We Finally Have a Floor!

I visited Nora earlier this week and it was brought to my attention that I have failed to post any photos of our new floor. (Actually, Carmen and Bob asked me about floor photos right after we had them installed and while I had good intentions at the time... but then it completely fell off my radar.) We've had the floor for about a month and a half (it was installed at the end of July) and at first I was ever-so-slightly less than thrilled. It looked... darker than I remembered it being*. And I felt like it clashed with the weird yellow "blond wood" color of our kitchen cabinets. But everyone else - and especially Robert - seemed to love, love, love it and it has definitely grown on me. I am still not loving how loud everything is without carpet... or how the furniture is constantly sliding around... or how much dustier and hairier the laminate floors look than carpet did... But it's quite aesthetically pleasing, makes moving the air conditioner from room to room a snap and is what I'd wanted for flooring ever since we moved in (I knew carpet would not live long!). Poor Garfunkel absolutely hates it. He has no traction and slides everywhere! Tug-of-War is his favorite game and he really has no leverage now with such a slippery floor. Plus, he likes to do a little head scratch/wipe/roll on the carpet after he eats, and since we now only have carpet in the bedrooms, he's taken to doing it in our room. Or on our bed. Kind of a bummer.

Anyway, here's a photo of the floor on the day they were installed. We'd LOVE to keep our furniture arranged this way, but it's a definite no-go for TV viewing. Yes, the television is the center of my life and my living room. I'm okay with that.


And here is the floor today:



Garfunkel would NOT move out of the way while I was trying to photograph the fireplace, so here he is. (Darn, he's a good looking dog!)




So! There you go - a tour of our new, mold-free, odor-free, dry floor. What do you think? Keep your fingers crossed the stupid people upstairs keep their disposal celery-free...


* Because we decided to use a contractor that both sets of parents had used in the past (and because his rates were so reasonable), Robert was willing to go with an upgrade. So, we picked a middle-of-the-road-but-closer-to-better-than-worse laminate in a cherry wood color. It took us so long to get it all installed because we couldn't get the HOA to make the check out to us and not a specific company (or the company they recommended). I guess we took SO long that the HOA finally gave up and mailed us a check! We got the floors done the following week. :o)