An Izzard Upgrade

We have wanted to redo our floors downstairs since we moved to our home almost 2 1/2 years ago. A friend suggested we wait until after we had the next baby and got through the spit up stage, crawling, and walking to upgrade. That made sense to us, so we waited. Funny, at our old home we upgraded the floors to TILE a couple weeks after Jackson learned to walk...Ha!

Sierra put me in charge of finding a flooring company and choosing the wood. We both loved the way distressed wood looked--and let's be honest, with kids it makes sense. Those little scrapes that they will make with their toys will blend right in! I had three companies come out and all had different approaches, ideas, estimates, professionalism, etc. 

We chose Medinah Flooring because Joe asked me questions the others did not. His suggestions for flooring were in line with my thinking, and we chose the same sample together. I also liked that they are local and not a huge chain. And, they specialize in flooring, unlike some bigger places like Home Depot, who I've been dealing with for three months just to get an office door installed. SIGH. Joe gave me a written estimate just a few hours after stopping by with his samples. Then, Sierra gave me a text with two thumbs up (literally), and the process began! Joe came back, we paid for the materials, and a few days later the demolition of downstairs began...with the plan for 6 days of discombobulation. 

Before...

Entryway Before

Living Room Before

Kitchen Before...this tile took one full day to remove!

Family Room Before 

Dining Room Before

Powder Room Before

The Process...

Eric, "the best wood layer in Southern California," according to Joe, arrived at 9 a.m. on Monday morning and within five minutes the living room carpet was gone. Just. Like. That. Wow that was a little too easy! All of our furniture was moved to our garages or stored to the side of the room...which made for an interesting life upstairs, where we spent a lot more time than usual since downstairs was a disaster zone. 

Day One: Demo

That's Eric by the door pulling up the baseboards.

Very excited to see the demo of carpet and tile!

The tile was awful to remove. The entryway and kitchen had tile that apparently was stuck on a little too much...like four times the amount according to Eric. He removed it all...by himself. We got to know a lot about Eric over our days together. But mainly, we tried to stay out of his way. Our days would start with breakfast in the garage and end with dinner outside on the patio. Sometimes Eric was still working while we were having dinner. He is a perfectionist and a hard worker. No wonder we liked him! 

Day Two: Having fun on carpet rolls!

We ate breakfast in the garage for 10 mornings.

Yay! The wood arrives!

I did have a small panic moment on day three when we came home and could not go into our kitchen. Turns out the floors were put in unevenly by the builder, so we spent two extra days (and extra money), to "float" the floor. Otherwise, our flooring would be uneven, have dips, and you would notice especially with hardwood. The tile and carpet hid these "imperfections." The builder had marked where these spots were...pretty shady if you ask me. Eric hired help and over those two, actually almost three days, floated the floor. He even worked on Saturday. 

Day Five: Floor is going in!

Finally Eric is doing what he does best!

See the sub floor? That was an extra two days of work. 

So happy to see that it compliments the kitchen's wood!

...After!

Family Room After

Kitchen After

Craft Room After

Entryway After

Living Room After

Powder Room After

We are in LOVE with how the floors look! 10 days of dust, being upstairs, eating out, and having our things packed away was worth it for sure. It is amazing to feel the wood on our feet...and feels so good not to have the carpet and grout tile. We ended up using distressed hand scraped birch and replaced the old vinyl with new "travertine" vinyl in the downstairs bathroom. All new baseboards downstairs, too. Love how clean everything looks and somehow our furniture looks newer, too! 

This morning we ate breakfast in the kitchen and Jackson said, "I'm going to miss Eric." If you are local and are looking for a true professional hardwood floor installer, check out Medinah Flooring and you can get to know Eric, too!