When Kev and I bought this place back in October of 2007, we had to tackle a couple of projects just to get the place livable before we could actually move in.
First project- the floors. The carpet in the living room, hallway, reading room, office and guest bedroom was buckling up in several places and there were big black, moldy stains on it too. It was a dirty job and Kev even discovered several of the tack strips holding it (somewhat) in place were still soaked with “the markings of previous owners pooches” ifyaknowwhatI’msayin.
I remember thinking, “How is that possible? The house has been vacant for almost 8 months!“
Grizzity-oss!
Once the carpet was out- and the horrible “houstench” was gone, (yay!) we had to make a quick decision about what to do with what we found underneath it.
At one end of the living room, we found a 14′ x 5′ concrete foundation that was 1/4″ – 1/2″ higher than the original hardwood flooring that covered the rest of the room…
The kitchen, master bedroom, master bathroom and laundry room were all added onto the house in 2003.
Here’s a (rough) floorplan that shows how everything is laid out…
According to our neighbors, the living room used to stop where that concrete foundation starts, and there was a screened-in porch on that side of the house. (Sure wish I could’ve seen what that looked like!)
Other flooring dilemmas included, a really bad tile job in the kitchen, laundry room and master bathroom, baked-on yellow linoleum in the pantry and hallway, and plywood flooring in the reading room. We didn’t have the time or money to deal with it all, so we just decided to cover it all up with 800 bucks worth of laminate flooring from eBay instead. Since it was all gonna be temporary, Kev just laid it right up and on top of the concrete in the living room, right up and over the bad tile job in the kitchen, right on top of the plywood floor in the reading room, and right on top of the yellow linoleum flooring in the hallway and pantry.
Unfortunately, that means our floors slope up and down, here and there and everywhere. And as of today, we’ve got some major plank poppage goin’ on around here. Not good, and super embarrassing when we have company over and one of the shorter planks actually flips up and outta place because someone thinks our flooring is actually securely attached to the floor and they can walk around wherever they want. Silly visitors! (Think: Me and Kevin repeatedly assuring them that “it’s just temporary flooring” and that “it happens all the time“, and our guest repeatedly apologizing for “breaking” our floor. Semi-funny/nightmarish)
Anywho, this is what we’re thinkin’ these days…
The homestudy process will begin sometime after the 1st of the year. Probably in the Spring. That means a social worker is going to come over and tell us if our home if fit for a child to live in. We’d love to have more stable/less booby-trappish floors by then, so we weighed our options, and decided on the latter:
Option 1-
– rent a jackhammer,
– break up the concrete at the end of the living room
– scoop out the broken up concrete
– pour in new concrete that’s a little lower than the original hardwood flooring that covers the rest of the room
– lay new, similar-sized/grained hardwood planks over the newly poured concrete
– sand the entire floor
– coat the entire floor with polyurethane
Option 2-
– carpet the living room, hallway, and reading room and use a little more padding on top of the original hardwood floors than we do on the concrete part so that everything is nice and level.
As much as it pains us to cover up the original hardwood floors in our hallway and living room, we just don’t have the extra funds/skillsets to deal with the all the unlevel probs right now, and with our upcoming adoption plans, option 2 just seems like the easier/faster/least expensive route to go.
We do, however, plan to refinish the original hardwood floors in the office, guest bedroom, pantry and dining room in January…
And then we’ll have a friend help us re-tile the kitchen, laundry room and master bathroom. We’re thinking we can get the tile from a place called Total Liquidation in Montgomery. It’s a great, big builders supply warehouse, and we can probably find some nice 12″x12″ tiles for under a buck a piece.
After the flooring business is all taken care of, we’re going to move our office into the room we’re currently using as our guest bedroom. (My Mom is really the only person who stays over night with us, and she said she didn’t mind sleeping on the twin-sized mattress in the reading room.) Then we’ll begin Operation: Kids Room in the room we’re currently using as our office. It’s nice and big, so he/she will have plenty of room to rip & roar. That room actually used to be the master bedroom back when the house was just a wee little thing. And speaking of wee little things, check out its *closet…
It’s the same shrimpy size as *the one in the guest bedroom…
It’s crazy how tiny they are! I’m talking 18″ wide, 18″ deep. Maybe.
We’ll definitely have to use a lot of free-standing storage pieces, and we’ll probably have to build some built-ins too.
(PS- We do have two, nice-sized closets in our master bedroom, but like I said, these drawings are really rough and I seemed to have left them off and shown a shortened version of the kitchen & laundry room. Oops!)
So. There ya have it.
Not all parts of the plan are 100% ideal, but it’s the way it’s gotta be for now.
The big question is, what kind of carpet should we go with? It’s gonna have to be super tightly-woven or Max will be tempted to go into shred mode. Except for his “buddies”, he’s never been much of a chewer, but he absolutely can-not resist plucking a hole into a sea of cut pile. I’m afraid he’d freak for frieze too, so that’s out as well.
Something like this might work though:
I’m not sure about the pattern, but it looks pretty tightly-woven, and it’s neutral in color (but lighter than our sofa and chair-and-a-half) which would be good.
Here’s another photo I came across while Googling hardcore carpets today…
I don’t think we’ll go with anything this visually “loud”, but what a cute room, huh?
Maybe we could go with something that looks sort of sisal-ish…
Then we could use a big area rug under our coffee table to ground our furniture arrangement. Choices, choices.
We’re gonna try not to over-think it when we go out to look at our options. We’ve gotta get this party started soon.
And, who knows, maybe one day we can have the concrete part fixed, and we’ll be able to restore those original hardwoods after all.
For now though, we’re just hoping for level floors and that Max doesn’t pull a “Toby” on us…
Have you had carpet installed in your home recently? If so, what brand/color did you go with? Has it held up? Do you love it?
Any info you could pass along would be greatly appreciated!
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Didn’t mean to seem like a Debbie Downer with the carpet idea. To make you feel better, I do have the same light, neutral cream in the nursery & office/craft room and it still looks great. It was just a poor choice for OUR family room.
After living with a tightly woven “berber” carpet, and a deep pile carpet, I’d caution you that the berbers show stains much more than the pile carpet, and are VERY hard to clean. I love the look, but will never go with the berber style again.
Okay, this is totally off topic, so forgive me for that 😉
But have you considered swapping the laundry and pantry? There’s plumbing there from the guest bath, and it would just make more sense to have the pantry right off of the kitchen I’d think. Anyway………no suggestions for your floors – our subfloors are warped because the previous owners “rigged” every.single.thing they did………..ugh, nightmares! We’re trying to figure out how we should go ourselves! Best of luck to you!
Oops…should have clarified- it’s a paint pantry. Only tools and home improvement supplies…no canned goods.
🙂
Layla
I’m dealing with a similar (albeit wood) subfloor issue where our old house meets the addition, but I’m not trying to save anything under the floor so it’s less complicated. Here’s another option for you to consider as well; You could grind down that section of concrete a half-inch with an industrial concrete grinder (my fam owns a concrete company and “oops we poured that floor too high” does occasionally happen, grinding it down is always the way it’s handled as opposed to tearing out and repouring.) The downside is dust containment!
Layla – not being a mom to a human baby – but to many cats and dogs — have you considered indoor/outdoor carpeting? I just purchased an in/out rug for my kitchen in a warm dark oak sisal-look and it doesn’t show a spec of dirt with 5 pets in the house. It’s also very soft underfoot! Just a thought….. 🙂
xoxo laurie
Layla, we’ve been exactly where you are, with a scarred floor that would be crazy expensive to fix. We did exactly what you are planning to do. In the same situation, I would advise a client the same way. That wood floor will still be there down the road, when you are ready to deal with it. Also, carpet is so much warmer a softer for a little baby.
When you are ready to attack the concrete, a hammer drill should do the trick (wear ear and eye protection!)….
Layla,
Be careful with carpet…it holds a lot of germs when you have little ones crawling around. My niece’s boy got sick after he had been to my Dad’s house because he had just cleaned the carpet a day earlier and he was crawling on it (I guess it was the chemicals) Also John Travolta swears that Jet got his illness when he was 2-3 yrs old because he was a normal boy when born because he was constantly cleaning the carpet for the baby so he thought he was doing good. JUST A THOUGHT !!
Hellllooo cute and happy couple of TLC. 🙂 i cannot tell you how much i can relate to this post. about a year ago the hubs and i had our entire house (all 2300 sq. ft. of it) recarpeted. did we “want” carpet? no. we wanted dark hardwood. but was 2300 sq. ft. of dark hardwood in our budget for a house that is NOT our “forever home”? no. soooo, we chose a “special buy” carpet from Home Depot. it’s a silk blend sort of carpet that is soooo soft to step, or lay, on and it was a great price because it was a “special buy” and Home Depot has amazing installation specials. not to mention they got it all done in under two hours! anyhow, when we ripped out the old carpet that we already knew was permanently stained (lesson learned AFTER having it professionally cleaned only for gross stains to reappear) but nothing could have prepered us for what we were to find once we started ripping up old carpet ourselves. we’d rented a dumpster and ripped out the old carpet and padding ourselves to cut down on cost, and boy was it DI-SCUST-ING. the stains that were on the carpet (from the previous owners pets, {we hope}) had gone through to the subfloor and tack strips. *lightbulb* so thaaaaat’s where the constant “weird” stench came from. we were appalled. and kinda (ok, really) upset and sad that we’d let our toddler crawl around on such filth for two years. 🙁 so i know exactly how you all feel on doing whats best and practical right now to fix the situation. and, just think, that lucky little boy or girl will be worth not having hardwood throughout. 😀 best of luck choosing a carpet! and thanks for sharing the “drama” you’ve had with your flooring too!!!
We’ve looked into carpet and I will tell you, in an effort to have a greener home, I am trying to get as natural a material as possible. All petroleum/glue based products products i.e. nylon carpet, MDF, vinyl, laminate etc. off gas VOC’s. urea formaldehyde and other chemicals that makes a home’s air not so healthy Some of those stain resistant carpets are treated with HORRIBLE chemicals and if a little one is crawling around and putting things in their mouth… With our kitchen remodel, I tried to go as green as possible for this reason and my oldest child is special needs, so the less I can expose her to the better. You really have to shop around though. If the sloping isn’t too bad,Why not use a concrete based floor leveling agent and then do subfloor wood flooring over the top to level it? Just don’t use OSB or press board. If you carpet try untreated wool or a sisal/jute based. We love our wood floors and they are easy to clean and the kids can lick them and I don’t care. I have a wool area rug in the other area. Just along winded thought here! 🙂
go for a berber. they do not show “traffic “marks and are really sturdy. we have a rescue greyhound who weighs about 100 lbs. i did a bit of researching carpets that were animal proof. lol
ours has flecks of brown, taupe, navy and cream. it does have a diamond pattern to it if you really look. its been down for 3 tears and loos like new. 🙂
i think carpet would be your best bet in an area that a child will be spending alot of time. carpet reduces the noise and is warm and cozy to walk on for little feet. 🙂
Have you had a professional re-finisher give you an estimate? There is a concrete sander that would level your floor. You could have them splice in to the existing hardwood and re-sand and finish the whole thing. I live in Canada, and used to manage a flooring company. It is worth getting a free estimate, before you cover up that beautiful hardwood with carpet 😉
Love the sisal-ish.
Hi Layla,
We have hardwoods in our living room and tile in our kitchen. I have used sisal / sea grass area rugs in our living room which have been fine for our growing family. We have a 5 year old and a 15 mos old. We are actually having berber style carpeting installed today in our lower level which includes a guest room, my husband’s office and kids’ playroom. The previous owners put linoleum down there but it is just so cold so we are putting the carpeting in to make it more warm, cozy and soft under feet.
Good luck with the flooring and the adoption!
Danielle
hi, layla! i read all the time but i hardly ever comment. i wanted to second what another commenter wrote. as long as you lay that carpet down the right way (which i know you will!), the hardwoods will be there later when you’re in the position to address all of their issues. my husband does some home staging on the side (not the decorating kind, the pull up old carpet/clean up the yard kind) and he can usually get carpets up in a day or two including working his full time job. i don’t think it’s an obstacle.
now, onto the virtues of the carpet. we have hardwood in all of our living spaces (den, dining, office, etc). it’s beautiful but we don’t really have a choice. we live in a rectory as my husband works for a children’s home and we live on campus here (hooray for adoption!!!). my parents gave us a sisal-like rug. it was free and simple and i like it. but do you know what? when we are all watching a movie and want to lay on the floor, it’s kind of uncomfortable and hard. plus! are y’all having a cold snap like we are? that hardwood is cold! that’s when i dream of having nice, plush carpet! you do what you can do and don’t feel like you have to apologize or explain. in the end, it’s the living and memories that you’ll remember!
YES! It’s SO COLD here this week! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Yes, it is. Layla, I live in Prattville too. I have a 2 and a 6 year old, both boys. We have hardwood, vinyl planks in all of our living areas. Both of my boys love to get on the floor and race Hot Wheels cars. There are times when they want Mommy and Daddy to get on the floors with them and race with them. The hard wood even with an area rug on top is uncomfortable. In our bedrooms we have a refined cut pile carpet by Mohawk. Very good with boys! The berber we had in our previous house really was hard on the knees, but held up well to stains. The good thing is that you will still have the original hardwood under the carpet to refinish at a later date and time.
You guys are going to be great parents! I remember feeling SO anxious and nervous about our homestudy, like every single thing in our home (well, our whole lives actually) was going to be judged, and it really wasn’t that bad…though I agree that if you’ve got unsteady/splitting floorboards you’ve got to address that to make things safe for Baby.
We were told that berber was an excellent option, but both our dog and cat pulled threads constantly, without meaning to! One “snag” was at the top of the stairs and the kids would trip up on the long thread…talk about a heart attack! I had to put a small area rug on it to conceal the thread, but then there was an awful lump to contend with, grrrr… We were also told that berber would clean up nicely. Yeah, it did not. Gah-ross! Stains, ground in dirt, anything! Don’t worry, I’m not bitter or anything. 🙂
We switched to a low pile carpet from The Home Depot- their service was great and the carpets have held up well for over 6 years now. Carpets don’t have to be long term, and we saved a ton of money that way. We have plans to install wood floors someday, but to be honest, I loved having something soft and warm under my babies’ tootsies when they were very small. I vacuumed a lot and learned the magic of ice to get out stubborn stains- ice cubes even got out fresh latex paint from our dark carpet! Wow! We chose not to chemically clean our carpets when we had crawlers, so we relied on good old common sense to try to avoid mishaps and baking soda for freshness.
There’s my two cents, ha! Good luck with the decision making! 🙂 ~Bethany
“I remember feeling SO anxious and nervous about our homestudy, like every single thing in our home (well, our whole lives actually) was going to be judged, and it really wasn’t that bad…though I agree that if you’ve got unsteady/splitting floorboards you’ve got to address that to make things safe for Baby.”
Exactamundo!
But we’re actually anticipating the adoption of a toddler- so there might not be as much crawling going on, as there is running! 🙂
Layla
We got berber when we first moved in 9 years ago. We thought it would be really sturdy and last a long time. Within 2 months my daughter snagged it with a spiral notebook. We tried gluing it down, but that’s been hit or miss. We still have the carpet and I can say it absolutely looks 9 years old – horrible. We finished our basement a couple years ago and went with “Empire Carpets”. They were awesome. BUT…before we had them come out to give an estimate we had an estimate from Lowe’s and HD. The Empire people (come to your house with samples) came and gave us a quote that was far above Lowe’s. When we showed them the quote – they not only matched it but beat it by 10%. PLUS…their carpet was far better quality than Lowe’s. We went with the Frieze. We have a small dog and two kids (11 and 9). It’s held up really well, is easy to vacuum and super comfy. Good luck!
Carpet?? really , I say no way , it is pricey for a temporary fix, you might as well fix the wood , maybe engineered would be a good solution ? carpet does NOT HOLD UP with kids or pets , crawling is a very short stage of life , trust me when a kid pukes on carpet you will be wishing for wood floors not to mention spills , pee accidents shall I go on , get an area rug that is wool that can take a beating ….carpet is a very temporary fix , wood if for a good long time…
How much more dust would be created by grinding down the concrete than ripping out drywall on ceilings and walls to reveal/install horizontal boards? I think you could contain concrete dust just as well as drywall. I’m going to rain on the carpet parade too. We ripped ours out and water based stained our concrete. Almost immediately our bulldog threw up on it and we just wiped it up. Our daughter was a champion dead-of-night puker and all I had to worry about was doing 100 loads of sheets the next morning, not how to get the stains and smell out of carpet. I think it helped with our allergies tremendously. Sincerely, Party Pooper Denise
Layla, we had new carpet installed in October. We used Carol’s Carpet and LOVED them! We got the Queen high-stepping carpet, which is like frieze. We wanted something super comfortable and soft since we have a baby on the way 🙂
Layla & Kevin,
Carpeting looks great the day it is installed and from there it is down hill. It will never look the same again. Most carpet today is great on stain resistance, but they have yet to address the flattening issue. It is all nice and fluffy when new, but after use (especially in the most walked areas) it flattens and looks horrid. And we haven’t even touched on dog smells! I’d rather have my baby crawl around on wood or laminate that you know is clean than to lay and roll around on a carpet that “Toby” has laid on! (Don’t get me wrong- I am a dog lover- we have a Golden- but we also have over the past 15 years of living in this house worked on getting rid of all the carpeting in the house. That is easy for us to live with because we happen to live in south Florida so the cold is not an issue. Here’s my idea: Fix the uneven cement issue once and for all, because let me tell you, after a child, if you think you live tightly now $ wise, you are in for a shock. You will never get to getting it fixed the right way after the baby. Spend the $ now and be done with it. Even if you carpet just the living room for now- when you have extra $ (ha ha ha) you can always do all the wood over (with real wood or laminate) all over through the hallway, dining room and LR. Tile the kit, laundry and BR when able. Why are you wanting to remove the laminate now in the hallway? Is it popping there too? I would imagine the LR is the big problem with popping. Can you glue down the popping pieces everywhere else for the inspection and fix the cement and carpet just the LR? The home inspection is to be sure the home is clean and safe (ok- so fix the safely issues with the popping planks) but don’t worry about how everything looks as much as letting the inspector ge tot know YOU two and what great parents you will make even if your house is less than perfect now. And while WE all may LOVE your house (and we do!)- you will score no extra points for a wonderful mantle display and the perfect accessories (or at least I’d like to think so). SO! Do it right now and forget about it. Idea here- can you ask for “free” do-it-yourself supplies at Lowes/Home Depot/Lumber Liquidators in return for free advertising if you document your project on your blog? You guys are big enough now to have quite a following… Good luck! (sorry so long!)
Joanne
For short term, just go with the carpet. Make it inexpensive though as the mini-Palmer is going to do some barfing on it, and do some major peanut butter smearing and leave crayon on it! When he or she is a bit older and funds are *looser*, fix it.
Been there and done that!
Hey Kevin and Layla!
This is a COMPLETELY different route than you talked about and asked for suggestions with…
But, my husband and I just ripped out some carpet to reveal nasty subfloor. We bought finished pine plywood, cut it in strips and laid it like hardwood. It looks like farmhouse plank flooring. I originally planned to paint it, but it looked so good, we stained it instead. We just did this in our living room that was 533 sq feet and did it for less than $500 (including the wood, liquid nail, stain, nails, all the tools, and 4 coats of expensive poly). We love it so much that we are going to do this in our kitchen too and paint/whitewash it in there.
Here is a good before and after (I thought a lot about TLC when we were redoing, picking paint colors, and painting that plank ceiling!)
http://quarryorchard.blogspot.com/2010/12/busy-little-bees.html
And here is a closeup of the floor and more of an overview of what we did. I’m planning a tutorial soon!
http://quarryorchard.blogspot.com/2010/12/hindsight-is-2020.html
We had a slightly uneven place along one wall. The plywood is flexible enough that it bent with the slight change in difference. We used Liquid Nail and “cut” face nails (So they would show up and look like old nails). You can’t even tell that there is a difference in height there now. It was seamless the flooring is secured.
It might not work for you; you would have to cover the original flooring…It was planned to be a cheap, temporary fix here but we love it so much I think it’s a keeper!
Shannon
SUCH AN AWESOME IDEA! 🙂
So glad you shared those links with us today!
Thank you!
And P.S. After having all hardwoods on our main floor, all 1700 sq down here, vacuuming upstairs is a pleasure!!!
And staining them dark?/ Ha Ha ha, with 4 very furry cats, 3 of them cream, I can see every piece of cat hair. I’m sweeping these bad boys sometimes twice a day. Fun..not so much.
From now on, I’m going to do my floors to match my animals!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I totally hear ya on that one Rachel! We’re dealing with the same issue now. We’ll be leaving our hardwoods a lighter, natural color when we refinish them!
Option 3? I would get plywood as someone else said, however thick you need to reach the height of the concrete (sounds like 1/4″ to 3/8″) and then nail (or staple – probably staple is good enough since the plywood would be thin) that down to the hardwood that way the hardwood is still there and can be finished later should you want to. Then lay the laminate floor back down. If the concrete height issue also exists going into the dining room kitchen area (leaving the living room), I’d then put a transition molding there – reducer strip.
my two cents.
Layla,
No carpeting in the Fairfield House but in my previous home I opted for berber because it can take a fair amount of abuse (lots of traffic and kids!) and resisted stains.
We have the exact teenie weenie closets in all our rooms. Remember people had small wardrobes — work and Sunday’s best.
So excited to watch another TLC dream become a reality! Just think your child is somewhere right now dreaming about their future mommy and daddy!
Your Friend,
Deborah
Wow, how familiar this sounds! When we bought our house in June there was a slate floor in the foyer separating the north portion of the house (bedrooms/baths) from the south part of the house (the rest of the living areas). What was under that slate? Concrete. 4″ thick. No jack hammer. Sledge hammer. My husband, my dad, me on occasion (insert my dad saying, “It’s not a man’s world anymore!). What to do with the huge drop off? Fill it with 2×4’s of course! We laid 2×4’s on their edges because the measurements couldn’t have been more perfect. My husband screwed them together in different sections and laid them down over the plywood subfloor. Then we laid 1/2″ plywood on top to level everything out. Almost. There was a slight (we’re talking 1/16” max) lip between the living room and the foyer. We did the self-leveling compound to smooth that out. Since then we’ve managed to lay wide-plank, hand-scraped laminate flooring (Quickstep Country Coffee Bean Merbeau) and it’s truly beautiful! This was inspired by your laminate (which is supposed to stand up to our boys and our future animal family). Cross your fingers! BTW, we did everything ourselves.
However…we have carpet in the bedrooms. My boys have your everyday-run-of-the-mill carpet. We went a little more uptown. First of all I must say that Mohawk SmartStrand carpet is nothing short of amazing. We had it in our old house and I kid you not, you can spill ANYTHING on it and it cleans up with water (or if necessary a small amount of stain remover like Tek). We had blood, grease, mud, ketchup and it all came up. The strands are soft and stand up incredibly well even in our high traffic area from the front door to the kitchen. This time we went with the SmartStrand but with a pattern (sort of going for the upscale hotel feel): http://www.capricarpet.com/p-850-council-gardens.aspx
(This is not where we bought it but I wanted to give you an idea of what it looks like, we went with Mocha Shine)
Happy to give more thoughts if you’d like. Good luck, I think carpet sounds like a great idea (especially since i’m sure a bunch of your readers have carpet and will like seeing that you don’t have to have hardwoods to have a beautiful home!!
Also wanted to point out that the SmartStrand carpet (which of course is in my boys’ bedrooms as well) is made from corn! Read more about it here: http://www.mohawkflooring.com/smartstrand/default.aspx
And nope, there’s no affiliation here but i’m a forever buyer of this stuff. Honestly, it’s the best! My boys are 3 and 6 and they have yet to make a stain I can’t get out.
Hugs,
Renae
Whew! Did you ever think you’d open up such a “can of worms”?? All you asked for were carpet CHOICES:) Unfortuanately, I don’t really have any good tips…we had both carpeting(former home) and hardwood floors(current home) and there are pros & cons to each. What I do think is that you two (and only you two) know what’s best to suit your home, family and lifestyle. Whatever you choose, I’ll bet it’s pretty, practical and perfectly safe:) Thanks so much for sharing your journey to parenthood with all of us…it’s such a joy! Wishing you all the best, and hoping you hear the pitter-patter of lil’ feet on…whatever floor you choose…soon!!
Definately a matter of opinion! I’ve read most of the comments and am exhausted! I totally agree with Leahc. Both have pros and cons. Can’t wait to see all the changes you have in mind.
And unfortunately, I can’t spell today;)
I think what every you go with will be stunning, you have great taste, I can’t wait to see what you do.
Hi Layla! We had the EXACT same issue with our hardwood floors. Original hardwood under carpet and then this 2 foot by 12 foot raised concrete section against the sliding glass door. We contemplated putting tile over it all, putting tile over just the concrete part or doing your Option 1, jackhammering the concrete down and re-pouring concrete to the right level. Ultimately that is the best option and the option we chose and we are SOOOOOOOOOO happy we did. Money is a huge concern for us and this was not the cheapest option, but didn’t end up being as $$ as we feared. Probably $400 total for the jackhammering and the concrete pouring. So not too bad. And in the end, we are SO happy the whole floor is hardwood, that’s how it really should be. I would encourage you to do option 1 and skip the next project for a while since it will cost you a bit more. It’s worth it! Let me know if you have any other questions cause we really went through the same thing and contemplated the same options with cost as our #1 concern.
Hahahhaha TOOOOBY!!! I love the sisal look. Very beachy.
Hey Layla,
Just wanted to share a link with you to my FAVORITE flooring place. Bought all of our hardwood there and they also sell carpet and hardwoods. The site has a calculator, so you can type in your dimensions and it will tell you exactly what you need. Even with shipping, we were able to install hardwoods throughout most of our house for under $4000. The customer service was exceptional. In transit, some of our boxes fell over and 8 were damaged, they simply shipped new, no questions asked and no hassle of returning the damaged flooring. Just a suggestion, if you know someone who can install your carpet. Good luck with the carpet. My ONLY advice for you is to invest in a high quality vacuum with good filters, we have carpet in one room and our dyson is a Godsend sometimes! I look forward to that perfect little one to find you two! Oh and don’t forget about carpet tiles, at least if one spot gets ruined, you can always replace just one tile.
http://www.builddirect.com/Carpet.aspx
I would do anything and everything possible to avoid carpet. You will regret it after you have your kiddo and with pets. I promise. You can never really clean carpet. Ever. And it really is filled with nasty chemicals. I am not overly paranoid but the more stain proof kinds you get…the more chemicals involved.
I would go with option 1 but don’t redo everything. Get the one area in the entry leveled out…I would pay a professional concrete person for that. You will have a hard time getting a skim coat to level well over something that has been jackhammered. I would do skim coats or use quickrete or shims in the other places you have wobby boards. Spot fix them as needed and then use something like liquid nails to adhere them down at the corners so they don’t move. if you just dot the corners, they should be able to scrape up later on if you want to remove everything to start all over.
Option 3….can you offer to highlight a local flooring contractor??? With your level of readers…I think many places would be willing to do something for you for almost nothing. And then you can get it all done at once. No redo in the future.
I have 2 kids and 1 dog. I love real wood floors. We have had all dark tile or all wood. Our next house will have all dark (espresso) huge tiles or distressed wood plans (dark) or espresso stained concrete. The latter is my preference. I love the dark plank floors but out dog and kids gouged them and I was always filling and restaining spots.
We had used carpet only in bedroom but kids still find a way to get it dirty AND it holds dust and mold and all kinds of other nastiness and you will be there in that room breathing it in 8 hours a day. Now we will always have a solid surface in all bedrooms with an area rug that can be well cleaned/switched out.
And if you want carpet…look into the carpet tiles that can be switched out in sections if messed up.
Good luck.
Love your blog!
Hi Layla!
I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now for design inspiration…and wouldn’t you know it, I just had carpet installed! I’m in a top-floor condo, so hardwood wasn’t an option for me, but I also wanted a low-pile, clean look (with a cozy feel). I got a “patterned” (loop and twist) carpet from Shaw. I think it’s called “City Charm.” It is super-soft but doesn’t show traffic. It also cleans up exceptionally well (I tried to clean out my fireplace last weekend…ouch). Here’s the link:
http://www.shawfloors.com/carpetDetails/Pattern/City_Charm_18397-Summer_Blond
Other commenters are right — you don’t want to go with all loop, which will pull up pet’s nails, high traffic, etc. Good Luck!!!
Oh, I feel your pain! Our house had an addition put on and our floors oar and inch apart in heigh in some places. We had bare unfinished wood and exposed plywood on our floors through one baby and finally refinished them before baby #2. I know how much it pains you to cover up the wood floors, but it’s only temporary and it’s nice to have a carpeted floor for “tummy time” with little ones. Don’t worry. It’ll be wrecked with spills and crumbs in a few years and you’ll “have” to replace it a finish the wood floors! 🙂
It’s true…a baby changes everything.
Just wait until you can’t accessorize for about four years of your life. Stage the picture, snap the shot, and put it all away. Sigh.
By they way, I like the sisal”ish” option. It looks very “you.”
I am so excited for you all! Somehow I’ve missed the part about the adoption until now. I have three boys and one dog, but have had three dogs total during the kid period so far. We’ve had every stain, spill, etc imagineable, have lived in three different houses with three kinds of carpet and hardwoods during kids. Plus, my hubby sells building supplies and hardwood flooring. That said, here’s my two cents: Don’t waste your money on carpet. It is not cheaper than hardwoods if you really hunt. I’ve had plush, berber, and freize most recently by Stainmaster with the through and through stain protection that doesn’t wear off. It still stains. Berber is great for not soaking up messes, but like others mentioned, unravels. Plush just pulls out and pills. All are a nightmare when potty training! If you must go with carpet, invest in the sealed padding which keeps any “spills” from soaking into the subfloor!
Yes, hardwoods can be pricey, but if you get the solid board (not lamininate or engineered-which I have had), have it sanded, stained and polyed (satin – shows less in sunlight) in the house, it’s sealed even between boards and nearly indestructable. Plus you can refinish countless times. It’s more upfront, but when you consider the cost of installing “temporary” then again dumping more into the “permanent” later, you might actually be spending more in the long run. If you like character, you can go with the lower grade floors with wormholes and they are actually cheaper! Knowing what I know now, I’d have put it all over instead of just in the main living area and installed the FLOR carpet tiles as area rugs (these would also make a great option for a carpet!). You can pull up the one tile and wash or replace it as needed.
Best wishes! Sorry so long. Brooke in SC:)
I think you will forget all about your hardwood under the carpet when you get your baby home!
Oh, and I know what you mean about the pet soaked nasty carpet. Our house was vacant for over a year from human inhabitants, but not from cats. Gross. There are claw marks on some of our moldings too where they climbed up the doors. I really do hate cats.
Sounds like you are settled on carpet, happy searching for the perfect carpet! I did want to say that I’ve had 4 kids learn to crawl just fine on hardwood floors. Really, littles are tough and their desire to move will not been hindered in the least by hardwoods. Of course, I have/had several vacuum phobic kids, so having hardwoods and being able to sweep the inevitable messes rather than dragging out the vacuum and doing it w/ a kid on the hip has been a lifesaver!
We installed dark brown carpet in our last house for two reasons: 1) We have dogs and kids and the carpet matched the dirt in the back yard and 2) we hoped to eventually install wood floors and wanted to be used to dark floors. I can tell you that I never regretted putting in the dark carpet. We lived in that house for 6 years and never did put in wood and (this may be gross) we never had to shampoo the carpet. It was probably dirty, but it didn’t show. I had light carpet in the house before that and wouldn’t do that again because it always looked dirty no matter how much I had it cleaned. We’re building a new house and are doing the dark brown carpet again.
When you decide to do something with the uneven concrete, consider that it’s probably part of the foundation so taking it out could undermine the foundation of the house. There are companies that can actually grind the concrete down with something like a big sander. It makes a huge mess, but then so does a jackhammer. If you mask off the area using plastic, you can minimize the mess in the rest of the house. You might check the cost to have this done as it may be more reasonable and might make it possible to do right away.
Hi Layla
First let me say, I LOVE your blog and your style and if you go with carpet, I think the sisal one is the nicest looking (so long as it’s not too scratchy). Secondly, I thought I would throw in my two cents about the carpet/wood plan-sorry.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned here the idea that the wood should boost your resale price whereas carpet may not. Doesn’t everyone ask (when they buy an older home) “are there wood floors under the carpet?”… and then go around peeking around the edges of the room for any glimpse of wood? OK, maybe not, be we always do. I know you plan on possibly refinishing the wood down the road but it also seems possible (from one of your posts above) that you might not? Investing the extra time and effort now might make you some good $$ down the road.
Also, I’m not a carpet expert but I think what someone else mentioned above about the line showing up again after a bit of wear and tear is valid. To have a perfectly level floor might involve putting plywood down over the rest of the wood floor (which would be really unfortunate).
Here are a couple of anecdotes from my experience as a mom of 4 yr old:
1. When my son was potty training, friends of ours came over with their little one. One of the thoughts about potty training is to let the kids run around naked to get used to their bodies. No problem, fine with us since the parents were there. However, in the play area where I had a runner rug, he left a nice little “present” for us. I could never bring myself to use this rug again as an area for my son to play on (luckily it was just a cheap one).
2. Last month my 4 yr old had the flu. I had been thinking about getting an small 4 x 6 rug for the landing at the top of our stairs but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. During this flu, he managed to get a bit of barf on the little rug in his room (one of those ones with all the roads and buildings on it) and a TON OF it over about a 3 x 6 space at the landing. Cleaning up the landing took about 5 minutes. For the rug, I had to borrow a carpet cleaner from our friends and go over it several times-took about 1/2 hr. Man, was I glad I hadn’t bought that rug for the landing yet (although I still prob will, just cause it will really finish that little area nicely.-LOL)
3. In our old house, we put carpet (berber) in the basement similar to what you have in some of the pics. I have to say that it was definitely nice and cozy and looked great (for a while). We used it as a guest room/play room and before I knew it, my friend spilled some Oil of oregano on it which was impossible to remove. Not the end of the world and I still liked the carpet, but a bit disheartening when you’ve just invested your money. I know, wood floors can get chipped too, but I think it adds to the character (and they can always be refinished).
It’s definitely nice to have the feel of carpet underfoot. It’s warm and comfortable and nice for breaking the falls of little ones. On the other hand, when you’re a mom and somebody pukes, spills, poops pr pees on the carpet, you’ll want to make sure you invest in a good carpet cleaner and don’t mind spending the extra time it takes in a day to clean it up-also, hopefully there are some good eco-friendly carpet cleaners around (I’m sure there are).
As you can see, I’m clearly on the wood side (LOVE it) but can see why you would consider carpet. Either way, I’m sure you’ll pick something that looks FAB!!
Sorry this post was so long…
I haven’t replaced the carpet in our house yet, but I sure need to! When we bought our house the carpet was fairly new, but super cheap so it hasn’t worn well, and though it’s neutral, there’s a bit of a pink undertone that is NOT what we would have picked. I can’t wait to see what you choose – I too have a dog who, ever the industrious little adventurer, would totally pick apart the pile and make an all day project of ripping it to shreds and scattering it all over the house. As it is, he broke into – and consequently locked himself in – our guest room and tried to dig out. When that didn’t work, he went for the windows. Now I’ve got ripped up trim around the door, a big carpetless patch with exposed subfloor, and chewed up blinds that hang crooked. Not the most welcoming sight for our guests, but oh well. I still love him. 🙂
DO NOT under any circumstances use Smart Strand. It sounds too good to be true and you know what they say about things like that! It wears poorly, snags easily, shows dirt, is expensive, and I have HUGE customer remorse. Oh, and despite their advertisements about it being stainproof, it simply is not.
I really like the idea of the sisal carpet! I think it would look amazing and according to Lauren at Pure Style Home it’s great for spills and such.
I really enjoy reading your blogs. You have such a fun sense of humor and your home is so beautiful and peaceful. Regarding the carpeting, keep the following in mind if you’re looking at textured carpets (with loops in the pattern) – it snags really easily (especially around pets). Several years back we had a berber carpet and our dog snagged it so badly once that she pulled out about a 2 foot length of one row. Sadly, it was not repairable and we had to replace it. Best of luck with your latest project! I can’t wait to read your next blog!
You might want to check out some of the indoor/outdoor carpet. It’s not what it used to be! Some of it looks a lot like sisal or some other natural substance, but it would be super practical and inexpensive to boot!
Wow – looks like you’re getting a lot of mixed reviews! So goes blogging, I guess. 😉 I just wanted to pop in and say that we have wood laminate in our entire house and two little boys. I love the look, and the boys have done just fine with learning to walk and playing – there’s certainly ample space to roll cars! However, when we visit friends who have carpeting, it just feels cozier and more relaxing to sit on the floor and play with them. So, I love the look of wood, but I miss the comfort of carpet. I don’t think you’ll be doing your house a disservice by putting in some carpet, and if it solves some issues for you, then go for it! I don’t have any great suggestions or tips on carpet buying, but my first thought was a wall-to-wall natural fiber type covering (sisal or jute), layered with area rugs. I don’t know if that would work with your dog, but it might go with the style of your decor and be plenty neutral. Have fun shopping!
We put a high quality berber carpet in our livingroom hallway fourteen years ago and it still looks like brand new. It wears well and resists stains. Good luck with everything.
Same here!