New Bedroom Flooring

Last Saturday morning, we removed all the furniture from our bedroom. Then we ripped out the 60 year old carpeting, padding, and tarpaper.

In our zeal to rip out the carpet I forgot to take a “before” picture, but you can see the old carpet in the closet there across the room next to the carboard box. It was a mottled gray green and worn down to a nub in places.

Underneath was the original board floor. It was in bad shape. There was water damage to some of the boards and scorching on others. Being right next to the bathroom we figure there must have been a water leak or bathtub overflow at some point and the water ran under the wall damaging the bedroom floor. And they must have had a wood stove too, hence the scorch marks. They had also painted most of the floor a yucky brown except for a square in the center. I guess the thinking was, “no need to paint there – we’re putting down an area rug.”

So Harland’s brother, Gerald, helped repair the floor.

Then they went over the board floor with thin sheets of plywood.

The old board floor was very wavy and bumpy and we needed a smooth underlay for the new floor.

By the way, you can have a world of fun with a small piece of crinkled up aluminum foil and a silly cat.

All you have to do is throw it above her head. She loves to play catch. And she thinks it’s fun to chase when it “tries to get away”.

Anyway, next we masked and painted all the woodwork and the bedroom door.  It was in bad need of a new coat of paint.

Finally we were ready for the new floor. It’s a vinyl floating floor that comes in strips 6 inches wide and 3 feet long.  Each strip has a sticky edge that adheres to the adjacent strip. So the strips stick to each other, not the floor.

The strips are flexible which makes them easier to install and even have a wood grain texture which makes them look incredibly realistic.  Several years ago, we ripped up the carpet in the kitchen and installed this type of flooring. We used the “cherry” look there. A couple years later we used the “pine” look in the living room, and for the bedroom we’re installing the “oak”.

One evening this week I came home from work to see that Harland had worked his way halfway across the room, in between doing his regular farm chores and watching for new calves.

The next day he finished laying the vinyl strips.

Then he installed stained wood trim along the edges of the floor.

And today was “moving in” day.

We’re so pleased with how our new floor looks, but more importantly with how easy it will be to keep it clean. Not only was the carpet older than us, but I wasn’t able to clean beneath the bed because the vacuum cleaner wouldn’t fit.

You should have seen the awful dust-bunnies under there. We have one of those Swiffer vacuum things and it does a wonderful job of keeping vinyl floors clean, AND it fits under the bed so no more dust mite farming for us.

With both of us having allergies, we’re breathing easier tonight with our CLEAN new flooring.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo