New Floors

After Jaden's birthday party last weekend, my parents loaded up both kids and took them to the river for a week. I missed my babies a great deal, but the dirty carpet in my house was driving me nuts. I scrubbed it soooo many times with my little green steam machine, only to see the same spots reappear a few days after being cleaned. So I had a brilliant idea, rip out the carpets and stain the concrete. This was the cheapest way to get my floors done. So Josh and I geared up and got to work. And boy did we work work work. I am really happy with the results and I think all of the work was totally worth it. Josh and I worked great together and had some good quality bonding time by taking on such a big project.

This is what the floor looked like after lots of scrubbing and it still had lots of scrubbing to be done.
We went to Home Depot and talked to a "professional" there. He sent us home with several of the wrong products, and we ended up going to Home Depot 4 different times. The cement had TONS of paint on it and we found it very difficult to get off, even with the acid paint stripper stuff. By the end of the 3rd day of scrubbing, we pulled the pressure washer out of the garage and used it on the floors. Josh power washed and I sucked up all of the water with a wet vac. I know what you are thinking, FUN FUN FUN! I am not even going to pretend that it was fun or easy because it definitely was not. But I do think there is a certain pride that comes from working hard and doing a project yourself. I am very proud of us.

This was the first day. Josh had to do some work and I was getting anxious about all the work ahead, so I ripped up the dining room by myself and pulled out all of the carpet tacking.

This is what the floor looked like after we etched it, which it the last step before staining

First coat of stain

And finished look with all of our furniture back in

View from the dining room

It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the floor does have a great marbleized textured look. We did all of this in 6 days and for $300. And just like that NO more dirty carpet!