Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The great kitchen re-model!

OK, so it wasn't a re-model. Actually, not even close. We (and by "we", I mean Neil) just replaced the vinyl floor tiles. Have you ever used the stick-on vinyl floor squares? They TOTALLY rock. Seriously, you just line them up, peel off the backing like a Band-Aid, and stick them on. The only cutting you have to do is along the edges. It took a total of about 3 hours, including moving furniture and appliances to do it.
I decided on Wednesday morning that I just. couldn't. stand. the current floor. I don't know how long it'd been there, but it was a) light-colored - so showed dirt a LOT and b) so scratched up that even though I might mop it every day (which of course I don't), it NEVER looked clean. Neil had stayed over the night before because we were up watching a movie, so as we were enjoying our coffee, I blurted out, "I can't stand this floor! You've done vinyl tile before; how much do you think it would cost to replace this?" We did a bit of figuring and took a trip to Home Depot. We bought 4 boxes of vinyl tile for a grand total of $130 including tax. I bought Neil beer and cigarettes for his labor payment (bad, bad, I know, but hey...it's cheaper than paying him $20 an hour, which he deserves. And he didn't even want a carton of cigarettes, just a pack, because, as he said, "I'll just smoke more if I have more").
Oh, yeah, another cool thing about these tiles: you don't have to peel up the old flooring. You just make sure it's clean (which it IS, although you can't tell it from the pictures! :) and put the new down over the old.
All in all, a job VERY well done and VERY appreciated!


The old floor. Gross.

Up-close. Grosser.

My Neil with his pre-payment.
Hard at work, as you can tell.

Katie "helped", too.
The juxtaposition of new and old makes the old look worse, if possible.


Done! Isn't it purty?


The obligatory Neil-being-creepy pose.


I didn't sleep there that night, although I considered it.

5 comments:

OBXNeil said...

Seriously, ya'll, you ever wish there was a cheap, easy way to make-over your kitchen? These stick-on tiles are it. They're like band-aids for kitchen decor. At one point Katie was installing them without supervision (admittedly, tres briefly.) Easy and cheap, ya'll! (inebriated homo not included.)

Melody Strayer said...

Nice! Looks great!!

Anonymous said...

Cool. I won't tell Hal, he did ceramic tile on our kitchen floor in SC (which we still own...) - but he did do the stick-ons in the bathroom, more needed to be cut in there and the ceramic is harder to cut.

Becka said...

THe new floor looks grand!


word verification word: garahsh gare-ah-shhh adj. I very exaggerated and subtly quiet sense of style

( thought you would appreciate the fact that I believe every word verification needs a definition. I expect you to reciprocate!)

OBXNeil said...

K, time to update your blog. Love, your favorite black kettle.

Word verification definition (fun idea, Becka):
webume: greeting spoken by one with severe harelip.