I am starting to think that my hubby and I are insane! We bought a very nice house 4 years ago (a ranch built in 2006) that was open and airy. One of the reasons that we purchased was because there wasn't anything that we needed to redo - it was move-in ready - unlike some that we looked at. We did know that we would want to finish the unfinished basement at some point, but otherwise we were content. Apparently finishing the basement has led our brains to spin out of control!!
I painted the upstairs last summer (more on this later), and thought I would be done with DIY for a bit. Nope.
Noteworthy: if you shampoo your carpets - reapply the scotch guard stuff OR ELSE!! Can you guess the problem?!? So for my birthday I asked for a spot bot shampooer (a little shampooer for small doggie spots - of all varieties). While this helped some, every stain still seemed to show through. I started thinking I wanted new carpets. I found some I wanted.
Our friends got this Mowhawk Smart Strand stuff that is supposed to be dog-proof!! Supposedly the stain stuff is embedded in each strand of the carpet rather than applied as a top coat after the carpet is woven. They love it. We were at their house and I wanted to sleep on their floor!! They bought the top line stuff with a thick pad - and it might be the softest thing in the world!
One night our Doberman vomited a sock onto the carpet at 3am (yum! - sorry about that). I had to bust out the spot bot shampooer and try to get the stain out before it set. I decided I wanted hardwood floors so I didn't have to deal with it. We are still going to get the fancy carpet for the stairs to the basement and the bedrooms eventually.
After much research and browsing, I selected a strand bamboo. Traditionally, bamboo is a less durable wood. However, there are some companies starting to complete a different process on the bamboo while it is stranded (before compressed into planks) to make it rated harder on the JANKA test scale than even the hardest exotic woods. I scratch tested every sample I brought home, and liked this bamboo stuff the best. We ended up going with a company out of CA (we live in IL) called Cali Bamboo. I mostly liked dealing with them (I spent a bit too much time on the phone with them getting things figured out - and Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde - what I named the sales guy - was a bit too moody for my taste.)
Anyway, after requesting about 11 samples of their colors, I finally settled on one.
I'm ready for installation! A couple of days ago I ripped out the old carpet and padding - and soon my dad-in-law, brother-in-law, and hubby are going to install our new gorgeous floors!
Doesn't the sub-floor look pretty in the mean time?
-Sew Sane Jane
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Thanks for sharing the post here. Keep up the good work. All the best.
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