New Floors?

I was so excited to get new floors and I was excited to blog about it too! One thing about blogging is that when you are happy about something others can share in it and that usually makes the happiness even better. Well, I have some floor sorrow - perhaps you can share in that too. We began the floor process the week prior to Cam leaving. Already a lot going on - and knowing that they would be all messed up until a week after he left was kind of unnerving. Anyway, it began in the foyer. Our house is open for the two stories from the foyer (hard to explain) so when something is done (like breaking apart old tile) you can feel, hear, smell and be affected in each and every room of the house! The tile dust got EVERYWHERE!!!! I have been cleaning blinds, walls, curtains etc. since the project was finished and still there is dust!

Once the tile was broken up and removed we noticed our first of many problems. The cement under the foyer floor was a different consistency than the other floors. The builders probably needed to build up the foyer to be level with the living and dining rooms so they put a layer of cement on top of the cement. The trouble was this particular cement was that it was soft and broke apart easily. So when the worker was taking out the old tile it caused huge gouges in the cement - the worker proceeded to fill the large holes but left some of the smaller ones. In hindsight I should have insisted that he put cement all over the foyer and level it out. I obviously know nothing about installing floors which is why I hired someone else, I mistakenly assumed he knew his profession. Anyway, our laminate flooring was laid - and now we have soft spots in the foyer!!!! He assured me it would be fine. Well, now that it has been a few weeks we have the seam covers (where one rooms surface meets another rooms different surface the seam is covered) not flush with the floors! It has raised in just two weeks, what will it look like in a year? OH the HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! It gets worse. . .

The kitchen floor was tiled - which looks gorgeous and I am in love with it. Until a piece of the tile trim fell away from the wall! Then the water began. . .it was under a window which made me assume that all the rain we have been having was getting inside somehow. But then I noticed it coming from under the cabinets! It seems the dishwasher was hooked back up incorrectly causing water to get back behind our walls and it traveled clear around the walls to land under the window and the other direction to come out from under the cabinets. I already had a plumber come out right after the installation to fix the leak under the sink - but this was a completely different animal. So now there are two holes in my wall - where my handyman was trying to find the source of the water. WHY it didn't just come out right from under the dishwasher I will never know - it sure would have been easier to diagnose and fix -but lately God has been torturing me. So now the inside of my walls are drying out with fans running 24/7 and hopefully it will be dry enough to patch early next week. The dishwasher is up and running again and out from the middle of the floor - yay!

Back to the floors (don't know why this is so blurry) - so excited to do these floors. It is really the first cosmetic thing we have ever done. We are usually doing "must do" repairs like siding or plumbing or something. Now the floors are ruined for me - they have been nothing but a headache - they might look pretty but I know I got a raw deal and all I see is every little problem that I should NOT have to live with. I can't even SEE the floors through all the misery that they have been. And all the while I have had to deal with one problem after another I have been miserable with missing Cam - who is having the time of his life and can barely remember our phone number!