New Floors!

In August Derek and I finally bit the bullet and ordered new hardwood floors for our kitchen.  The existing ones were very scratched, faded and just plain ugly.  Even when they were clean they looked dirty and the dirt just clung to the surface.  We could have sanded them down, and gotten all but about 3 very deep scratches, but ultimately decided to spend a little extra and get all new hickory floors. 

 

I should have taken a picture of the floors before they were ripped up, but here you see a few planks that are left.

 Underneath was the original linoleum.  The off color to the right is where they tried to use heat to get the linoleum up when the old hardwoods were laid.  It obviously didn't work.

 Our floor is "floating" on this pad and is glued together instead of being nailed.  There are pros and cons to both.  We also had someone install them.  It took two experienced men three full days to do the project, plus two visits after they were "done".  I am so glad we didn't have to do it!

 Here are the floors as they went in.

 Here's another picture of the wood that really shows the variation of color and all the knots.  I love it!

After they went down I stressed about whether we'd made the right decision.  I agonized over ever imperfection and every time the boys dragged something across the floor I cringed.  Then we left for Christmas and, literally, the first thing I noticed when we came home were how nice my floors looked and realized how glad I was we had done it.  So I don't agonize anymore - I'm just LOVING my new floors.  They are so easy to clean and look clean even when they aren't (which, lets face it, is most of the time!)