By now, if you’ve read my previous blog post or followed along on Instagram, you’ve seen quite a bit of before and after photos of our new flooring. How did we get from the before to the after you ask? Well, for me, lots of indecision (typical). Picking out flooring felt exciting but a huge task to take on. We were committing to a permanent house decision and the investment that goes along with that.
Back in December of 2019 we visited the Royal Flooring showroom to pick out some samples that we were allowed to take home. With the holidays happening around the corner, I put all the flooring samples under our tree skirt to try and see what I could envision our living room looking like with wood flooring around Christmas time. The following day, I put them next to our fireplace and the transition between our living room flooring and where the tile starts in our dining room.
We selected three samples to test out at home and the sample I kept gravitating to in the showroom, I liked the least amount at home. It was too dark for the space. Especially since we don’t have any overhead lighting in our living room, I wanted something that didn’t make the room feel small or closed off. The other two options, the lightest wash and one that had some more variation, I was split between the two. I, of course, had to poll my Instagram fam, and most people decided that the lightest option was the best and the second option (the one I was leaning towards), had too much variation and the sample as compared to the entire floor would be too much for the space.
We sat on the samples for a little bit and then in January went back to the showroom to review some more options since we weren’t over the moon with where we had landed. I ended up keeping the lightest flooring option from the original three samples and brought home two additional samples, along with a few carpet options for the stairwell. We knew we wanted to do something different for the stairs since it would be the only carpet on our main floor (we do have our basement carpeted from when we finished it a few years ago), but we also wanted our floors to go well with the carpet we picked.
Once we landed on a flooring and carpet finish (we ended up selecting Mohawk Galvyn in Hearthstone for our LVP and Shaw Floors Reviving Gravel for our stairwell), I worked with Royal Flooring to get a quote for the removal of our existing flooring (tear out and removal of carpet), moving furniture in each of the rooms upstairs (minus the living room, we took care of that), and of course, the material. Again, Royal Flooring offered us a discount on the product, but we paid for the material and installation of the product. It was truly an investment, but one we thought long and hard about for the health and safety of our growing family. So, so worth it. Once we reviewed the final quotes, we paid, and were on the schedule within two weeks for the work to be done (!). Talk about a seamless process, I couldn’t believe it!
Once we were on the schedule at the beginning of March (thankfully right before all the C-19 craziness kicked in) and the installation for what I thought would take a few weeks, they told me they would have the new Mohawk flooring installed within a few days, and the Shaw carpet would take a day of it’s own. They dropped off the product on a Monday, started installation on Tuesday, and wrapped up Wednesday morning. Thursday we had the carpet installer here and he finished his work by 2pm that afternoon. Thursday evening, we were in awe. Cody and I couldn’t stop smiling and I may have told him seeing our new floors had to be up there with our wedding day and the day Jack was born, and I’m not joking. The installation could not have gone smoother (and as someone who works daily with subs, installations, problems, punch items, etc.), this was a project I didn’t mind managing, because it went perfectly! And to think, Cody and I debated about doing the work ourselves to save some money, it was well worth the investment to have Royal Flooring’s team, they were efficient, kind, and hard working – the best kind of installers!
The only thing we didn’t have Royal Flooring provide or install was the quarter-round that we now need in all the rooms. We have that on our list to tackle while we are on maternity/paternity leave this summer. I will have to paint and touch-up the baseboards at that time, it definitely wasn’t a project I wanted to tackle in my third trimester!
A rookie mistake, that I’ll fully admit to, I never once even took the flooring samples up to our second floor (where majority of all of the flooring was replaced). So once we did make the final decision and it came time for the installers to arrive at my house, I had a mild bout of anxiety realizing that I had no idea what this flooring would look like in any of our bedrooms or hallway! Thankfully, it turned out better than we could have imagined!
Stay tuned for Part 3, the finished rooms!
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!
