Kitchen and Flooring Updates ~ Lessons Learned

I haven't been visiting or posting much lately so thank you for sticking with me!
The end is in sight and I can't wait for things to get back to normal.

Our daughter and SIL built a home and have lived in it for a year...we are still in this remodel.

One of my best friends has sold her home, searched for another, and has been moved in...we are still in this remodel.

It is so true...

remodeling looks real ugly, and in our case takes a  l-o-n-g  time, before things look pretty!

When sharing about the Dry Wall and New Flooring being installed you may remember where the old and new floors were weaved together how mismatched they looked?  Today I get to share how well they turned out and also some lessons I've learned along the way...

I am learning a lot through this!

The newly installed great room floors have just been redone.

Earlier this year hardwoods were installed in this room as part of getting ready for the kitchen remodel.  If you remember there were a few issues and I shared about them here,  I'm Just A Girl ~ What Do I Know!

We've had Brazilian cherry floors in our home for about 8 years now and we love them, so we wanted the same flooring and finish put in the great room as well as the new kitchen.  We were thrilled with our first experience with this floor installer so we used him again...but we weren't too happy this time around.

If I've learned anything in this process it's stick to your guns and stay on top of EVERYTHING!

When installing the great room floors we explained that we wanted the same floors and the same finish as in the rest of the house.

When we were told that he'd "upgrade" us to a water based Street Shoe finish at no charge the first thing we asked was, "Does it look like what we already have?"

The answer was yes, it's just stronger and won't scratch as easily.

I've never had an issue with my existing floors scratching but since he said that it would look exactly like our existing floors, we went with it.

Big Mistake!
For some reason they would miss spots with this sealer so it had to be re-done several times and in the end still had areas that were dull, areas with no sealer on them.

It didn't look like our existing floors.  The finish looked cloudy.  It scratched easily.  

The existing floors had an oil based sealer.  The new floors were coated with a water based sealer.

Moral of the story...don't go with something else when the first time around it was perfect!

I will never again trust someone saying a different product will look exactly like a different product.

Lesson learned at a cost of $800 to have our great room floors re-sealed with the original oil based sealer...yes, that one hurt!

Surely you are wondering..
Why did you pay again, it was his fault.  Why didn't you go with someone else?
We had several companies come out to give us quotes and they were outrageous so we are giving him another go and hoping in the end it turns out to be like our first experience with him!  Hoping!

This is how the existing great room floors looked after being sanded down and the first coat dried, a little scary...

And how the new kitchen floors looked after the first coat dried...

Here are the great room floors after their final coat.

The rest of the floors will receive their final coat when the kitchen is finished, that's when our existing floors in the hallways, living room, and dining room will get a fresh coat also.

It's a little hard to tell in these pictures but the old and new flooring that were weaved together look great, you can barely tell a difference between the two...

The floors were covered with paper to help protect them for the cabinet install and the other work going on, except for where the cabinets will go...

The walls are being marked for leveling...

New window and door trim is being installed...

Our goal as we update our home is to add historic touches like this molding detail...

 

The cabinets are being installed...yippee!

The cabinet install will take a week,

templates will be made for the counter tops,

the trim work and crown molding will be completed,

the last of the electrical is being done,

appliances are scheduled for install,

plumber is scheduled,

backsplash will be installed,

the floors will receive their last coat,

painting will be done...then we will be finished!

Thanks so much for coming by!

I hope you are enjoying following along with our Kitchen Remodel Diary.

Join us each week for AMAZE ME MONDAY...