J Cooper Photography

Someone told me this weekend to keep posting pictures of the house projects.  Am I boring you yet with the white paint?

Well then…let’s carry on (if you shouted a resounding “YES!” you might skip over this post although it IS more about flooring and less about painting but there is a certain white theme that seems to run rampantly through my posts these days).

Way back at the beginning of December my in-laws came.  I guess I never shared that week’s progress in the laundry room.  I’ve never had a legitimate laundry room before.  Closet, yes.  Scary basement dungeon, yes.  Teeny, tiny cubicle, yes.  So this is my first foray into the world of laundry rooms.  Three cheers for a laundry basket tower!!  And cubbies with a hook for each little person! Since this picture I have since primed the entire room in…wait for it….WHITE!!  And then I stalled out because we got distracted by other projects.  But I will be sure to share as soon as this one is wrapped up!

Last weekend the menfolk decided to get cracking on the flooring we ordered for the living room.  We debated flooring for several months for that room (as well as the family room).  The living room had white-ish carpet.  And for once…I was a white hater.  It was Granny-ish and stained and ULTRA plush which was chanelling my inner 90s girl…but despite my best attempts to bring back the matching Aqua Net bangs (I ROCKED THOSE BAD BOYS!) it had to go.

The fireplace got scooted out of the way…and out came the carpet and pad.  It was back breaking work (mostly for me as I was on kid duty the entire time) and took the men much longer than anticipated.  But we saved oogles of money by DIYing it ourselves.  THE GOOD NEWS:  The floor is in!  THE BAD NEWS:  We have to do it all again in the family room!

We went with a pre-finished wood flooring for several reasons.  We have solid oak flooring throughout the main level in the new house.   It’s been down for 20+ years and has been refinished several times.  We debated unfinished 2 1/4 wood that would be stained to match our existing flooring.  But we were scared of the dust and fumes (we’ve gone that route before) and worried that in the end we still wouldn’t have a perfect match.  So we opted for pre-finished flooring in the same color tones but in a compeltely different style.

Enter 4″ hand scraped hickory.  I love you.

We got a great deal at The Nebraska Furniture Mart (I love stores that utilize the word “mart”) and saved about $3000 by installing it ourselves.

Meanwhile, our dining room has become the holding ground for displaced furniture.

Then we turned our attention to the walls.

The boards and battens started going up.  I’m fairly sure I won’t be board and battening our entire house.  I’m fairly sure I will likely never tackle another board and batten project as long as we both live.

We used primed 1×4 MDF.  It really wasn’t that difficult.  But I’m not a spatial kind of gal so determining the placement of each board was killer for me.  I invited my Mom over for dinner and then held her hostage until she helped me measure and place each board.  If you are one of those gal that can find your parked car after leaving the mall, you’ll probably be just fine at this project!

She’ll be pretty when she’s all…purple.  (psych!)  Oh, white, white, paint…how I love thee

The room is ready for painting now!  Who’s coming over during naptime tomorrow to help me knock it out?? Anyone?  Anyone??

And just in case this overly wordy post has you thinking that we are just steam rolling ahead….please know that with all projects come disaster.

My craft room.  Case in point.

I promise to post tomorrow about lost teeth, or baby haircuts, or my laundry routine for all of those white paint haters out there

Hasta leugo mi amigos!