Floors!

We have some floors! I love the color even more than we did when Scott picked them out.  Way more.  As soon as we started laying them yesterday, I could tell we made the right choice.

The hand scraped detail really adds a lot of personality and character to the floors, and makes them look much more like wood versus cheap laminate.

They are incredibly dirty in all these pictures from the silicone process.  For each board, we are laying a layer of silicone at the seams.  In our last house, the water in the kitchen and Kaya's cries for attention (peeing in the corner if we aren't letting her sit on our face) led to swelling at the seams.  To prevent that this time around, we are not installing in the kitchen or half bath, we purchased floors with a beveled instead of square edge, and we are using the silicone.  The product is highly recommended for wet areas.  While this greatly increases the labor time, it seems that it will be well worth it in the long run.

We were able to get through almost 200 square feet yesterday.  Scott had to leave in the afternoon to go fix something for someone at work.  That left me to learn how to lay laminate! I would have never thought it was truly as easy as it is.  All it takes is the piece of laminate, underlayment (if it's not attached like it is on our floors), some silicone (if you're using it) a rubber mallet, a "cheat" piece to pound the mallet with so you don't damage the edges, a saw (we are using a few different types for different cuts but don't ask me to tell you what!) and lots of patience. 

The mailman also surprised us and brought a new cat house.  Since our cats LIVE on the carpet and one of them never even moves from one spot, we thought it would be nice to get them something soft since there is no more carpet.

The younger cat (Caspain/Kitty Kitty Meow) adores it and doesn't seem to let the other cat on.  Hopefully that will change.