Vinyl Plank Floors: Hubby's Room

I have only been on the fringes of blogland for over a month.  For  three weeks I had that 'creeping-chest-crud virus' that has hit so many this season in Chicagoland. Despite my flu-shot in November, this one hit me hard. I did peek at peoples' blogs, but rarely commented, because typing took too much effort.

Meanwhile...

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The last two weeks we have begun a huge whole house remodel. Here all my plants migrated to the livingroom window.

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This is part of my spring decorating in the kitchen--at the moment, as every room is a disaster.

Today, I looked around and I really couldn't find a few square feet to take a picture as we are doing the bedrooms' fruitbasket upset.

After thirty-two years in this house, many changes are needed. Not just for looks, but for safety, health, easy maintenance and OMG...simply to change things. This house was built in 1974, and we moved here in 1984. We basically haven't redone much since the late 1980s other than new windows, doors, woodwork, and changes in paint and paper.

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Hubby decided to work around some of the furniture in his bedroom.  He painted the ceilings, removed all the old shelving brackets and wallpapered.

Our house is small by today's standards, 1400 square feet on one floor, but now perfect for retirees. It's hard to believe we raised two boys and had two businesses in this house over the years.

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My poor porch which has even more stuff on it now. It's still cold here (snow forecasted for today) so we aren't using it. Furniture, bedding, treasures, lumber, 6-foot fish(2)--don't ask, and all the extras you need for remodeling.

Every corner of the house has been affected, because of moving so many things out of the way. We are proceeding one room at a time, as we are doing the work ourselves.

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Here is the bank of cabinets from the master---which is moving to hubby's room. Sorry for the blur, but my eyes are bad closerange and it looked fine in the viewer and we moved the shelves and dressers immediately after I took this.

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Here is the hallway---with what was in his room. We just finished swapping furniture between my snoring husband's bedroom and mine. (We do visits--though, lol), and this is the pieces in the hall before we moved them.

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After the walls and ceiling were done, hubby laid new subfloor (1/4"plywood) and an interlocking vinyl plank flooring system. This is the first piece starting at the wall. The planks are 6"x36" long. He cut some in half to stagger the edges and mix up the pattern. Every plank seemed to look different.

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Vinyl plank uses NO GLUE and that's a plus in installation. Hubby says, hard part in the beginning it floats, so you need to constantly check to make sure your joints have stayed together. I stood on many edges for him while he gently tapped them into place. But, basically it is a one man job, eventually he used a full box of tile to take my place. It took him a day and a half to complete the floor and the moldings, and he is sixty-eight. The compressor was used for nailing the moldings. The vac was used to constantly clean your surfaces while laying the plank. The tiniest bit of dirt or foreign matter on the floor can damage the edges. Once they are locked in though it is a smooth, seamless floating surface

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 The plank wallpaper has a hint of moss green between gray-white-beige weathered planks.

The new trim was finally finished (project begun years ago) and the walls with new weathered plank wallpaper and paint.

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We have the option of hanging curtains over the blinds in very cold winters under the valances hubby has made for most of the windows in the house.

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 In the last ten years we have replaced all the woodwork with bulls-eye corners and ribbed moldings throughout the house, along with the new windows and doors.

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We moved the NEW for him, OLD furniture in.  We will probably give the dressers a NEW coat of min-wax stain sealer in Spring when the windows can be opened. These are my childhood dressers purchased in 1962 from Goldblatt's, a Chicago chain at that time. I chose the oak over the fussy white girly furniture, and it has served us well, as it is solid oak except for the backs and bottoms.
We added the all oak bookcases a few years ago. Some of his boxes will be covered with the wallpaper. Cords need to be corralled, and the toys (LOL) he is a doting grandparent, and they need to be put away. For the first time, he has empty drawers--and we will be tweaking his closet later.

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We still have to 'stage the room', as I will replace all the plastic containers with NEW linen look storage boxes etc, add a small rug and coordinate the linens.

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This empty wall will be filled with OLD nature and wildlife pictures, we have quite a collection. Maybe a few OLD antiques here and there---an antique powder horn, probably more.

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This lamp was an OLD thrift store find, a vintage Stiffel solid brass lamp base for $15.00 and it's perfect for a man's room.

I love the NEW windows in our house, they are triple-pane crank-outs, and we have wood or white blinds on all of them for privacy. I simply like the simplicity of the look. They keep the house cool in the Summer, blocking sun and warm in Winter when they are closed. We have our one monster window to replace yet in the living room. Hopefully that will happen next year. That's a homebuilt play area in our backyard for the grand and guests.

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Back to the flooring, why did we go with vinyl?---this was a big decision. First quality vinyl plank is about the same cost as hardwood, so that wasn't really a factor and we knew we had to lay NEW subfloor no matter what.

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We are retirees, but have most of the holidays and our home is in a lake community, so we have lots of summer company. We GREEN garden, do lots of canning and freezing our produce, do crafts and REDO furniture. Hubby does carpentry and has rebuilt the outside of this house and the garage from the slab up---so our floors take a beating with all the traffic in and out.

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The NEW hallway completed.

We had done our basement family room with a similar plank product three years ago,  and it has stood up well to paint, playdoh, kids, scratches, heavy traffic and rough use. We had always planned to do the upstairs in solid oak, but we started asking around about using hardwood in the kitchen, as we wanted the same flooring throughout the whole house.

Everyone we know---and many--who have hardwood in their kitchens---HATE it: the maintenance, the scratches, the stains, and the popping up because of having to use water in a kitchen. One couple we know has already had theirs refinished once and it needs it again in less than fifteen years and they are retired.

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The tile to the left is the smallest bedroom, my son was allergic to dust---so we did a REDO and ripped out his carpeting when we moved in 1984 and did tile, super for a 10 year-old boy.

So---but hardwood is so gorgeous, and our decision continued to waffle.

A visit to our nephew's new home with vinyl plank installed helped. I bent down and touched it, and couldn't tell it wasn't wood, and it was gorgeous. In their last home they had hardwood throughout, but chose vinyl, again because of maintenance. Another upside, it's so quiet: no clicking heels down the hallway, more of a swoosh-swoosh.

Finally we are in our late sixties and this product has a 25-year warranty and it is easy care. We aren't going to be moving, so resale is not an issue. If one plank is damaged, we can replace it.

So the decision was made: the VINYL PLANK over hardwood, which is also GREEN for the planet.

So one bedroom/hallway down and two to go. On to the master bedroom!

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Now the master bedroom dressers are in the living room.

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And I'm sleeping in the extra bedroom/office.

There are  more things added to this room since I took this picture, all the bedding and mountains of pillows, magazines, and clothing from the master bedroom.

Notice the chandelier, hanging from the shelf...can't wait to use that in the bedroom. I got it from Chippy Shabby at the Elkorn Flea Market last June in this post.

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In the master, yesterday the peach carpeting was removed and all the moldings. The corner bump out is the furnace flue. The wall with the lamps has had some cold issues and some moisture issues so we are planning on taking that out---who knows what we may find.

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The opposite closet wall I need to paint all the trim and REDO the ceilings here. So I will be busy doing that while hubby works on the opposite walls.

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The bulk of the largest pieces are now on the porch. The kitchen is the only place that is basically a haven from construction now.

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These little bunnies look scared, all that pounding, etc. An egg to be modpodged eventually.

Sweet vintage blue tulip tablecloth for Spring---I don't iron---we go au-natural around here.

And I think I need a cup of coffee. What are you doing for Spring remodels or spruce ups?



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 All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

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