There's WHAT under the floor? Oh, more floor?

Guest Blogger: Mark

And now the first frustrations.

We were on schedule today to lay down the laminate flooring and install the wall cabinets.  The flooring should be simple: we have the same laminate flooring (blond wood effect) in the dining and multi-purpose rooms.  We tracked down the original work order and ordered the same product from the manufacturer.  Just connecting the flooring in those two rooms with the floor of the kitchen to create one unified space.  It looks sort of like this:

[dining room][kitchen][multi-purpose]

Farid first called me at work to discuss his discovery regarding the subfloor.  Or what we expected would be subfloor.  It turns out that the previous owners simply laid the laminate floor over the original VCT flooring (that's vinyl composition tile for those of you playing the home version).  On one hand, cool!  Original flooring!  On the other hand, gross!  It's in really bad shape.  Oh, and they did remove the VCT in the kitchen area.  So there's an eighth-of-an-inch height difference.  Farid said that he could smooth the transition between multi-purpose and kitchen, perhaps add an extra layer of underflooring, but it might still slope a bit.  Bummer.  But OK.

Farid next called me to let me know that he would not be able to make a seamless transition between kitchen and dining room.  The previous installers had left an inch or so gap and covered it with an edging strip.  We would not have the seamless floor, but it would still be pretty good.  We knew going in this was a strong possibility, but it's unfortunate to get the confirmation.  Bummer.  But OK.

Farid called me the third time at work today regarding the flooring product itself.  Manufacturer correct?  Check.  Model number correct?  Check.  Name of color correct?  Check.  Looks the same as the existing flooring?  Nope.  "It's a little bit lighter."  Farid tells me.  How much lighter?  "You probably want to come see."  Ouch.

So I do come and see.  And it is lighter.  Significantly lighter.  Noticeably lighter.  I make an executive decision -- we replace the entire floor!  Yes, we go from 100 square feet to 500.  But now we get one color.  We get the seamless floor.  We even get the sub-floor difference taken care of as Farid can lay the planks strategically to best account for the height difference.  Below is a photo of the area with new green Silent Walk layer, and some of those strategically placed planks:

Silent Walk, Holy Walk

Wait... did I forget something?  Oh yes, consulting with Lauren.  When she arrives home later I spill the beans, taking her through each of the various issues, what we (I) decided and how much extra it would likely cost.  Lauren, bless her heart, agreed in full.  Gotta love her!

We then looked at our various under-cabinet lighting options.  Farid had chosen six different options, various types of fluorescent, LED and xenon lights.  We settled on the xenon.  The LED was too green, too cold.  The fluorescent was too, well, fluorescent.

Tomorrow (Thursday) floors go down and cabinet installation begins. Stay tuned for more photos.