Home Improvement

Yesterday I went to Menards to check out the pricing on carpet. Ryan's dad may be helping us pay for it as Ryan's birthday gift. My hope is we will get our family room livable before winter. Right now it's a disgusting mess! 

When we got Zora is when it all went down hill, and she STILL isn't even fully potty trained. She will go in there if we don't keep it blocked off with a baby gate! Originally, Ryan was going to do an epoxy floor coating, but we were in for a sad surprise once the carpet came up. Turns out, the floor is raised by 2x4s on their sides with some sort of thick plywood sat on top instead of being concrete like we had thought. Now that the carpet is gone there is only the padding left covering the boards, and Zora has seen to it that it isn't even in moderately good condition.

I decided that, even though we do have pets, that the $0.48 padding will be sufficient. If our room is actually 250 square feet like Ryan estimated it will come to $120 + tax.

These are $1.49 a square foot, equaling $372.50. I'm not really sure if I actually like the blue or not, and even though I like the light tan I know any color close to white is probably a bad idea with 2 dogs and a 3 year old. Haha!

This is actually a light blue color and costs $2.09 a square foot coming to $522.50. I liked this one better, but $650 is pretty steep!

We have to replace a few of the boards as well, but I didn't get a chance to check the pricing on that. I'd assume it can't be all that much. We only need 2 for sure because the "French doors" we have leak extremely badly and water damage has caused a big hole. 

I say "French doors" because, in my opinion, French doors means BOTH sides open. Ours is more like a door next to a window the size of a door, haha!

What really stinks is carpet isn't all that room needs.

The leak in the door needs to be fixed, and fixing it will mean no longer being able to use the door, so really we need to buy an entirely new door. I've looked into it and let me tell you, French doors are NOT cheap. We also need to replace all of the trim, not just because it's the cheapest looking trim I've ever seen, but also because Zora has torn the strip off on the side of the door and under one of the windows. The piece above the door has also fallen off because the former owners had their curtain rod (holders? anchors? hardware?) screwed in through the trim.

When I first bought my sewing machine the plan was to turn the room into my sewing area. In my mind it will be half sewing room, half comfy sitting area. Eventually, when we have more than a little extra money, I want to buy a bigger sized flat screen. This way we will have a room with actual seating to entertain company. Right now our TV is in our bedroom and the only seating we have are the chairs at the kitchen table. Losing our "family room" has made our house look tiny and I cannot wait to get that space back. Plus, a sewing area is going to be amazing. I won't be cramped at my little desk in a corner of our bedroom, haha!