Laying the Wood

We moved into our current house more than three years ago. We got a pretty stellar deal in a seller's market, mostly because the house had been left in rough shape by a divorcee desperate to get out from under it. We got rid of the off-white carpet first thing, then had all of the walls in the whole house painted.

The main floor of our house has new carpet on one half, but a mixed bag of flooring on the other. There's engineered wood in the entrance way, Flor carpet squares in the dining room, vinyl in the bathroom, pantry, and laundry room, and laminate over the vinyl in the kitchen and breakfast area. All of those surfaces are troubled; either worn down after 18 years or just poorly installed in the first place.

So, we got an estimate for new wood floors and I think we're going to move ahead on it. It's too many small rooms and doorways for me to feel confident doing it myself. It would just take too long for all the cuts and fitting.

I can, however, do all the prep and save us close to a grand. Thing is, the prep will include taking out the kitchen cabinets and appliances. I can do it, but I'll have to take pictures and movies of how it was set up to put it all back again. There's a sink and some significant plumbing to consider here.

We tore out and replaced a whole bathroom before, and we put down laminate floors over ~900 square feet in our old place, but I think this project will be our most involved yet. Hopefully, the payoff will be beautiful floors and some extra return if/when we sell the place.