First Home-Improvement Project

Now that we've been in our house a little over a year, we thought it might be time to actually attempt some of our wish list for making our house our own. Fortunately, the previous owners had done quite a bit of updating, so most of the projects on our list are fairly minor and really just about adding some of our own personal touches and creating spaces that fit our lifestyle.

I guess Jeremy got bit by the DIY bug because just before Christmas he pulled out a box of wood plank flooring we'd been given by a friend and began planning out the re-flooring of our downstairs entry.

Before (but after he'd already cut the carpet out. He had to put it back for the picture.)

However, as I understand is true of all home improvement projects, it turned out to be a bit more complicated than we initially thought. Mainly, our plan to use wood flooring didn't turn out to be the best option since most of the resources didn't recommend installing hardwoods directly on concrete. We didn't want to put in a sub floor over the concrete, and the special adhesive that we could use for installing wood flooring on concrete was expensive and could only be found in a 2-gallon container - way more than we would use on this project. We debated the alternatives for several days and did cost comparisons for several more.

Finally, we settled on using ceramic tile. The previous owner had left the extra tile they'd used in remodeling the bathrooms and the extra grout, so we already had most of the materials. We only needed to buy a few extra small tiles to fill in the space, plus the mortar, trim and renting a carpet stretcher. The tiling turned out to be surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. Jeremy gets all the credit for doing most of the work. I can really only claim credit for the concept. Aside from the time for everything to dry and set, it didn't take all that long to finish once we'd settled on what we were doing. And, I have to say I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

After: A much easier-to-clean entry!

Now that we've successfully completed our first DIY project, our confidence is high! Don't worry, we won't be knocking down any walls - yet!