Well, as I mentioned earlier, we had the floors torn out of our office, and had the joists completely rebuilt, with a new subfloor to boot. James and I talked about getting carpet in there, since we didn’t think we could afford hardwood floors; especially after the $3500 it cost to have the floors fixed. Well, after I met with the carpet installers, James felt that we could install the hardwoods ourself, and save a bundle of money. Initially, I was VERY skeptical, but after we talked about it, I agreed to give it a go.
So, earlier last week, we started installing the hardwoods in the office. We bought these really beautiful pre-finished oak hardwoods, which ran us about $700 total for all of the wood. It is a “lock and tap” system, where you lock it in place, and then use this wicked looking nailer to permanently hold the wood in place. James started out doing it by himself, but I agreed to help out yesterday.
We started about 2 o’clock, and worked right up until 9:30. We finished just in time to return that wicked nailer back to Home Depot, and by the end of the day, we were exhausted. I don’t know how people do that for a living; intensive labor doesn’t even begin to cover what we did. Today, my back is incredibly sore, as are my legs and my arms. We worked our asses off, but the end result, is a beautiful new hardwood floor in our office for a fraction of the price we would have payed someone else to do it. I am glad that it is over, but like MUCH of our other home improvement projects, I really don’t think that I would do it again. Now, I have to paint the office, and James is going to install the baseboards and quarter round, and we will have our office looking better than ever! AND, it will have a STABLE floor for once.
Seriously, though, I took some pictures of the joists that were “holding up” the floor when they pulled the subfloor off, and I cannot believe that we didn’t fall through before now. It was insane. I am so glad we did it, and I am so glad that the hard parts are over. Now, to do the little parts, clean up, and REST. I am wiped out! It is time to take off my weekend warrior hat, and get some rest; my back deserves it! I’ll get some pictures of the office once it is painted and everything truly is done… until then, the above picture gives you an idea of what we had to do!