According to B and his pops, ugly orange-rust carpet removal was super easy (I was in the kitchen washing a shitload of dishes and begging any deity who would listen for the means to purchase a dish washing appliance during that step). But alas, it turned out the hardwoods beneath the ugly carpet were not so pretty after all. Super disappointing.
After discussing our options with my Father-in-Law and Hubs, we all decided that it would be the best decision to just buy laminate floors instead of refinishing the existing floors (Option A: put down laminate. Option B: spend a fortune putting down new carpeting. Option C: spend a fortune refinishing the floor). Father-in-Law broke it down like this: it would take over a month to re-finish the floors (because he only comes over on Sundays to help us with our home improvements), there would be no guarantee that they would turn out nice, and the cost of renting the sander and dealing with staining and sealing the floors would all be a pain in the behind. As much as I would have loved to preserve the original hardwood floors, it just didn’t make sense. After very briefly mourning the hardwoods that would be no more, I went into research mode, looking up our laminate options at Home Depot and Menard’s. Realizing that online prices can sometimes be too good to be true, we ventured out to the stores to see what we could find that would *hopefully* not break the budget.
We started at Home Depot in the clearance section, where we found a viable option in a medium finish, but it wasn’t perfect. Our ideal flooring was a darker cherry finish, so we went into the full priced flooring section, which we quickly realized was a mistake. To put down a full priced laminate floor in our 9’x13’ room, it would cost us over $300 for the flooring we liked. Not going to happen. For comparison’s sake, we decided it was time to head across the street to Menard’s to see what they had to offer, keeping our choice from Home Depot’s clearance section as the front runner. Menard’s had several more reasonable options, and we all agreed pretty quickly on Tarkett Newport Laminate in Walnut Exotic Cherry. At $25.99 a box (sale price), we only (ha!) spent $193 on the flooring, and it looks awesome (even in it’s partially finished state. It will be completed next Sunday. I will be very angry if it isn’t).
The addition of laminate floors moves the total spent on this project up to $260. Over our budget of $250 and still not quite complete (we need to replace the blinds on both of the windows), but the room looks a million times better, so I think we’re okay with the overage.
Here’s a [blurry-ish] iPhone picture of a finished corner of the room as a reward for reading this saga.
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