This next project was the biggest one, both in terms of time/effort and in its effect. We took up the carpet in our family room area and laid hard wood floors. We intend to lay the same hardwood floor in the front dining and living rooms as well.... but that's someday in the future. (To me that means 6 months from now. To Luke that means in like 2 weeks. He's definitely more motivated than I am when it comes to all these projects. I am burned out, but my man is like the Energizer bunny and wants to work,work, work. I complain about it now, but I am grateful for his ambition and drive to keep us motivated and making our house a home.)

Luke's dad was once again a huge help in this project. He helped us tear up the carpet and begin laying some of the floor.

We got into a pretty good rhythm where I would decide which boards I wanted placed where, get them all laid out for Luke who would then spread the glue and lay the boards. Then while he was placing the boards I would prepare the next row. We got the routine down rather quickly. All in all, the floor-laying process really wasn't as intimidating as it sounds. The hardest part was cutting around the round part of our stair case. Laying the floor took about 1 1/2 days total.

 

 Didn't it turn out so pretty?

Another difficult part was making sure all traces of glue got wiped up. Between laying and preparing and gluing and cutting, it was easy to get gluey fingerprints on the boards. It was important to wipe up any trace of glue otherwise we were left with this foggy appearance. Luckily we were able to get rid of the smears by using Mineral Spirits and just through foot traffic.

This really wasn't as bad/hard as I thought it was going to be and it was fun to discover another project that we were capable of doing ourselves!