This Old House

Pedro and I bought our house knowing that it needed a LOT of TLC. (Airplane bathroom anyone?) It's a good starter house and we do love it here, but sometimes we shake our heads and wonder what the heck we were thinking? Last winter we were blessed with a little extra money so we decided to pick something from our long list of house projects. The floors in the kitchen, dining room, living room and entrance seemed like the best choice. Of course, it was the middle of February and everything was covered with snow so we completely forgot about our eyesore of a front yard. We tore it up our first summer here to put in a mandatory city water line. That is a whole other story. Anyways, we installed wood laminate in our living room and tile in the kitchen, dining room and entrance. Here are some before and afters. I think it turned out pretty well and I am super proud of Pedro for all the hard work he put in. He will be the first one to admit that he is no handyman. We couldn't have done it without the help of many friends.

The chipped, dingy, stained slate floor that greeted anyone walking in the front door. My dad couldn't understand why we would EVER get rid of such an expensive floor.

The new wood laminate and our favorite rug.

Putting in the laminate flooring.

It doesn't look too terrible in the picture, but the white carpet was very stained and dingy. It also stunk. We steamed it several times before moving in.

A shot of the carpet and the old vinyl tile linoleum. The glossy finish was almost completely worn off and it was peeling and cracking around our stove and fridge.

Loving the tile.

I actually love our vintage cabinets, but I don't love the mustard yellow sink and gold-flecked countertops.


When we put the tile in, it raised our floors up about a 1/2 inch and as a result the cold air return vent on one of the kitchen walls didn't fit right. Six months later we still haven't bought a new one. And that brings me to the main point of this whole long renovation story. I was making dinner one night in July and Sam was playing with his ball popper. Next thing I know I hear "Uh oh." I turn around to see that he has thrown one of the plastic balls down the cold air return never to be seen again. At the time I remember thinking, "Huh, that could be interesting when we fire up our furnace in the fall." Yep, every morning when our heat kicks in Pedro and I are greeted with the sound of that ball pinging throughout the vents.