Flooring Fun!

We've been in our house now for almost four years, and we've been wanting to redo the flooring ever since we moved in. Eventually we'll take out all the carpet and (hopefully!) put in Pergo, but we decided to start with the kitchen and dining room. There was dark green and brown linoleum in there that some of our family and friends liked, but we definitely did not. The good thing was we both agreed that it needed to go.

Michael has been the push behind all of our home improvement projects (I always think of more fun things to do like read a book, go for a hike, watch a movie, clean the bathroom . . . ), and really, I am thankful for him. Because of him, I have freshly painted walls in the kitchen, dining room, living room, upstairs and downstairs hallways, and two bedrooms, as well as the laundry room. I also have a new washer and dryer, stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, front and back doors, microwave, toilet (!) and a really cool faucet that will be installed when we buy a new kitchen sink sometime in the future. So, I am very appreciative of all the improvements--I just have trouble getting motivated to do them!

About a month ago, Michael started pulling up the previously mentioned ugly dark green and brown flooring downstairs. We picked out some beautiful cherry wood Pergo at Lowe's and debated doing the whole downstairs in it. After we got the stars out of our eyes, we realized that it would just about blow our whole home improvement budget. So we decided to use it just for the entryway and then do the rest of the floor in "Harvester Slate" linoleum. The name doesn't really do it justice--the squares of tile are several shades of brown and tan, and remind me of what you might see in a Tuscan villa. Very nice.

Here are some before and "in-progress" pictures of the flooring project. Enjoy!

The not-so-chic brown and green flooring (nicely complemented by Michael's RC helicopter and Chloe's food and water dishes)

The entryway after the linoleum and subfloor have been removed.

The special paper that helps provide insulation.

The new subfloor! Chloe loves to lay on it.

Did I mention that Michael has done almost all of this flooring project by himself? I helped with the ripping out of the old floor (which involved a crowbar and lots of elbow grease) but other than that, it's all him. I'm very proud!

Stay tuned for more pics and flooring updates!