Things always happen for a reason. You might not realize it at the time, but later it may eventually become clear. My house for some reason had white carpeting throughout. Not by my choice. It was like that when I bought it. Or at least the carpet was white at one time. I’ve no idea what the original owners were thinking when they picked it out. They had dogs and two young kids. Who chooses white carpeting with all that?!
I’ve wanted wood floors for years. I saved for what seemed like forever. In the summer of 2008, I decided to bite the bullet. I called a flooring company and had their rep come out with all kinds of samples. They measured and showed me options. I picked out a gorgeous cherry wood to do downstairs. I confirmed the installation and was all set to fork over $7800 for my dream floors.
The contractor agreed to move the big things like the bed and sofa, but I had to move everything else out of the rooms for the installation. I started a few days ahead of time since there was tons of stuff to cram into all the other rooms of the house. I had crap shoved everywhere to clear out the downstairs. I was all set and ready for their arrival. Until I freaked out.
It wasn’t even about the money like a normal person. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s having my stuff all in disarray. I’m extremely averse to change and having my stuff spread all around was more than I could handle. I called the contractor and cancelled the day before. I just couldn’t stand the upheaval. Yes, believe it or not I couldn’t deal with it for another 48 hours. I pretty much slammed down the phone and put every last thing back in its place immediately.
Ever since I’ve wistfully thought about the floors that never were. My missed opportunity. I grumbled every time I had to get out the carpet cleaner. I even thought about just replacing the horrid carpeting with new clean carpets but I figured I wouldn’t be able to deal with the same process of installation. A few weekends ago, I was poking around the hardware store looking at tile and all kinds of upgrades. Basically dreaming of things to do in my To Do of Redoing a Room.
I rounded a corner and came face to face with a screaming good deal on cherry flooring. Such a good deal that I even gasped. I already knew the square footage from the previous flooring attempt so I worked up the numbers. I raced home and googled to see if I could actually attempt this myself. Seemed reasonable. I made the purchase and spent a pretty good chunk of last week, tearing out the nasty old carpet and tack strips.
Afterwards I installed my beautiful new floors in the dining room, living room and master bedroom. After almost 5 years, I finally have my new flooring and the best part is that it only cost me $1500! So my panic paid off. I got my floors, learned how to put in new ones myself for a great sense of accomplishment, and saved over $6,000. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
I did have to get a new fuzzy blue vaccuum cleaner to go with the floors. It’s so much quieter than the old one. 😉 Things always happen for a reason. Sometimes it just takes a while to figure it out.
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