A Beautiful, Inexpensive Flooring Option

       Updating and decorating a small 1960s tract home can be a challenge, especially on a limited budget.  In a couple of my earlier posts, I have been showing you how we have been tackling this challenge in our own home. We are so over carpeting because when you tear it up, it is so dirty underneath, even though you feel like you have tried your hardest to be clean.  Remember this photo of my son tearing up tack strips and then the ancient tiles below that? It was gross!

   We chose to only put carpet in the living room because that is where we do a lot of floor sitting during the holidays, so I wanted that to be really comfortable.  But, now that the new carpet is in, no one goes in there with their shoes on.
     We decided that we wanted a solid surface throughout the rest of the house, but we didn't have a huge budget for tile to be laid or laminate installed and definitely not wooden floors.  It needed to be an easy option for DIY-ers like us.  We had done most of those other things in the past and we knew the hidden costs, and the time and effort involved.  I wanted something that would look good, be durable and quick and easy to install to be ready for the upcoming wedding guests that will be coming into town.. And since it won't be too many years until retirement and a change of venue, so to speak, we don't want to pour a ton of money into our changes. So, of course Glen and I took a trip to Lowe's and this is what we found:  

Style Selections is a peel and stick vinyl wood-look plank! It is amazingly easy to install and only about $1.00 per square foot.

Here is what the planks look like! Textured and realistic looking.

       It cuts super easily and my husband completed our hallway in just a few hours.  I can hardly wait to see it throughout the rest of our home.  (We are doing it in stages.) Here are some photos of the process.  And for a little background about the prep work, we stripped the floors down to the cement and cleaned them really well.  We leveled out any holes left behind from ripping out the carpet strips.  We took off the baseboards to paint and replace later.  We painted the hallway prior to laying the floor.  Then, we coated the cement floor with a multi-purpose primer.  Then, just follow the directions on the package of floor planks for laying out the planks, and VOILA!

You can see the ugly cement floor as the process of laying the vinyl began.

Here Glen is making sure the tile will fit under the one piece of molding we didn't remove because it is connected to the living room molding.

He staggered the seams of the planks for that realistic wood flooring look.

      I am so happy with the end result.  You can see we still have to do the doorways as we go into each bedroom.  We also need to paint and reinstall the baseboards.

   See how nice it looks next to the new carpeting? I am so happy with it! Nice results for very little cost!