Floored — x3

Once the railing was in place, we had to race to prepare for the next milestone of the remodel: carpeting.

Step 1 was to tile the entryway. We thought, Bigger Tiles = Smaller Time to install. As with all our “it won’t take that long” estimates on our do-it-yourself projects, we were wrong.


It took three full weekend days. On January 31, we prepped the area, including moving stacks of stuff yet again, trying to somewhat level the floor, screwing down HardieBacker® Cement Board, cutting tiles with our wet saw as needed, troweling on thinset mortar, “buttering” the tiles, placing the tiles, adding spacers…

After 10 hours, we had half the entry done. The next day, with more than six hours invested to finish the other side, we were able to watch Super Bowl. The tiles magically matched up with the poplar stair surround. The following Sunday, we added grout.


Last Saturday, we fixed the holes in the floor with metal plates, thinset and new plywood. Matt tore up and removed the remaining old carpet. Yuck! ...And a million other exhausting details.


Our reward? On the February 11, Tony’s crew expertly installed our Oceanside style GreenChoice carpet by Kraus—recycled content backing, recyclable and the Carpet & Rug Institute’s highest Indoor Air Quality rating. And it lined up perfectly with the tile. Perfectly. It is soft, beautiful and the Silver Star color changes hue depending on the light, sometimes greenish and sometimes grayish.

We seem to have become a “no shoes upstairs” family. Now I understand our Aunt Theresa’s mom and her disdain for seeing Matt’s footprints across her “sacred” carpet.

There is, of course, a Domino Effect to making improvements. Our terrible vinyl flooring in the kitchen was no longer going to be bearable. So before seeing the Devils win on January 30 with Frank and Diana, we ordered cork flooring in a store up the street from their home.


Yesterday, we spent another seven-plus hours on our hands and knees installing the Toledo style German-made UniClic Kork-Fußboden. In researching click system floating floors online, I read, “The laying of the cork panels is so easy that one almost regrets when the job is finished!” I do not concur. Not only doesn’t the flooring make a satisfying “click” sound when the planks come together, it takes a lot of pounding and wrestling the get boards into place. We also came dangerously close to being one board short. Matt made it work.

The result? Beautiful floors throughout the upstairs.