Diy Hard Wood Floor Reveal

or, as I wanted to title it: How Sears Broke My Heart

This post could be very ramble’sih so I apologize ahead of time. Actually I can pretty much guarantee I am going to ramble. Most of you know we are putting in hard wood floors. (yay). What some of you may not know, is that the reason this whole project began is because a brand new refrigerator we bought had a very bad leak from the ice maker. It flooded the kitchen on our main level and made it’s way down through the floor into the ceiling of the lower level of our home. This resulted in damage that had to be dealt with. The refrigerator was from Sears. Sears was wonderful during this process and the Regional Manager was very helpful. Sears referred us to an outside claims department as is the policy because the Sears Kenmore Elite unit we bought was made by LG. After just shy of a year, of back and forth, and jumping through hoops, and hassles galore with the claims department, we settled for $600 less then the lowest estimate we got to have the repairs made and the flooring replaced. Yes, they were only willing to offer us $600 less then the lowest of the 3 estimates I had to get. I was told I could file a claim if that was not satisfactory.

Moving on, Jim and I decided to save and pay the difference not only for that floor, but to do the living area as well so we could have a seamless look on the main floor. We decided to install hard wood flooring and diy it to help with costs. With that, comes a lot of a mess and a house turned upside down. Well, I did rather well ignoring the mess, the tools, the displacement, etc… besides being excited for the end result, I hung in there.

Until we were thisclosetobeingdone and our trusty table saw similar to which you can better understand at websites similar to mechanopedia caught fire and died. Jim put the last piece of flooring in by going old school with a hammer and chisel. The problem? We still have to rip all the transition pieces to complete the floor. We have 3 doorways and the large section between the living room and kitchen, and the step down into the sun room. Not being able to lay these, also has the baseboard installation on hold. It all goes together like a puzzle. And this puzzle is at a standstill.

Today, I heard from Sears about our table saw situation, and for the wholesale cost to them on a $244 item, they choose to offer me a “discount” so I could buy a new one to replace the one that caught fire. A whopping 10% off to be exact. I shared on facebook how disappointed I was and how upset this has made me. I do have to disclose, they told me I could file a damages claim. But yeah… no thanks. I don’t have a year. I really expected them to say hey, get a new saw and get that project done. We want to make good on this. I was just certain that they would want to save the day!! What the hell was I thinking? It may sound silly that I have no interest in a claim, but I just don’t want to fight. I fought all my fight against cancer thankyouverymuch. I just don’t have it in me to be that irritated and inconvenienced. I also thought, hmm… logically, wouldn’t it be cheaper to replace the unit, them to pay an adjuster to travel to our home (they don’t live around here!) and all the people involved in a claim? Doesn’t add up to me, but then, I don’t work for Sears.

I do know, I will drive 2 hours each way, (in the snow, lol) to Eugene and shop at a big box retailer, and buy another brand, putting our project off even longer. All the while praying it does not rain. Hello? I live in OREGON. Before I buy anything at the Sears literally 5 minutes from my house.

I just want to note, that I have nothing against Craftsman, I would get another Craftsman tool in a heartbeat. It’s the level of customer service that is so wildly lacking that upsets me.

Which coincidentally we have tried to support since we live in a small town. You know, support the local community and all that. It’s actually sad that our local store will suffer because of this. We were loyal shoppers for over 25 years. My grandfathers bought Craftsman, my dad bought Craftsman. Heck, we got Craftsman tools as wedding gifts! We still own and use many Craftsman tools. We’ve got our home and the little cottage. We have bought a lot of appliances at Sears over the years. As a mater of fact, we just bought a new dish washer about 5 weeks ago. From Sears. Jim wanted the security of knowing we had a brand new one with these new floors.

Now it’s not the reveal I had in mind, at all, but here is a quick pic I snapped today.

It’s not decorated, but we worked over the weekend getting all the protective cardboard up off the floor, cleaning and moving all the furniture back. It was as far as we could get. At that point we were still hoping to finish this weekend. I’m not sure what our plan is now. I guess we’ll finish when we can? It’s a bit disconcerting.

The new wall color throughout is Glidden (shown below).

All trim is BM in Super White-Gloss. All ceilings are BM Super White ceiling paint.

This is the wall color before:

I have to admit I fell a bit sad. I’m definitely off my game. I’d say I feel totally discombobulated!

This should be a super happy time, instead I am stressed.

Worst of all, my decorating mojo is a no gogo. All the pretty walls I painted are nail free. And I don’t know what I want to put where. What the heck kind of a blogger am I??? You guys should probably fire me.

Maybe I need some pinspiration?

I did get to put out my burlap table runner I ordered from Ann Drake at Sutton Place Designs.

It’s so pretty. I’ve been waiting to be able to put it out! I got it just for this spot and it’s perfect. I so adore the crisp ruffled border! I picked up a mercury glass gourd at Ross last week and popped it on top just to get to look at it. I knew I had to get everything cleaned up before I even thought about getting my Fall decor out. One mess at a time!

Because none of the transitions are done and the baseboards are not installed I didn’t take a full room shot. You can see the floors some though and how all the trim is white now!!! That was such a labor of love. It took tons of paint to cover that dark brown wood, but I LOVE it. hahaha.

I did get a few things put in my glass front cabinet as well as two tag sale finds perched on top. The milk crate is so heavy, with metal sides. I bought from a neat lady that had had it forever! The globe was $3 bucks at yard sale. It’s in super shape and at least 30 years old. It’s a really vibrant blue. I liked the shade.

Here is a Before reminder of the sun room:

You know… I never liked how the brown trim broke up the room so badly, especially in photos. I can’t even find a full room shot because of that. lol. So I’ll show you the how it looked when we moved in:

… and a snippet before picture. I just put off painting the trim since it sort of tied in the flooring and I knew it was going to be difficult, mostly over the stair case. Double that with the vaulted ceiling. Wow, it already feels like forever ago we had that laminate counter! Yuck.

And a during photo:

I painted everything to the left. I had professionals paint everything over the stairs. I didn’t dare fall and hurt myself. It just was not worth it.

You know, I feel a little bit better. I swear I am such an open book! I can’t keep anything inside. I’m like a “what you see is what you get” kinda girl, for the most part. I know I am so lucky. I do. I guess with my car breaking down, and being so close to finishing something up and other boring things, I just got a little overwhelmed. I don’t write beautifully and poetically… I’m just me. I sort of just gush it all out there. I’ve written very personal posts before and deleted them. But today I’m just going to hit publish because I know some of you probably feel the same sometimes too.

Like I tell you all the time on facebook, I love our community. I really do. You guys make my day so often. Sometimes I tear up, belly laugh and even snort laugh. (don’t tell!).

You guys mean a lot to me.

Shannon

UPDATE: We now have an Ace Hardware right here in town! Guess what they sell? Yep. Craftsman. BooYah!

UPDATE II: If you want to see some proper hardwood floor pics try viewing our home tour.

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