empty it still it. As a military family, it’s pretty daunting to make investments for home remodels and decor. You never know how long you’ll be somewhere, and for all you know, you could spend your next assignment in a small apartment while most of your belongings and cars are in storage (which is usually the case in Korea). I’ve gotten over it and decided to do as much as we can to make this house our own, and do tiny things we love, even though we might only be here another year.
At least if we move, our house will be more rent-worthy with some shiny wood floors….
To clean them, I’ve been vacuuming using the brush attachment with our Shark vacuum to get the Caro hairs, + a duster mop, Bona spray with a towel mop:
To protect the floors from Caro marking her territory, we’ve been crating her since the first night they were installed. At first I felt really guilty about it- she spent so much of her life in a tiny crate at the puppy mill- it changed my mind when I saw how comfy and happy she is in there at night. We give her a treat and tell her what a good girl she is, and she walks right into the crate.
Have you done any remodels or decor changes lately? Anything you’d love to upgrade in your abode? Every time I see the shiny gold hardware in our house, I shudder a little.
Hope you’re all enjoying your day so far <3
xoxo
Gina
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the flooring looks amazing! I would LOVE new flooring and new kitchen cupboards. pretty much everything needs redo-ing here, but those are the main ones.
They look great! After having hardwood, we will never be able to go back to carpet.
Also, don’t feel guilty at all about the crating, we’ve had to crate our pit mix at night since we got him, he is very attached to me because of his past (we were his 4th family in under a year 🙁 ). He would not just sneak into bed with us at night, but I would wake up with him stretched out on top of me. For the sake of everyone’s sanity, into the crate he goes each night, and now he loves it…cooshy bed, yummy treats, and lots of attention before bed.
Looks great! Beautiful bedroom.
I love the floors! My parents replaced their carpet with hardwoods (laminate, actually), and I really like the way that it looks!
we have all hardwood floors in our place, which i find SO difficult to keep clean. enter the best christmas present ever from my parents – the roomba! i named him walter and he’s my favorite cleaning robot ever.
So jealous of your closet. I remember when my fiancee first got out of the Marines and we settled into a place thinking how little stuff we had. We had never actually bought anything more than the essentials since we never knew how long we’d stay put! Hope you get to enjoy your beautiful home for a long time =)
My husband and I are looking to purchase our first home and everything has either dirty carpet or ugly tile throughout the home… so I know down the road there will be a wood flooring project for us too!
I love your chest of drawers – such a cool design!
thank you! world market 🙂
The floors look fantastic! And I am very jealous of your huge master bedroom. I haven’t remodels buuuuut I should be soon – we are in the process of buying our first house 🙂
Loving the wood floors! We had them in our last place and I’m really missing them. Especially when the dog has an accident. While I prefer carpet in the master bedroom (mama likes it soft!) hardwood makes more sense in the rest of the home. Maybe our next home will have it! Got to love those military moves!
The wood floor looks awesome! I love how wide the planks are! We remodeled our master bath at our old house. It was hard work, but totally paid off in the end. Renovations are always stressful. We are currently renting since we just moved again (I know you can relate to that), so we can’t do any major remodels. 🙁
Those look amazing!!!! I’m so excited to buy a house in a year(ish) so we can remodel and make it our own.
Oh, completely unrelated but – I was in Bikram tonight and the teacher was talking about how your reality is perspective during one of our savasanas. Her example was that we might be burning up right now, but in Arizona this feels like a nice spring day. My first thought was “I bet that’s not what Gina is thinking when she’s in a Bikram studio” haha.
So, this has nothing to do with today’s post, but on my way to work, I was listening to the radio, and they have trivia every day. Today’s question was where is the #1 place people fall in love. Turns out, it’s Starbucks. Thought you and the Pilot might find that interesting.
Have a great day!
no wayyyy!!!
thank you- you too!
Hi, the floors look great! Is that a floating floor or a glue/naildown hardwood?
it’s a floating floor- the pieces lock in together.
Love the new floors! And don’t feel bad about crating! Dogs are den animals and it will give her a safe place to go if things get too loud or something’s going on that she doesn’t want to deal with. Plus the bonus of fewer accidents is always great!
Best thing for hardwood floors…..Swiffer Vac ~ around $30.00…..so worth it. Your floors look beautiful.
The floors look fab! I love the colour of the wood.
Are you trying to tell us that you are moving to Korea? Did I miss something?
The floors are gorgeous just did the same color!
nope but it’s a possibility! we have no idea what our fate is 😉
I had a feeling you might have meant something by that….when will you find out? What are the other possibilities or do you know yet? I ve read from the beginning and look forward to following you on your next adventure:)
no idea at all! so for now, it’s fun to think and what-if together 🙂