quarantine home projects :: new flooring and fresh paint :: fireplace update

We’ve had a flurry of productive days of quarantine and then we have just as many days off as we regroup. Our biggest project that we jumped into quite quickly was putting in new floors. We had a friend who was off work and able to help us so we didn’t think twice and started ripping out our old carpet and moved forward with vinyl plank flooring. It’s something we’ve been saving to do, but we weren’t sure when we would have the help we needed. I’ll give you the most dramatic BEFORE and AFTER picture first….the realtor foreclosure listing picture of our very dirty house from 2008 and NOW.

A slight disclaimer as I start this post…we only review items we can stand behind on this blog. While our flooring looks amazing, we didn’t feel confidence in our abilities to install it. Heirloom Oak Luxury Locking Vinyl Floor Planking didn’t make us sing it’s praises from the installation side of things. The videos make it looks like it was going to be much easier then it was. We are happy with how our flooring looks and we are hopeful it will hold up well.

1 year edit: The flooring has not held up well. We are requesting our money back and really hope that the company will stand by the warranty. That would make me feel slightly less disappointed that we have not had a good experience with the quality of this flooring.

I have had strong feeling about the fireplace from the moment we made an offer on our house. It wasn’t a deal breaker, but the lack of symmetry drives me batty. Painting the bricks has helped, but my ultimate plan is some pretty shiplap ideas I’ve seen on Pinterest. We did take out the hearth because we had a very dead space that we couldn’t use in the corner. Here’s a mantle DIY: we cut the extra flooring pieces to size and glued them to the mantle. It’s not fine craftsmanship, but it looks so much better then it did. Don’t forget, I’m the one with sticker backsplash from Tic Tac Tiles in my kitchen. I’m all about a clever way to make something look nice without spending money.

I have to give my husband a shout out for a great Mother’s Day gift. The mason jar fairy lights are perfect on our clock wall. I’m trying to decide if I need decoration above and behind the TV in the corner. I’m a bit stumped if anyone has any suggestions. There are some oddly angled walls that all come together.

We made the decision to make our floors one continuous flooring. We previously had tile in the entry, carpet, and a laminate in hallways and the dining area. The transitions were all constantly broken and it made our small house more divided up. Our hope was that we could make our home feel bigger. I was happy to find this rug last year, knowing we would hopefully do our floors and need it. Here is the link to Rugs USA.

I did a very light grey paint in a hurry the night before we installed floors. It’s amazing what fresh paint can do for a room. My DIY wreath has found  a home on a different wall if you remember that post.

We also found a new way to arrange our furniture so we had more open floor space. Do you recognize the Costco 6 piece Couch? That couch gets more social media interaction then any post I’ve ever written. I wish I was a Costco couch salesman because I could quit my day job if I was pulling in a commission. It’s  a really fantastic couch and so far it’s held up very well. We have had it for a few years.

With this arrangement, we did cover up our fireplace, but as we shelter in place, we are enjoying the extra floor space that this configuration provides. We will move things around again in the fall when we want the ambiance of our fake fire (our fireplace is heavily damaged and it’s usually too hot for fires in California). If you would like the glow and crackling of a fire without the heat, I recommend this Amazon find.

We live in a small house, but it’s ours and we have been so blessed to be able to do a project here and there through the years. We’ve had to be patient for the big projects like flooring, but it’s worth saving up and seeing it come to fruition. I love to experiment with our décor and try new ways to arrange each room. I’ve been that way since I was a little girl moving my bedroom around. I’m sure I drove my mom crazy. 

I hope you have been inspired to knock a few things off your TO DO list as your spend more time at home. I finished painting the front of our house, but that’s not exciting. Actually, I should be ashamed because we started it 9 years prior and I finally got the trim done! If you have a project you’ve been avoiding, I’ve found it’s quite rewarding when it’s accomplished.

Here is the FULL scope of this flooring project, I do have this video of all the before and after and progress footage. I’m a bit of a over-sharer, but we are loving our updated space and I know I enjoy seeing my friends update their spaces. I hope you are all hanging in there as we continue to what feels like endlessly shelter in place.