New Floor

Whew...it's feels like it's been a long time since I've posted pictures.  At first I couldn't find the camera transfer cord....then I found it.   But then, I realized that my battery was dying and I tore my house apart looking for the charger.  Then Dorene (my mother-in-law) called and asked if I was looking for my charger - I had left it at her house!  I just got it back from her this weekend....so I am back to snapping numerous pictures throughout the day and will post them.  Another factor is that I've begun teaching online classes through DeVry and I use a different computer than the one that we keep our pictures on.  Oh goodness, so many excuses!

Anyway, a few weeks ago we got back from vacation (recall the cold Phoenix weather, so not the warm vaca we were planning on, but a nice getaway, nonetheless).  We got back Saturday evening on Valentine's Day.  Our dog, Buddy, was still at Bill & Dorene's so we figured we'd have a nice, relaxing Valentine's evening with Logan.  We always enjoy walking in our house after it's been vacated for more than a couple days...it usually smells so nice and new (even though our house is 17 years old).  Well, this particular walk back in to our house was different.  We were greeted with a moldy-water smell...not cool.  We walked into the kitchen thinking we'd left the garbage full...but nope, it was empty.  When John walked back into the entryway (he had taken his shoes off), he said...oh, it's wet.  I thought perhaps I had walked through something wet in the garage and tracked it in....but no.  He had a look on his face that I hadn't seen since our last house - a flood.

Yes, it appears that while we were away our hot water heater (which is in our laundry room right next to our carpeted family room) decided to leak....OVER HALF of our lovely carpeted family room.  About a week ago, I had noticed a small puddle in the laundry room.  I told John but we both just figured that the drain pipe had moved and wasn't going directly into the drain - sounded logical enough.  Erg...not so much.  Who knows how long before we left it had been leaking....slowly underneath the wall and into our family room.

We were not too happy - who would be?  In our last house we had a basement, which flooded plenty of times (one of which ruined all my childhood memories which were in boxes....tip: use plastic bins for everything!!!).  John did not want a house with a basement for this very reason...but now that it is clear that a house can flood with or without a basement, we may get one in our next house.  :)

So, now instead of a nice Valentine's evening with our son, we spent the evening doing a house project.  John drained and removed the old hot water heater while I got our steam cleaner and started sucking up water.  Approximately 2 hours after sucking up water and feeling as though I was getting nowhere, we thought we should pull up the carpeting.  We knew that this move would inevitably lead to replacing the flooring, but we had wanted to replace it eventually.  Well, under the carpet, the padding was just drenched - no wonder why I was getting nowhere.  I proceeded to suck water up that way - much better.

The next morning John went to Home Depot, got a new hot water heater and installed it himself - great.  I continued to suck up water for several hours until we needed to go pick up our dog.  Over the next several days, I steam cleaned with cleaner, then a rinse cycle, then just sucking up water, and repeat....several time (at least 7).  We'd let it dry over night with several fans.  It just wasn't enough.  Our carpet still smelled bad.  John described it as stinky feet...eewwww.

After making sure we had a free weekend, we went to Menards, got some laminate hardwood flooring and underlayment and went to work.  Last weekend we spent Saturday ripping up the carpet and padding and scraping the glue from the carpet-tape.  Sunday we  laid down the hardwood...Buddy was there every step of the way with his face very close to what we were doing...what a helper (that is debatable!).  It looks great!!!  We still have transition pieces and baseboards to install, but the floor is done and is livable.  We also got enough flooring to do our Living Room as well...that will be another weekend in another month or so.

BEFORE (you can tell where our L-shaped couch was...on the left)

AFTER