>U Mom Knows Best: My Carpet And Tile Renovation Project

Saturday, September 7, 2019

My Carpet And Tile Renovation Project


 About a month ago we started a major home renovation project. My husband and I decided to tear up the carpet in the family room, dining room, and my office. We also decided to have the tile by the entryway removed. The carpet was 22 years old and it was starting to show its age. We decided that we would have tile installed in the family room, the entryway, and the hallway by the bathroom. That way the traffic areas would be easier to keep clean. I hated having to shampoo the carpet several times a year and having tile in the traffic areas and the family room would be way easier to keep clean than carpet.

 We were considering having tile installed on the whole first floor but to keep costs down we decided to put new carpet in the front rooms. The front rooms were the dining rooms and my office so they got less foot traffic so they would stay cleaner. I really wanted the tile in the traffic areas so my boys could come inside to use the bathroom and not have to take off their shoes. I love that I can mop the floors and now my company no longer has to take their shoes off. My family still takes our shoes off when in the house so the dirt from the outside does not get on the floors. If a wind storm brings in dirt through the metal security doors, it will be way easy to clean up than having carpet near those areas.

  I forgot to take photos of the rooms of how they looked before and just have photos of the rooms during the process. I do have photos of what the office looked like before the house remodeling project as I renovated that last year. You can see my office photos HERE.

The dining room during the process


 My husband had some time off from work during the home remodeling project so he decided to paint all the walls. My husband suggested that we paint one wall in the rooms a different accent color. My husband also suggested that we paint the baseboards a new color. We decided to paint the baseboards turquoise as we loved how that color looks in our master bathroom. We renovated our master bathroom 2 years ago and you can view how the turquoise baseboards look HERE. One of our original thoughts was to put a turquoise accent tile around the floors near the walls but the baseboard idea was cheaper.

The family room during the process


 The home renovation project took three weeks in total to complete. We had to move everything out of the rooms, tear up the carpet, and do the painting. Then we had a contractor come over to remove the tile by the door and tile the floors. This job took longer than expected, a 3-day job turned into a week job. We used a contractor from Floor and Decor and let's just say we will never use this company again. The contractor's company was North Bar Industries LLC and they were bad on so many levels. They were sloppy, never communicated with us, and made way too many mistakes, one of which they had to fix but it cost us an extra $75 in materials. We are still finding cosmetic mistakes on the floors like uneven tiles and places they forgot to use enough mortar. Thankfully a lot of the problems are covered up with furniture. This awful company hired workers that left a mess in the house and outside. After the job was completed, we found grout and mortar outside in our bushes, the street, and even the base of the basketball hoop. So if you decide to use Floor and Decor for your tile project don't let them assign North Bar Industries LLC as your contractor.








 We used a different company for our carpet and they did a great job. It was like day and night. The company that we used for the carpet install was Floors and More and I highly recommend them for new carpet. My daughter used them for the carpet in her new house and they did a great job there. Jim, the owner of Floors and More took the extra time to explain the differences in carpet and never tried to sell me anything based on price. Jim was the one who did the measuring and he worked with us from start to finish. Jim sent another guy to install the carpet and he did an awesome job. This guy has been working with Jim for over 20 years. Floors and More has a great selection of carpet at prices that are better than most carpet places, yes I did compare. I really loved that he was able to have my carpet install two weeks after I selected it. We will be putting new carpet in upstairs in a couple of months and we will be using Floors and More again.


 Once the tile floors and carpet were installed, my husband installed the new baseboards that I had painted. I now understand why people charge a lot of money to install baseboards as it is a time-consuming job. It took my husband three days to complete but then again it was his first time installing baseboards. We are thankful for friends who loaned us a nail gun and a compressor. Also having the internet helped us with the baseboards. I learned not to use the plastic wood filler for the gaps but to instead mix sawdust and wood glue together for a wood filler. This worked great for the big gaps in the corners. For the smaller gaps, caulking worked well.

With the Quality Carpet Cleaning Services, your carpets will be cleaned and taken care of by professionals who are experienced in the industry. Not only do they offer carpet cleaning services, but also upholstery cleaning, tile and grout cleaning, and pet stain removal.


 Once the baseboards were completed, then it was time to move all the furniture and items back in. We also made things different in the rooms. My husband said it was time to say goodbye to his big box speakers from the eighties. We replaced them with some silk plants and deco clay pots. I am really loving the arrangement that I made with these tropical silk flowers.


 It is so good to have my office back as I went without a place to take photos in for three weeks! I had to box up all my dishes and props before the home project. I am glad that we had my son's empty bedroom to use for storage as he is away at the Merchant Marine Academy. He won't be home for the holidays as he will be on a ship then so his room will come in handy again for the upstairs carpet. I am so proud of my two older sons. The oldest is learning how to drive semi-trucks and the other is learning how to drive cargo ships.





   A word to the wise that I want to share about carpet installation is to not be in your house while the carpet is being installed and three days after.  The carpet needs to gas off chemicals during this time and opening up windows was not enough for me to not get sick. My asthma flared up bad and I had trouble breathing. I was glad that my natural peppermint and menthol rub helped me to open up my lungs. Chemicals are one of the big triggers of my asthma. When we carpet upstairs, I will be outside in the yard during the installation and then we will stay at a hotel for three nights.


 I am glad that we decided to take on the project of new floors. We had been wanting to do it for a while but it just seemed too overwhelming. We had the money but not the time. I am thankful that my husband had some time off from work so we were able to get this home project done. The next home remodeling project will be the upstairs carpet and painting. This time we might hire someone to do the painting.


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28 comments:

Virginia said...

Looks fabulous. I love that bench in your dining room!

James Robert said...

Beautiful! Great job y'all!

AiringMyLaundry said...

Wow, it's looking amazing! We got hardwood floors downstairs and love them. Eventually we need to do it upstairs since there's carpet that is looking rather blah.

Celebrate Woman said...

Tara,
I love to see what you have accomplished! The before and after pictures are really impressive.
Now, I need to do my kitchen tiles. We moved to a new house, and these tiles have to go!
Thank you for a nudge.

Lisa Joy Thompson said...

Your new floors look great! The pop of color on your baseboards is really fun! I wouldn't have thought of using a fun color on baseboards!

Brianne said...

Wow, that looks incredible! Renovating floors can really spice up your home. Great job with the project!

Lena B said...

WOW! That came out amazing! Our summer renovation project left me empty on the inside. Hopefully I will bounce back in the winter, but it felt like a never ending tale. My husband still haven't cleaned up the floor from all his tools and stuff.

Jaredamy said...

I love the after! I think adding wood floors really brings a space to life. You can mix and match rugs and all.

Katrina said...

I love the new flooring! We are in the process of remodelling out home and I can't wait to get light colored floors.

Cindy Ingalls said...

The floors look amazing. I love the gray tones in the carpet and the tiles.

Pam Frost said...

Looks great! I love the silk flowers arrangements instead of the speakers! Plants always make a room feel and look more cozy.

Ruth I said...

Great decision for a renovation! I really love the result. It's perfect!

Mom Knows Best said...

I love the color and wanted something different

Gust si Aroma said...

I love your renovation ideas! I will use these tips for next summer renovation project!

Why Girls Are Weird said...

Love the new flooring! We tore up all are carpeting a few years ago and went with deluxe vinyl. We used Home Depot for installation and they did such an amazing job. I will never ever go back to carpeting.

Amanda said...

The floors look great! We went with vinyl flooring in our main traffic areas instead of carpet, and it definitely helps with all the in and out traffic!

Amila said...

wow!It is really a good upgrade to your home.Dining room has a new look.Nice furniture arrangement too...

Jen Sky Walker said...

We recently purchased a new house, and it needs a fair bit of updates, including the flooring. Thankfully everything is in decent shape right now so we can leave it for the kids to beat on a little longer until they get older and we won't have to worry about them wrecking new floors. I'm not a fan of carpet, but it is nice in some areas.

Echo said...

We did the same thing a couple months ago. We pulled the carpet and linoleum out of a bedroom, the hall, the dining room and kitchen, then replaced it with hardwood.

Taylor said...

These are instruments or hardware which are utilized to suck out earth which are caught inside the strands of the carpet upholstery cleaning

Hollie said...

Wow this came out so well. I need to pull up the carpet in a couple of my rooms and see what is hiding there.

ewuzie kingsley said...

Wow! What a great job you guys did. The new look is perfect, also like the simplicity.

Jennifer Tanney said...

It looks fantastic! I love the baseboards. It's tough to find a good contractor. With the work that's been done to our house some has been good and some has been horrible. When it feels like you could do better job you know you picked a bad contractor. I'm glad that the carpet guy was really good.

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Elisha said...

I like the renovation. Do you consider house renovation cost? My Mom highly considered it that's why we cant proceed with the renovation. She doesn't want to spend money.

Oran Remodeling said...

Hi, you guys had done beautiful work here. I was looking for some renovation tips and your work is adorable. Thanks for sharing this stuff with us.

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