Just because we’re busy working doesn’t mean we’ve stopped all our projects.  This summer, our main focus has been improving the outside of our house…particularly our backyard.

Actually, I call it a backyard, but it is really a big deck and a postage-stamp sized patch of grass.  For purposes of this post, the grass is unimportant.  Let’s focus on that deck…

Hmm. Yeah.

Actually, you might remember that one of my Houseolutions this year was to give the deck a little makeover.  We’ve had our eyes on a product at Lowes called “Restore” for a while.  It promised to resurface the deck and seemed pretty easy to apply.  So, one day we just bit the bullet and picked up the supplies.

We read a bunch of info online before deciding on this product.  Based on reviews and the Restore website, we figured we’d need 2 of the big buckets to cover the deck (we ended up having leftovers, but 1 wouldn’t have done it).  We also picked up the stain so we could make sure the rails matched (the resurfacer is not recommended for vertical surfaces).  As far as color, we ended up going with one called “Timberline” (below).  Once you pick the color, the paint dudes at Lowe’s mix it into the product and stain, just like you were buying paint.

We started by prepping the surface.  The product recommends power washing but we went ahead and skipped that part out of laziness/lack of power washer/not wanting to wait for it to dry.  Instead, we used a leaf blower and broom to get as much dirt off as we could, and used a small sander to even out any rough spots.

Here’s some evidence of why we needed such a heavy duty product…nail holes, cracks, and huge spaces between some of the boards…

We used some caulk to fill in some of the bigger spaces, just to give the stuff something to stick to:

Pretty sure this counts as cheating in the deck restoration world, but I don’t care.

So once things were all prepped, we got to work on applying the first coat.  The general consensus with online reviews is that it goes on like sandy paint.  Some reviews recommended watering down the stuff to make it easier to apply.  Almost all reviews recommended against buying the Restore-brand special roller.  In the end, we skipped the pricey roller (instead using a couple of roller covers made for painting stucco, so they were nice and thick) but also didn’t water anything down.  I don’t know about the recommended roller, but if you use regular ones you will definitely need a fresh one for each coat.  This stuff destroys rollers.

Anways, we started rolling on the first coat…

And of course had the same reaction that you’re having right now….something like, “wow that’s super orange…”  Yep.  Sure was.  Don’t worry – it mellowed and darkened with a couple of coats.

The consistency was also just what we expected…thick, sandy paint.  Here’s a close up of a thin first coat we put on the top rail:

And after a couple of coats:

The instructions recommend 2-3 coats, so we painted ourselves off the deck* and took a break.

(*when we painted ourselves off the deck, we also painted ourselves away from the only unlocked door to our house. Typical.)

Speaking of the above picture, you can see the rails and other places where we ended up using the stain instead.  We just applied it with a small roller and it basically covered the old deck color in one coat.

Anyways, by the end of the afternoon we had a couple of coats on and most of the hard work was done (this stuff was not the easiest to roll on…maybe watering it down would’ve helped a little?). I’m happy to report that it really did a good job of a covering splinters, nail holes, etc.  After going back and touching up with the stain, our deck looked totally different.

We still want to paint the fence, but that might have to wait til next summer.

That’s it for this one! Enjoy the weekend

Vastly improved (in my opinion), but still lacking some decor.  Before the makeover, that back wall had been home to a bunch of random canvas paintings I picked up at thrift stores (here’s one that looks so sad and awkward…also, a lovely reminder of how the kitchen looked pre-makeover):

For a change, I asked Bryan to make me a couple of narrow ledge shelves to display random stuff on the back wall.  He had some scraps laying around, so he whipped up two 4 foot long shelves from using 1x3s (for the back and bottom), and a 1×2 (for the front facing piece, creating the ledge).  A few minutes later, we were leveling them and screwing them into the wall.

We didn’t worry about filling the nail holes, since it would be so easy to cover them with the frames I was planning to display.  Once they were attached to the wall, I taped them off and gave them a couple quick coats of the same semi-gloss white paint I used on our cabinets and trim:

I swear these are level, despite how they look in the picture below.  It’s impossible to get a straight-on shot of this room for whatever reason…

And here’s a little dressed up shot, nail holes and awkward middle-of-the-wall outlet nowhere to be seen.

Nice improvement, eh?

-katie

Yeah. That’s totally not supposed to happen. Welcome to living in an older home.

A short background story:  our current house is not actually the first house we bought.  We were originally under contract for another house in the same area, but the inspection came back that the entire house had knob and tube wiring.

We felt like we knew plenty about the perils of K&T…I mean, we watch Holmes on Holmes, after all…and Holmes don’t like no knob and tube.

Long story short, they refused to fix it and we refused to buy a scary fire trap house with outdated wiring.  Our current home seemed to check out in that area, and we’ve really never had any issues with it besides the occasional  flicker of the lights when we have all our appliances running (if you’re going to comment and tell me that’s not normal, I already know and am open to suggestions on how to fix it for little to no $).

Anyways, back to this situation.  I, being a dutiful housewife, was doing laundry one afternoon. I normally don’t like to leave the house with major appliances running, but it had literally been 2 hours since I started the two cycles and I just assumed it had finished.  I came back from running errands and heard the dryer….odd.  Came down to the basement to find the dryer still running (clothes dry but relatively cool), and this in the washer:

Awesome.  I was able to turn off the dryer by opening the door and stopping the cycle, but the washer was unresponsive and I couldn’t drain it.

The next day we called our home warranty folks, and they sent out a washer/dryer technician.  That’s when the gentleman pointed this out to me:

Umm…..ok. I’m no expert, but I’m just gonna go ahead and assume that the prong isn’t supposed to be charred.

Yeah…same goes for the outlet.   I guess I shouldn’t be totally surprised…I mean, our dryer doesn’t even vent to the outside…just to this blocked opening in the wall (we did NOT do this, by the way):

Can anyone with knowledge on this tell me if this is really a hazard, or is it ok for it to vent into the house? I can’t tell if it’s a major problem or not.

Another warning sign probably should have been this interesting contraption, which is what all the electrical components feed into right above the washer/dryer:

I did a little research and Wadsworth has been around since 1904…and this box was probably one of the first things they produced. As it turns out, the washer/dryer tech couldn’t do anything for me because it was an electrical problem.  Guess I should have been clued into that when the washer AND dryer stopped working at the same time.  And here I was thinking the appliance fairy had smiled down on me and I would be getting a brand new washer and dryer.  Silly Katie.

An electrician came out the next day and calmed some of my fears, saying that the outlet was probably just loose and causing friction, creating the burn marks (and not horrible deteriorated wiring just waiting to burn us to death in our sleep).  He quickly replaced the outlet, plug, and a couple circuits in the scary box, and we were back in business.

So, sadly, I’m still stuck with these beauties til we win the lottery or they break down.

And while we’re on the topic of appliance maintenance, apparently letting your filter get to this shade of gray is not recommended.

Lovely blog stalkers – any appliance horror stories out there? I know we aren’t the only ones..

-kt

Alright so we’ve definitely been neglectful to our little blog here.  I blame it on a couple of things: first, I started a real big girl lawyer job which has been taking up some of my free time (thankfully!), and secondly it has been FREAKING HOT and not at all conducive to house projects.  Lastly, we’ve had an adorable new addition to our family in the form of our new Godson – Foster Jacob!

But don’t worry, we’ve been getting plenty done around here too, and I just uploaded a bajillion pictures as evidence.

I’m not sure where to start, since the next several posts will not be in any type of chronological order.  I think I’ll dedicate this post to a little table makeover I did one afternoon.  My mom picked up this table on clearance at Kohl’s a couple of years ago when I got my first apartment:

I really want to wrap up this basement project, but I feel like the projects just.keep.coming.  Luckily, in “real life” it is finally all finished, but in blog land there’s still a couple little things we haven’t shared yet.  Hopefully I can get them knocked out in the next few days so we can finally move on with our lives. Sound good? Ok, here we go…

So this post is basically a photographic progression of the built-ins that we added to the back wall of our basement…remember this lovely area, complete with a random “what is this??” block in the corner (for more about the beginning of this project, check out this post):

Never content to just paint a wall, we decided to add some built-in storage across that wall to add some architecture to an otherwise pretty plain space. Since I’m not really up on all the details of cabinet making, this will mostly just be pictures with my ingenious descriptions.  Let’s be honest – you probably just scan the pictures most days anyways. If nothing else, pay attention to how much progress we make in the basement while making relatively no progress on the cabinets.  There’s a reason this post took so long!

Here’s the base that we built after painting, starting the ceiling, and installing the beadboard/trim, but pre-floors:

Oooooo look! Progress! Floors, furniture, and some cabinet carcasses (FYI: Bryan told me that the “bones” of the cabinet are called “carcasses” and I straight up told him he was lying.  Turns out he’s right…I only believe it cause I heard it on the Nate Berkus Show, and if Nate says it, you know its true).

Fine Strawbridge craftsmanship (no, seriously….it’s legit):

Here’s a close up of in interior:

I gave them a couple of coats of the same white semi-gloss paint that we used on the beadboard…you can see it in the background.  This is how we were living with the room for a good couple weeks.  Notice the little decorative boxes and candle we set up to try to disguise the weird corner block. Fancy.

Here’s the last bit of the lower cabinets installed and waiting for paint…and check out the wine fridge in the far right cabinet! And yes, that’s beer inside that we were trying to cool down.  Classy (and, as it turns out, ineffective).

It was finally time to paint over the black tile-esque top on the corner block, since it would be visible when we opened that cabinet:

So after giving the final cabinet a coat of paint, our built-ins needed a top.  You may remember our precarious trip home from IKEA, resulting in this situation for the 2 hour drive…

Notice the cardboard mass taking over the upper half of the photo?  That’s the countertop we brought home, and here she is partially unwrapped. Yeah, somehow we fit that in the Tahoe…but just barely.

Here’s the info packet if you’re interested in the type we purchased, and here’s the link to the IKEA page about the countertop.  This is one of those things where IKEA is an amazing resource…the 96 inch countertop only set us back $69 and we think it looks pretty amazing!

It was a little longer than we needed, so we had to cut it somehow.  The instructions suggested using a hand saw, so that’s where we started after measuring the cut line and covering both sides of the countertop with painters tape to prevent chipping.

The handsaw method flat-out sucked.  It would have taken all day. Enter, jigsaw.

We popped the countertop on with a little glue and some screws on the underside to hold everything in place.  We had also added some more beadboard going up the wall to create a back for the next project…bookcases!

I’ll spare you the details (since I don’t have any pictures), but here are the bookcases up and painted, along with some crown molding across the top to finish off the look.  These still needed some caulk and paint touch-ups, so ignore the messiness.

Alright…home stretch! We touched up the paint/caulk around the bookcases and decorated them with empty picture frames (anyone else do this? I just haven’t found the right picture yet…oops):

…added some cabinet doors (also made by Bryan…he’s so handy to have around):

And FINALLY this project is finished! (Ignore the glare on the wall…It’s not a crazy painting mistake, I promise)

Eventually we’ll find some baskets or other chotchkies to fill the open shelving, but for now this is it.

Don’t worry – there’s only 1 basement post left and then we can all finally move on with our lives. Til then…

xox,

katie

This is just a quick post about a project that got overlooked during the whole basement reno.  If you remember, we have 3 little windows in the basement…here are two of them, on the day we decided to start randomly ripping up baseboards:

Midway through the project, we decided to add 1″x3″ boards to the windows as trim to bulk them up a bit:

Then we painted the boards in the same white as the beadboard for a nice finished look:

(Wrigley was checking out the sweet windows)

So, the windows looked great, but something was still missing.  If you scroll back up to the first couple pictures in this post, you’ll notice how much sunlight comes through those tiny windows during the day.  Considering we planned to use the basement as a TV room, the extra light posed a problem.  But, being that it is a basement, the last thing I wanted to do was add thick draperies that would block out all of the natural light. Hmm….

I had seen several tutorials online about making draperies out of drop cloths (yep, the canvas style ones you can buy at Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc.)  At first I was skeptical, but after seeing results like this…

And this…

…I was ready to give it a shot. Of course, I wasn’t going to add full length curtains to those tiny windows, so I decided to loosely follow this tutorial for no-sew roman shades using tension rods.  The result I was going for looks something like this:

First, I picked up a drop cloth at Lowe’s…I think this package was about $13 (and I have TONS leftover):

Next, I measured the width of each window, adding an inch to each side for a seam allowance.  Next, I measured the height of each window and added an extra ~8 inches (can you tell I’m not an expert at this…?) to allow some extra fabric for the “folds” of the roman shade.

Next, I fired up my iron (which I only use for projects…last time it was for these DIY Superhero Capes) and ironed folds around the sides to act as finished seams:

I didn’t want to mess with trying to sew these seams, so I picked up a cheap roll of iron-on seam tape from Target…

…and followed the package directions.  It worked wonderfully and left me with finished edges all around the shade and a pocket at the top for the tension rod.

I threaded the tension rod (the cheap-o ones from Lowe’s…I’m sure you can also find them at Target, etc) through the top pocket and adjusted the rod so it fit in the window opening. This picture shows how much fabric I was working with:

Then I used another tension rod and placed it a few inches below the top of the window, in front of the curtain:

Then pick up the fabric behind the lower tension rod and pull it over the rod to create a little flap:

You could continue this process as many times as you want (or for as long as your window will allow).  I realized at this point that I only needed one extra rod per window (besides the top rod holding the whole thing in place), so I clearly used too much fabric at the beginning.  Instead of taking it all down, removing the excess fabric, creating a new bottom seam and putting it all back in place, I just folded it under and tucked it in the open space of window.

I didn’t hate the way this looked, but I didn’t love it either.  It kind of bothered me that you could so easily see the seams and folds due to the amount of light that passed (or didn’t pass) through certain areas.  But I didn’t want heavier fabric because I liked that some light was still passing through into the room.  So, in the end, I ditched the middle tension rod and opted for just a plain shade with the extra fabric tucked back.  Eventually I might cut off all the extra and finish the bottom edge, but for now they are working out just fine.

What do you think?  Do you prefer the “roman style” shade or just the plain shade shown above? After this project, I’m definitely planning on trying to use drop cloths in the future for full length curtains throughout our house.  Til then, we have a bunch of new projects coming to the blog soon so keep checking back!  “Like” us on Facebook to get even more updates!

xox,

katie

So, I know we’ve stretched this basement project over way too many posts, but here’s another one (and it’s not even the last one…by far…get excited). This time, we’re tackling the basement staircase.

One of my first memories of this house is the overwhelming smell of dog on this staircase.  As I may have mentioned before, our entire home is hardwood floors with the exception of two areas: the guest room closet, and the staircase to the basement. Totally random, right?  Although carpet is comfy-cozy, it also holds onto odors and dog smell was no exception here.

(Disclaimer: Despite our current pet situation, I am totally a “dog person”…grew up with them, love them. Believe me when I say that I’m not over-dramatizing the whole dog smell thing.)

Could we have tried a carpet steamer or deodorizer? Sure.  Are we that practical? Absolutely not.  Besides the smell, it was also kinda dirty looking and run down.  Here’s a shot of the staircase before we touched it (and a lovely reminder of the original red paint color):

Also, notice the bannister and how unnecessarily bulky it is. Easy fix right? We figured we’d just remove it and replace it with something more our style. Here’s how it went to down (complete with inner monologue):

“Hmm…no visible screws. That’s ok, we’ll just gently pry it off the wall using this nice chisel…”

“Just a littttttttle pressure and surely it’ll pop right off…”

“$&*%^$*%*$$*&$”

“…….“

“Oh hey wall innards!”

Ok, so that bannister didn’t go down without a fight…and some serious damage to the drywall. But hey, no big deal.  Lucky for us, we had a guy coming to install drywall on the ceiling at the bottom of the stairs (a topic for another post), so he patched up those little blemishes while he was here.

So, moving on to the dog carpet.  I had the bright idea that there must be really nice hardwood stairs under the carpet, and wouldn’t that look lovely?  I decided that I’d just rip the carpet and pad off (super easy, right?), sand them down a tad, and viola! New hardwood stairs. Great – let’s get started!

“I WAS RIGHT! Hardwood! This will be a piece of cake…except for those pesky staples with the carpet fibers attached, but those will pop right out according to every other blogger I’ve ever seen do this to their stairs.  I WIN!!!”

“Oh wait…there are a LOT of staples. Are there gonna be that many on every step? And they aren’t exactly popping right out…actually, they seem kind of stuck.  WHY ARE THERE SO MANY STAPLES?!?!?!?!”

Yes…I discovered that there were that many staples on every step, and then some.  When I could actually muster enough strength to rip up the carpet and access the wood (remember….millions and millions of staples), I discovered a war zone underneath; rusty staples that would break in half with slight pressure, nails everywhere, and a tack strip which splintered into a million pieces (each having to be individually pried off) when any force was applied.  A few hours and only a couple of steps later, I began to rethink my brilliant idea.

Luckily I have a roommate who has more upper body strength and patience for this crap, and a couple of days later we had this:

(I also painted the formerly red staircase walls white, to make the staircase appear less cave-like. Yes, I was messy with the paint on the steps…I don’t care.)

By this point, we had long since given up on the idea of keeping the stairs as hardwood.  Besides the fact that they were riddled with nail and staple holes (and some nails that we just flattened into the staircase because we couldn’t get them out), the color was all wrong and there were gaps between the stairs and the wall (almost all were much bigger than what you can see in the above picture…think 4-5 inches).  Carpet it is.

We’re not so bold as to think we could install our own carpet, so we gathered three in-home estimates from both local and national companies.  We ended up going with Lowe’s…they were the least expensive, plus we just like them and basically live in their store.

(Begin Rant) One guy who came from Empire Today patronized me for saying that I wanted to discuss their estimate with my husband before agreeing to schedule the installation (aka hedging because we still had two more people coming to give estimates).  He said something along the lines of how I must not be “allowed” to spend that much since I had to check with my husband first, then tried to give me grief because I didn’t end up buying the carpet and he doesn’t get reimbursed for mileage for driving all the way to my house, located squarely in their service area.  Shock of all shocks, we didn’t go with them. Poor form, Empire Today. (End Rant).

Within a few days, we had lovely new carpet, sans doggie smell and stains:

The carpet and installation ended up costing around $375, which was way more than we were expecting to spend on this little project, so be forewarned if you want to try this yourself.  Maybe give the carpet steamer a chance? I’m also wondering how much more it would have cost to have them remove the old carpet…I definitely would have paid it looking back on that hellish experience. But, that being said, we’re very happy with the way it looks and feels.  We’re still on the hunt for a bannister, so we’ll give a little update when the staircase is finally finished.

So, the big question to my ladies…ever been in a situation like I had with the carpet dude? How did you handle it? Do share!

xox,

katie

Hey All!

I normally don’t post on Saturdays, but our wedding photographer created a fun little competition and I happen to be more competitive than most

She has a cute little studio in Broadripple (for non-Indy residents, it’s an artsy area of town with lots of restaurants, bars, and local businesses) and created a little Facebook competition to choose the next BIG canvas for her studio window.

See those pictures on the left? That could be us! Fun, huh? (and maybe we’ll get the canvas afterwards…hey, a girl can dream). Anyways, the picture she chose to be part of the competition is this fun shot, from our wedding in October:

(Click the pic to see more of our wedding pictures on Sara’s blog)

Pretty cute right? I love that it’s one of the few pictures where I got to show off my shoes  This was part of a series of golf cart pictures we took at our reception venue (a golf course, obviously).

Anyways, we’re up against a few other great shots, but if you’re so inclined click the link below.  It will take you to her Facebook page where you can leave a comment under our picture, which counts as your vote. Afterwards, check out her website…if you’re searching for a wedding photographer, she’s wonderful!

Click here —> https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150777526921757&set=a.10150777496641757.468482.89182541756&type=3&theater

Voting ends Sunday at 5pm. Thanks friends!

xox,

katie

Cincinnati ties into this post in another way, because it also happens to be the home of our nearest IKEA. As part of our basement makeover project, we decided to bite the bullet and buy all new furniture.  Remember, it was where all our old, mismatched furniture had gone to die? See some of the “before” pictures here.

So, after some deliberation, we decided to venture east and stock up at IKEA.  I know…we’re adults, not college sophomores. But….we’re cheap budget conscious, and the swedish wonderland has a number of options that are higher quality than a $7.99 table that looks and feels like it is made out of cardboard.  We wanted a comfortable-yet-modern looking basement on a budget, and found plenty of options that fit the description perfectly.

As a reminder, let’s take a look at the empty, finished room:

Since IKEA is such a trek away, we wanted to make sure that what we brought home would fit in the space.  That’s where a free website called floorplanner.com came in really handy.  We put in the dimensions of our room, and played around with different furniture layouts based on the dimensions given on the IKEA website for the different pieces we were considering.

We knew we wanted at least a couch with a chaise lounge.  Then the practical side of us said that we’d probably both want our own lounges (I know, spoiled), so we wanted to see if there was any way to fit both in the room.  After playing around with a few layouts, we decided this was our best option (not totally accurate to scale, but close enough):

As far as what furniture dimensions to use for the floor planning, we decided we liked the Kivik line from IKEA…specifically, the loveseat + chaise combo:

And an additional chaise, just for fun:

Of course, we (Bryan) picked the most expensive cover (Teno light gray), but let’s be honest, it looks good.

After picking up these two pieces (and tons of other stuff of course), we attempted to load it all in a Tahoe.  This literally took almost two hours, which included unpacking everything because the BOXES took up too much space.  Anyone familiar with IKEA will know that they are known for flat-packing all their furniture to create the smallest possible package.

Not small enough, apparently. IKEA should take a lesson from us on packing effeciently…

The drive home was less than comfortable, especially with a huge countertop piece (seen in the very top of this next picture) over my head for the entire two hour drive. (Psst: the countertop is also going in the basement, but that project isn’t finished yet…sad day.)

Upon our arrival home, we unloaded everything and prepared for an evening of allen wrenches and stick figure assembly instructions:

So, are you ready to see it all set up?

Are you sure?

Ok, here it is!

We lovvvvve it and have been spending so much time down there!  Besides the sofa/chaise, here are a few more items we picked up to complete the room:

Two Dalfred barstools, which we are using as little side tables (and extra seating in a pinch):

The Hemnes TV unit:

(still kind of unorganized in this pic…sorry!)

And this cool lamp that reminds me of something you might find at Restoration Hardware:

So there ya go! Just for fun, let’s take a look back at what we started with:

And after:

Hope you all like it and enjoyed following this project! Don’t worry about going into Strawbridge basement withdrawal though…I still have a few more details to share about this project, and of course we’re already busy working on new things around here so keep checking back!

Speaking of blogs to check out, remember how I mentioned the awesome people we met at the wedding last weekend?  Well, one of those people happens to be Megan from the amazing blog Pink to Green.  We had a great time discussing all things blog related (over a couple cocktails, of course!) and I was blown away by pictures of her beautiful home and a ton of helpful tips for staying healthy and eco-friendly.

I mean seriously….I love her house:

And her adorrrrrrable puppy

Be sure to pay her a visit.  I’ll also link up her blog on the sidebar so you can find it anytime!

Whew! Long post!  Thanks for sticking around….catch ya on the flip side.

xox,

katie

Last week I mentioned that we wanted to replace the old checkerboard vinyl sheet flooring:

Since we have hardwoods throughout the entire house, our first instinct was to look at hardwood or laminate options.  However, we quickly realized two things.  First, although we’ve never had any water issues in the basement, there’s always the possibility.  In fact, there was a drain in the middle of the room that the existing floor had been cut around to leave open.  We didn’t want to invest a lot of money in flooring that could easily be destroyed with moisture.  Second, because of that drain and a couple other weird features, there are places in the floor that are reallllllly uneven.  Uneven floor + rigid laminate planks = disaster.

We briefly considered carpeting the room, but it didn’t solve the possible water damage issue, and we would’ve had to hire someone to install it instead of doing it ourselves.  Luckily, around this same time we discovered vinyl planks that have the appearance of wood. It’s less expensive than the other options, is waterproof, and easy to install.  The planks are also extremely flexible, so they would follow the unevenness of the floor instead of creating gaps underneath.

The flooring we chose is Lowe’s Style Selections Vinyl Plank Tile in Cherry:

Here’s the box for anyone who is looking for it – like our ceiling tiles, our selection was somewhat based on what Lowe’s had in stock…this seems to be one of their staples so there were plenty of boxes available:

Each plank is 6″ x 48″, and they are literally peel-and-stick.  Installation was super easy – I did it by myself in one afternoon.  I started on the longest wall and did a “dry run” of sorts to see how many planks I would need to get across the room:

Luckily, the dimensions of the room worked out to where I could fit exactly 5 planks in the first row without having to make any cuts.  Here’s the first row after I installed each plank – you can see how the seams basically disappear:

Starting in the 2nd row, I cut a plank in half and started with that 24″ piece to stagger the seams.  I continued in the 48″ – 24″ – 48″ pattern for the first piece in each row, but if I were to do it again I probably would have added a third length to break it up even more. Oh well.

I will say, we certainly had our doubts about vinyl floor, but about half way through laying the planks I started thinking that it was looking pretty decent:

The only part about this project that was a little tricky was working around corners and angles.  Luckily, these planks can be cut with an Exacto knife or good scissors, and a little measuring helps a lot.  Here, I used the paper backing from the plank to create a template for cutting a piece to fit around this corner. Very scientific:

So that was it! Super easy.  After the floor was in, we spent the evening painting and then installing the baseboards (another project where our new nail gun came in handy).  I painted them ahead of time so I wouldn’t risk getting paint on our new floors, which meant we only had to do small touch-ups from the nail holes. We made sure to pick a style that was tall enough to hide the gaps between the paneling and the floor…these are around 4″ tall:

And I lovvvve the way the paneling looks with the new floors:

So, here’s a mini reveal of the room with all the biggest projects completed (and with my $20 Lowe’s rug…holla!):

Not bad considering what we started with (don’t get confused, this picture is taken from the opposite side of the room.  We still have some surprises left, including what we’re doing with the back wall in the picture below):

Stick around this week for a few more posts about the staircase, the bar area, furnishing the basement, and a few new building projects.

xox,

katie