Mom and I moved into our current house three years ago, and while we love it to death (especially the natural light shining from a skylight that bathes the kitchen in a reverential glow) there have been changes we’ve wanted to make. The biggest one? Replacing the carpet and vinyl flooring throughout the entire house. The carpet was okay when we first moved in, but the wear and tear from our four critters, the heavy foot traffic from my home classes, and the light carpet color, have reduced it to a mass of stains.
The cats, dogs, and students won’t be going anywhere, so we need to come up with a replacement solution. We’ve always loved the look and durability of stained concrete floors, so we had a guy come to give us a quote this week. After he left, Mom and I looked at each other in shock and tried to figure out what Plan B might consist of! Why? Because not only was it going to cost $12,000, but they wanted us to move ourselves and all our belongings out of the house for 3-4 days. SHUDDER. I had moving. HATE it. Passionately and painfully. And to have to move and then move right back in the same place??? It kind of makes me want to cry.
We decided that if we did hardwoods and tile instead, at least we could take it in stages and not have to move everything at once. So now we’re researching that option. I tell you what…I think Mom may have finally figured out the only way to force me to clean the bead room…
Jill, usually the very high end reno contractors have a very hush-hush once-a-year MAJOR sale… Thing is, it is from inventory and you can learn about such sales if you go to showrooms, say… if you go to check out what the trend is for tiles… take your time… mosey on about… then chat up with the retailers as much as you can w/o giving them any information that you are possibly considering this to be a DIY Project. I found if you tell them, I’m looking for or not sure what you’re looking for… but at this price quote… then inquire if they are familiar with any upcoming inventory sell-out from Re-no contract owners… and if so, where it’ll be… (always at the warehouse where they keep all of their inventories)… If you like what you see, do NOT ever settle for set price. Negotiate at your personal rock bottom prices which they’ll balk at… but start LOW… then remember not to give in after a firm price you set for yourself… Inventory sales like these are highly hush-hush and I found the only way to go to such sales is through showrooms. After my husband and I purchased travertine tiles for our master bathroom, 20′ x 8’… we knew it would entail a lot of work… so we haven’t even had the time to install it yet… we ended up also purchasing a heating system that will go underneath the flooring…. We also bought at a well known location that is for everyone… there was a massive sell-out of hardwood floors… but they were only the very high end that we were able to get at a whopping .46 PER SQ. FT! I kid you not… Brazilian Cherry…. (Very much like a Teak wood ) that will be used in the studio. That was from the popular “Lumber Liquidators”… Please don’t always trust that they are giving you a break… do your homework first…. there are LOTS and LOTS of retail websites giving you price quotas on whatever you want that’s known to man…. also, Sometimes you just have to wait… Designers, Contractors want to get rid of what they truly consider will go out of ‘high-end’ style by early winter so they have room for new stuff come the new year. I hope this helps somewhat…. I know you wrote the article in August…. it hopefully isn’t too late for you… The baby in the picture is an absolute cutey!