DIY flooring/trim/door installation

I can’t believe our house currently looks like this.  As you can tell a lot of work has been put into this home already, and we’ve only been in this house for a couple months.  The first thing we did was paint.  We ended up using Sherwin Williams – Requisite Gray which has a warmer tone to it.  We painted almost all of the main level this color except the bathroom.

The next thing on our long todo list was to put new flooring all throughout the main level.  We ended up going with laminate….cost effective and it seemed the best decision for wear and tear especially with 4 kids.   We bought ours from Lumber Liquidators.  The laminate is called Dream Home – St. James 12mm+pad Meades Ranch Weathered Wood.  

The first thing, my husband Blaine had to do was pull the linoleum up.  We even had the kids help.  Boy, was that a pain!

THANKFULLY, Blaine realized he could just remove the plywood the linoleum was attached to using a pry bar.  Therefore, we didn’t have to take hours scraping and pulling the linoleum up.  That would have taken FOREVER!

The carpet in the front room was then pulled up.  Here’s Dylan helping remove staples from the subfloor.

Kids were even sleeping through the construction.  Lennon, didn’t even realize he was being moved across the room.  😉

That night, the carpet in the living room was pulled up.  It was a big deal for the kids to help.

Shoes were a requirement during construction for everyone.  On the left is Mariah wearing her glitter shoes.  On the right is what it looked like right after installation.  A bit dusty still but loved how it was coming together.  Blaine said it was very easy to install, especially with a team.  We are so thankful that our brother-in-laws Tim and Nick helped Blaine install the laminate flooring!

The next thing on the list was painting the trim/doors white.  My father-in-law came down to help Blaine tackle this project.  They did not sand or degloss the trim pieces before painting.  They put 2 coats of Sherwin Williams – Multi Purpose Primer.  They then put 3 coats of the Sherwin Williams – ProClassic extra white paint.  They used a paint brush to apply the coats onto the trim.  Doing the painting didn’t take them long at all.  In my opinion (the female observing of course), it seemed like it took longer to put it back on!  I made sure to mark and even did a map of where specific trim pieces go.  I thought, oh it should be a piece of cake… put it back where it was and nail gun that bad boy.  Instead, every piece really depended on each other.  For instance if the door trim wasn’t placed exactly where it was originally, the base trim might be a tiny smidge off.  If you have 3 base trim pieces to make 2 ninety degree angles, the middle piece might need to be moved more to 1 corner than the other.  Ugh.  Ok, that’s me complaining for a bit. 😉

The doors were also painted.  Blaine DID degloss these.  He used Klean Strip.  Then primed (2 coats) and painted (3 coats) with the exact same products used on the trim (see above).  He used a roller to apply the primer and paint to the door.  I love how you DO NOT see streaks at all!

Here are some before and afters.  I love looking at these.  What a difference!

Now watch for the next post about our kitchen cabinet transformation!