Carpet. Throughout.
It was my worst nightmare, yet I still wanted the house. They told us there were hardwoods under the carpet, so we were hopeful we could afford the refinish. We even had a guy come by and give us a quote. He had said probably $3-4,000 for the downstairs, but there was no way to know for sure until they saw what was really underneath.
Josh finally got motivated to start what would take us months to finish… well technically we’re still not finished. 😂
What we found in the sunroom was promising. It was unfinished and there was some water damage, but it looked like it could be saved.
Check out our “Sunroom
Re-do” here.
But as we moved into the living room and dining room- we found what would make some homeowners ecstatic…
Oak hardwood, with a pine inlay. In the dining room, the pine was marred by years of what we believe was likely linoleum glued to it.
There was a lot of detail…
No doubt it was beautiful, but it also was going to make this a much more expensive job. Something that just wasn’t in our budget.
Remember, Josh was still in school full-time at this point and I was the sole breadwinner supporting our family with a second child on the way.
So after much debate, we decided to install Pergo floors for two reasons.
One, it’s much cheaper. But two, it would protect the hardwood underneath until we, or future homeowners had the money to restore.
We went with Pergo’s Bainbridge Oak from Lowe’s. Josh had installed laminate flooring in the basement of our first home so I knew he could handle the job.
[See our Michigan basement transformation here.]
I love the realistic look and texture it has! Pictures do not do it justice. The one draw back to the Bainbridge Oak is that it doesn’t have the underlayment attached (that’s what that silver stuff is underneath) so it’s an extra cost and extra step in the process. However, my husband said it didn’t really make installation any more difficult.
Check out our $50 fireplace facelift!
We are very pleased with the finished product. We’ve had people ask if the floor is wood. It’s holding up well to our pets- a cat, a yorkie, and a golden doodle who was being potty trained during all this!
The Unapologetic Working Mom 
It looks beautiful. We are looking at the same floor for our home. How long have you had it now, and how is it holding up? Thanks!
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Hey Amy! We’ve had the floors in now for about six months. They are holding up well. Pretty much look the same as when we installed them and they’ve been put to the test by our pets- including our big golden doodle who has been potty training (and having accidents) on it. Also, lots of things dropped and spilled on it by our 4-year-old with no marks left behind. The only negative, but this is with any laminate and even with the hardwood floors, when you have a bad winter like we’re having, you have to swiffer a lot because you’ll see the salt residue left behind from people walking in and out. I love these floors though, and just yesterday I had someone ask if they were the originals or if we had them refinished (thinking they were real wood floors).
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