New wood floors...TV hung up.

Sorry for not updating lately. Been real busy getting situated in the new house. It seems like I get home from work and then work on installing stuff or doing something with the house. Starting to paint a little, hook up things, assemble shelving, furniture...etc. My hands always feel a little sore lately. Two major milestones to report. The wood floors are finally done and the LCD TV is up on the wall.

We originally planned to have some wood flooring in the entry way when we picked out stuff at the design center. However, I thought the builder markup was so ridiculous so we just had carpet put in where we would potentially put down hardwood floors after we moved in. The difference in cost is at least 50%. A little bit of a hassle after you move in but not too bad since we were still unpacking and have not started using the rooms that got new flooring.

So I bought some handscraped engineered hardwood flooring, buckets of glue, and trim pieces. I bought the wood from Lumber Liquidators as they were the only ones in town that carried the exact wood we wanted. It was hard to find some T-Molding that matched the color of the wood so I ended up getting some unstained molding and applied the stain myself. Turned out to be a perfect match. I hired some flooring installers through Lumber Liquidators to put it in. They came in on Saturday morning and finished about 8 hours later. There were 2 guys, one installing and one cutting the wood. They did a great job. However, I could have hired them directly without going through Lumber Liquidators. I've always had mixed feelings about Lumber Liquidators. It seems like they've gone down in selection and service lately. If you know what you want and know what things cost then it's okay to buy from them. If you are totally clueless, I'd recommend going through a reputable, local flooring place. I wanted to save some money so I bought my own wood, loaded it and transported it back to my house to avoid delivery charges. The buckets of glue were some of the heaviest things I've ever had to lift. Because my wood was going down over concrete on the first floor, it had to be glued instead of being nailed down. If it were upstairs, it would have been nailed to the wood subfloor. If you do a "floating" floor, it will sound kinda hollow. Glue downs eliminate this problem but is very messy.

By the stairs and kitchen.

Dining room.

Mud room going to the garage.

Hallway/Entry.



I finally hung up the 52" Samsung LCD HDTV up above the fireplace. I had an outlet put on the wall and also a conduit that runs inside the wall so I could hide my cables. My next major project is to add cabinets and shelving to the nook just to the left of the fireplace. All my components that hook up to the tv will go there.


Below is a picture of the first scorpion caught inside our new house. We caught it alive and I thought it would be cool to take a picture of it on our countertop. It tried to run away but it wasn't fast enough. Now it is in Jayden's bug jar.