If you have been following my blog any time at all, you know that we are deep in the middle of a building an addition on to our ranch home.
We are doing this in full DIY fashion, so we have been at it for almost a year now.
My unplanned “ceiling to floor” kitchen renovation last October set us back a little in our building plan.
You may recall that when we renovated our kitchen, we installed new hard wood floors…
Which led us to installing hard wood floors in our living room as well…
It was a crazy time! And right before Christmas! Yowza!
Well, here’s what I am a little embarrassed to tell you.
We are ripping up the hard wood floors we put down last November to install new ones. (covering eyes with hands)
It’s a loooooong story, but basically, we are not thrilled with the way our pine floors turned out, and we have decided to cover the whole downstairs in the same utility grade oak that we used in our new master bedroom.
So this is what our living room looks like now…
We will be installing the old pine flooring on the upstairs ceiling in the addition, which I love!
So, it’s a total mess here again. Hey, what’s new?!! 
On a much more happy and fun note, my whole family ran in a 5k race this morning!
Even Eli!!!!
It was his very first 5k race at 5 years old! And he finished under 40 minutes!
He was so very excited!!!
And Adam won another medal! He won first place in his age category and ran it in a little over 26 minutes.
I love being able to run together as a family.
You have to understand, we were NOT a running family until about 3 years ago. My husband caught the running “bug” 3 years ago, and it has rubbed off on me and my boys. Now it is something we love to do together, and I think the boys will do for a long time.
Sooooo, we (okay, Cy and Jonathan) will be working on the floors all weekend, and I will give you an other update next week.
How crazy do you think we are for ripping up the floor again? (Don’t answer that.)
I hope you have a great rest of the weekend!
Lucky you to have the resources to redo such a large project! When we get new floors, they’ll have to stay an eternity because I’m sure we will have to sell some body parts to afford them. Only so many of those a gal can live without.
So the floors will come up in the kitchen too? Oh you poor thing, but you need to make it meet your standards or it will always bug you. It’s not like the wood is going to waste or anything. It’s just a lot of grunt work! Hope it goes quickly!
I’m very impressed that you are ripping up the floors. Impressed because you’re not settling or “just living with it.” I’m so happy you are going to get the floors you really want.
Sharon @ mrs. hines class dot com
Oh my golly!! I think you are TOTALLY crazy!! But I LOVE it!! LOL!!! I soooo enjoy your blog, your family, your craziness! Thanks for just being you and sharing all of it. It’s GREAT!
Oh you will use the wood for good uses and the floor will be beautiful. Congrats to all of you for the race. Hugs, Marty
Totally bookmarking this for later so I can prove to my husband I’m not the only one that changes their mind after the fact!! At least you found a way to repurpose the wood! Can’t wait to see it all finished…again! Way to go on the running, my husband and I have tried the run together for fun and always end up in a fight because he’s 6 feet and I’m under 5 feet! My sprint is his fast walk!
Girl you are so brave!!! I admire your ability to not only conduct an awesome project but to also do it with such grace! Go girl! As with all your projects, I’m sure this will be fantastic and I can’t wait to see the finished product :-)
Congrats on your family run this morning!
Oh Bless your heart! Bless Cy & Jonathan’s heart tooo! But what memories you are making!
CONGRATS ON THE FAMILY 5K RUN. That is awesome. So pround of Eli and way to go ADAM!!!
Have a blessed weekend.
Hugs,
Marilyn C.
Yes, it is crazy. But if you are able to do it. Why not? You want to be happy with your house. Congrats your family run! Definitely more fun when you can do it together!
~Linnea
Girl….you are amazing! Talk about making lemonade! Most folks (me included) would just live with the lemons…. And a huge gold star to you and your guys on pulling together to find the passion to run. You’re making memories and good health all at the same time! Congrats to all.
Did you find the pine to be too soft? We live in an old house with original wood floors. The public spaces (The entry hall, living room, and sunroom) have oak flooring, but the private spaces have pine. It has been just fine in the bedrooms, but it did not hold up in the kitchen and dining room. The kitchen has been remodeled and refloored, but the dining room has not. It’s on my list. Although I must say, it is a sight better than the carpet that was over the wood. Carpet in a dining room… Blech.
Well, since the wood will be reused upstairs, and you guys are doing the work, it’s not really a waste of money, right? ;-)
…..I am speechless… which is rare!
Okay. I am a little shocked but I think it’s great. I’m finding the info useful because we are possibly looking at new floor updates soon and I’m glad to know you weren’t happy with the first choice before I went that route.
Way to go on the 5K! The DH and I have been walking and hoping one day we can run. I did cross country in high school but that was a long time ago.
I understand the floor issue we put in our family room a laminate wood floor and we both dislike it a lot. It doesn’t stay clean it is very difficult to care for and I would rip it out tomorrow if we had the funds to do it.
Congrats on your family run! Our oldest daughter and her husband just ran a 10k July 4th, and our son runs full marathons and relay runs. I don’t think I could do a 1k! So I am impressed with your whole family running together.
Well, just from the photos your floors looked beautiful before. But you live with them and if you aren’t totally happy it would drive you crazy always thinking about it but not being able to change it.You are so lucky to have Cy–he is a gem! My husband has had to redo many things for me, so I know how it is to realize your first decision wasn’t the best one–but most things can be remedied with time, hard work and some more money! At least you can re-purpose the flooring–so all is not lost. Can’t wait to see the look of the new floors and your Master completed…
Love that your family runs together! I can’t believe your pulling up the floors…but you only live once so I fully believe that if you are able then do what makes you happy! Can’t wait to see how your home comes together. Good Luck!!!
Nice to have the funds to do all this. By the way, pine is not a hard wood so if you installed pine in the kitchen and LR, you didn’t install “hard wood”. Enjoy your new space.
You are lucky to be able to do this twice! still stuck with the OLD for a long time around here. Your hubby is a saint. Melissa
love the posts about you sweet mom!
I loved reading this! It’s so nice to know we’re not the only one that does crazy things.
You’re kidding……right? Poor Cy……….. that is if this was momma’s doing. This sounds exactly like something I would WANT to do but my husband would divorce me first :).
You just amaze me! I just wish I had an ounce of your energy. (Cy too). You take the bull by the horns and not afraid to change your mind. Love, love that in you.
I am out of breath after you ran the 5K. (Ha-Ha)
Thanks for sharing and way to go girl.
I laughed when I read you were ripping them up! But it sounds like something I would do. So happy to hear you are using them on the ceiling. Waste not! Can’t wait to see it.
Sounds like everyone had a blast!
I would think the oak would hold up better downstairs in higher traffic and with 4 boys- and at least you’re reusing the pine. I’m glad you are making the change if the flooring wasn’t working out for you, at least you know it wasn’t and just make things worse. It’s horrible when one thing bugs the heck out of you and ruins the other 99%. :) well- you know- not saying that from experience or anything… lol
I totally understand. We have random width pine floors in our summer house everywhere but the kitchen. If you look at them crooked you have a dent. Although we have area rugs, the furniture and normal events in life has left them scared and bruised. If I had to make the choice again, I would go with oak which is what we have in our year round home. If you don’t look close, you probably wouldn’t know it because it is a rustic style salt box, but I know it’s there. With your pack of boys, I’m glad you were able to chance for what you need and want.
Boy, what a mixed bag of comments!!! I totally get you! With the four boys and dog, those floors are taking a beating with the pine. We put rustic white oak in my kitchen and family room two years ago and even with its rustic-ness, there are places that have dings and scrapes already, a couple from the dog, another from dragging out the refrigerator, etc. It is hard to think about these things when you know what it takes to earn the money to get them in the first place. I am now feeling the same gut wrench because our basement (fairly new) carpeting is WET. We have replaced it three times already. If we end up ripping it out this time, we are getting the concrete floors stained and polished. No mildew there!
I love those dark wood pine floors! I guess I do not understand why you would do that. I really dont like oak. However, its your home. Good luck with the new install. It will be beautiful.
You might as well get it like you want it. It’s good that you can use the pine on the ceilings.
I love your house, your kitchen remodel is fabulous. I’d love to know how you got into the running as a family.
Oh I get you, nothing is as crazy as ripping out all the walls of your 10 year old log home and rebuilding with regular framing and vinyl siding. Nobody understood us on that one. Only the ones who saw the shelf bracket growing in our bedroom and the pile of mulch in the yard (rotted logs that exploded when they hit the ground). That was 11 years ago and we’re still trying to recover financially. Glad we did it when we were “younger”, don’t think we’d tackle it today. See, ripping up a little flooring is no big deal!
That was supposed to say “shelf bracket fungus”
Hi, I know you said it is a long story but I would really like to know some of the specifics regarding dissatisfaction with the pine and preference for the rustic oak. Not just idle curiosity – we are trying to make a decision regarding wood flooring for our living room and dining room and hallway (ranch house) so it is for the majority of our living space. We used Lumber Liquidators Southern Yellow Pine (LL SYP) 5″ flooring a few years ago in our daughter’s room for a painted floor and it is still great but that floor gets much less use than our living space. For our living space I was considering the LL SYP 9″ boards installed with deck screws and screw holes filled with dowel plugs. I want to create a “reclaimed lumber” look that combines a weathered appearance (maybe use gray stain) with hints of blue paint. The process will be lots of work on individual boards so I don’t want to have to rip it out later because of something I didn’t anticipate. I was previously encouraged by your use of the pine in a living space so I’d really love to know why it didn’t work out. Thanks so much.
I can understand replacing the pine. Our 1940 house has oak in most of the areas that was installed in the late 60’s over the original pine flooring except for the dining room that still had carpeting installed. The original owner way back when had carpeting installed over the pine. My sweet husband re-finished all the wood before we moved in. It has all taken some wear the last 4 years, but the pine looks very dinged up, the oak looks great. Thank goodness we just have 2 little 10 lb dogs and their little paws.
I am impressed. That is the thing to do if you are not satisfied. This is your home and you want everything just right. You guys did the right thing. Running as a family is so great. You guys should be very proud for sure.
Yep, you’re officially crazy, lol. But, I’m just jealous of the energy and drive your family has. The 5K race is very impressing also :)
That’s such a bummer about the floors, but so great you have a place to reuse the wood!
Speaking of things holding up, I was wondering how your butcher block counters were holding up? I love butcher block and wanted to see how they hold up, before we make that happen in our kitchen!
I love your blog and am excited to see the renovation/construction contiue!