This is what the living room looked like when we made our offer to buy the house back in 2000.

We knew we would be tough on the off white carpet but thought we could get a few years wear out of it before we would have to replace it. Then the roof started leaking! It took a couple of months of having the roof fixed; followed by a completely roof replacement before we were dry again. However, the carpet had been stained irretrievably by then. So we had to replace the carpet. But now we have a big, black dog who leaves hair and dander all over the place. We had wood floors in our house in Seattle so knew that was the way to go. We went off to Home Depot and bought $3500 worth of 'engineered hardwood flooring'. What that amounts to in English is that it is fancy plywood where the bottom layer is oak, the middle layer is some processed wood, and the top layer is finished, urathaned oak. It is all tongue and grooved and you can lay it directly on the concrete floor. What a do-it-yourself project! We started by taking up the carpet, pad, tack strip, etc.

Of course Sammie the dog (Samantha actually) has to keep an eye on things. Loud noises like hammering, fireworks, and guns don't bother her at all. After we took all the old stuff away we took the baseboards off for refinishing. Judie did all that work. Finally we could start laying the floor.

We were fortunate in that the floor is pretty level and was completely dry. We did have a little drywall work in the front wall (with the window) and had to repaint that wall. This is the dining area. At this point each course of boards is about 30 feet long. First Judie comes along and puts down the mastic used to secure the boards to the floor. Then Don lays the boards. The blue tape is put down to help keep them stuck in place until the mastic has a chance to cure a bit. And here is the final result in the living room.

Almost looks like people live here huh? Well, that's an illusion! What you can't see is that to the photographer's left is Judie's office. When we got to that room we discovered all kinds of problems. I'll talk more about them later.

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