I had three must haves when we were looking for a house to buy many moons ago.
- Open Floor Plan
- White Trim
- Wood Flooring
The house we ended up purchasing had none of those items. We sold our townhouse after two weeks on the market and the house we had put an offer in (which had all of those must-have items) ended up falling through.
With the threat of being homeless or moving into one our parent’s basement on the horizon, we ended up in a suburb north of where we both grew up to look at a potential ranch (a single story home) property. The keys happened to be at the two-story house down the street, so we ended up looking at both homes. We ultimately ended up in the two-story house, and looking back it’s so funny to see how things play out.
Fast forward five years. We’ve worked very hard to turn this house into our home where we are raising our babies. Most of rooms have been painted and all of the trim (so much trim). An open floor plan isn’t feasible in this house BUT we are finally decided to update our flooring!
We have tile throughout the main floor and in all of our bathrooms that we won’t be touching, but decided after another round of Jack’s allergy testing that now was the time to invest in our flooring. We made the decision to rip out the carpet in our living room and our entire upstairs (four bedrooms and a hallway). In its place we decided to move forward with LVP (laminate vinyl planks).
This is a huge investment for us financially and in hopes of keeping a safer house for Jack, we decided to move forward with this project. Jack has had a recent diagnosis of asthma on top of his food allergies, eczema, and EoE. We have been deep cleaning our house and invested in air purifiers for our main level and bedrooms. The flooring was the next logical step. We’ve had the same builder-grade carpet since we moved in and it has seen it’s fair share of living, especially with a dog, the (if you know, you know) and a toddler.
I’ve partnered up with a local Des Moines company, Royal Flooring, for this project. We started back in late 2019 picking flooring samples and testing them out in our space (you may have seen those Insta-Stories, I have them saved in my highlights). After weeks of debating, I finally decided enough was enough and it was time to make some decisions. I was able to take home flooring samples and test them in areas throughout the house. While we were ripping out the old carpet, we decided to upgrade our stairwell carpet with something new as well, with little feet going up and down the stairs we still wanted to have something that would help keep everyone safe!
I love that I could bring home samples directly from their showroom and they also sent me samples of the carpet squares to keep so I could decide on a color-way. I found it interesting though, that the the samples I loved in their showroom I ended up liking the least once we got them home and I could see them in our space through the day/evening (lighting is everything!).
Once we decided we were ready to pull the trigger, they had someone come out to measure the square footage of all the rooms getting new flooring and then got a quote together for us. They had great patience with us as we went over the quote with a fine tooth comb, confirming square footage numbers, and asking a ton of questions. I couldn’t help it, it’s the project manager in me who works daily in site measurements, quotes, vendors, etc. Sometimes you can be your own worst (best) client! :)
We ended up selecting Mohawk Galvyn in Hearthstone for our LVP and Shaw Floors Reviving Gravel for our stairwell.
We ordered our material mid-February and had all of our flooring completed and installed the first week of March (before all of the Covid-19 shutdowns and quarantines began). The Installation took three days, that’s it! It was inclusive of their installers ripping out and removing the old carpet, moving around the furniture, and installing the new LVP and carpet on the stairs. The only thing left on our list (which will wait until maternity/paternity leave) will be installing and painting the new quarter-round.
I will be sharing the entire process here on the blog and on my social media so make sure to follow along! Here are the before photos (real life = iPhone photos) and I can’t wait to share the after photos!
Our living room cleared out and ready for main event (please note our dining room, which housed alllllll of our belongings for about two weeks).
The nursery, pre-new floors. We waited to start getting Jack’s big boy room together until the flooring was complete.
The master bedroom. Please disregard our bedding. We haven’t had a proper comforter or duvet cover in years. It’s true, the master bedroom is always the last room to be touched when working on your house!
The office and remnants of my beloved removable wall paper. These IKEA Billy bookcases perfectly aligned with our back wall, so we didn’t feel the need to take down the old wallpaper.
The hallway.
See ya later carpet!
Please note: Royal Flooring is currently open for business and will work with you however you feel most comfortable. They are offering free sample drop offs, phone and video consultations, and showroom appointments (socially distanced and masks will be offered at the front door).
Thank you for Royal Flooring for sponsoring this post. Royal Flooring provided a discount on the material, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting companies (especially local companies during this crazy time we are living in) that make this blog possible!
Featured Photo (from our original Living Room makeover reveal) by Lauren Konrad
