Ahh new floors!!

We always knew flooring was pricey but WOW!! Unfortunately our budget didn't allow for wood laminate in the entire house, so we opted for all common rooms (minus the water rooms) so we covered the living, family room, and 2 hallways...the bedrooms will have to wait their turn. I have to admit now that we have been living with the new floors for a bit love not having carpet, but we are HATING this product. Takes some getting used to, we even had to learn to walk a bit different on them (slippery).

Before the wood laminate decision was made I had resigned myself to changing the ugly flooring in the front entry and all of the water rooms. The existing flooring was basic ugly cream that was probably original to our pre-owned home, so it was stained and dingy. SO off to Lowe's to spend a little money (about $90) to buy a few boxes of peel and stick tile. I know, I know, but most people don't even notice (swear!!). It was super easy to install, and it only took me a few hours, and the best part...it looks really great (this stuff has come a long way)!

Here are a couple of during shots.

I am really bad about remembering to take before/during/after shots, but I am working on it. 

The best thing about this peel and stick stuff is that if your existing vinyl floor is in decent shape and you give a good scrub down you can lay the "p and s" right on top of the existing. 

Now the big dog...we thought long and hard about doing the wood laminate ourselves but we love our contractor (that fixed our water damage issues) and we like our backs and knees A LOT! so we decided to let our contractor do it. It still took a couple of days (because of moving furniture from room to room, etc.) but totally worth the extra $$ and the limited things we needed to do- I really didn't want to have to pull up and dispose of that carpet, ick). I would have loved to do a darker wood but we thought it was best to keep it light since the house is so dark already.

Ready and waiting...

Here we go!!

And here we are with everything back in place (move in day on the left)...

We liked the look at first but right away noticed that the seams of most of the planks are raised (enough to snag socks, etc.) So we have been in an ongoing battle since the day of install trying to get the issue fixed.

Here is our problem, pictures don't really capture it well but if you look at the seam areas you can see how they are raised: