Roxie After purchasing our “little” project the first step was to deal with the termite damage! Our little jewel is totally wood, inside and out. Ugh. When we bought the house I knew there was damage, but like most projects, the more you rip out, the worse it gets! I was on a very tight budget, so I feel very blessed to have found two super talented fellows that came every weekend for a year to work on the house. I will never forget the Saturday that they called me at work to let me know that it was “worse than they thought”. The kitchen floor was so rotten that it just started falling out when they started jacking up the house to replace the floor joist. There were three layers of rotten floor, many years of just covering up the problem
The next major problem was a rotten wall in the kitchen. When we first looked at the house I wondered why one wall had the ugly 70's paneling. Surprise! It was hiding a wall that was half eaten by termites! This wall was one I had wished I could remove but didn’t want to go to the expense. Guess what? We took out the wall! One positive outcome to the termite damage: a beautiful open kitchen space.
The next problem to solve was finding an inexpensive flooring option for the kitchen, dining and living area. I really wanted the look of an old farm house wooden floor but of course could not afford tongue and groove. I decided to use 1 x 8 boards for the flooring, even though I was strongly encouraged not to by my local hardware store and my weekend warriors. I decided to go with my gut (I am known to be a bit stubborn) and ordered all the wood from my local hardware store. I must say that these floors turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the house. This is a good lesson in why it is sometimes good to go with your gut and not listen to those that say “it can’t be done”! Kyle, one of my weekend warriors, did a beautiful job installing the boards for me. I spent about $500.00 on materials and even had enough to put in the bathroom. I think it turned out absolutely perfect!
Since then, my guys admitted that it turned out much better than they thought it would. The fellas from the hardware store have been over to check out my progress and also admit that the floor looks great, despite their initial concerns. My little inexpensive flooring project has caused quite a stir!
With a little sanding (o.k. maybe a lot of sanding), some stain, and help from good friends, my inexpensive floors are quite a masterpiece!
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