Late last week we were finally able to start installing our hardwood floors at the new house. It’s going well (we’re getting it done with our own four hands), but it’s proving to be a time intensive project – which is not necessarily the type of project you want to take on when you’re short on time (we’re scheduled to move in this weekend and would like to be completely done with four bedrooms and a long hallway by then – egads!). So once we’re breathing a bit easier and a bit further along, we’ll write up a play-by-play of how it all (literally) is going down. ‘Til then, enjoy this still-dusty pic of the first room we have officially completed: our master (well, we still have to get the baseboards and quarter round in).
As much as our timeline has me sweating bullets, it’s nothing compared to the Cathy-comic style perspiration that I was feeling during the first step of this project: just getting the dang wood home. Allow me to paint sketch you a picture. Lumber Liquidators called me to say my order was in and ready for pick up. Clara was napping so Sherry stayed home with her and I ran off to rent the $19 truck from Lowe’s or Home Depot that they suggested to pick up our lumber (it was a pretty huge order that definitely wouldn’t fit in our car – and renting a truck from blue or orange was cheaper than LL’s delivery service, so they recommended that). Off I went to Lowe’s, where I purchased all of my quarter-round molding for the four bedrooms and the hallway we were tackling (Lowe’s doesn’t let you rent their truck unless you’re making a purchase, but since I needed that stuff anyway it worked out well). Then I headed down the street to Lumber Liquidators.
Now, I knew my order would be bigger than our kitchen’s cork floor (which I was just barely able to fit in our Altima, btw) but I was still a bit shocked when I saw the massive stack of boxes being trucked out on a forklift. Was that really all ours? Gulp. It made me very glad I had rented the truck….
…that is, until they started to lower the load onto the truck bed and I noticed one of the tires was squishing down a little more than the other three from the added weight. It definitely wasn’t flat, it was just a little lower than the others on air. Which was enough to turn me into a Nervous Nelly (not to be confused with regular Nelly). But the Lumber Liquidator guys were great and forklifted my materials in a way that seemed to take the brunt of the weight off that tire – and we all agreed it looked okay enough to take it slow and drive the three short miles down the road to the new house.
Well, it turned out to be one of the longest 3 mile drives of my life. First of all, the load proved to be pretty unbalanced. Between my worries about the tire and the fact that the boxes of flooring were stacked pretty high (and not strapped together as tightly as they initially appeared to be), every time I turned I could see the boxes lean one way or the other. And this was despite taking turns at like five miles per hour with my hazards on in the right lane.
After a few turns I got a sense of how to shift the load back to an even-ish center, which thankfully squelched the visions that I had of myself in an overturned Lowe’s truck watching my new hardwood floor boards get strewn across the road and crushed by oncoming traffic. And since there were just a handful of turns between me and home, I figured it would be smooth (albeit slow) sailing the rest of the way.
Then it started to rain.
In all of my stress about the unbalanced load, I failed to notice the storm clouds that had rolled in without any warning. Awesome. It wasn’t just a drizzle, it was a sudden downpour… and I had dozens of boxes of hardwood floors being protected by nothing but cardboard in my truck bed. Hello blood pressure spike!
Luckily a previous occupant of the Lowe’s truck had left a large plastic drop cloth in the truck bed (something finally went my way!) so I was able to pull off onto a side street and cover everything before it got too wet. Of course it took me a few more death-defying turns to get off and back on the main road, but crisis mostly averted.
No more than one stoplight later, the rain stopped. Stupid thunderstorm. But it was still a bit windy, so my hasty cover job with the drop cloth was now coming back to haunt me and the plastic was starting to flap loose from the truck bed. Cue a few more turns to stop and remove the drop cloth completely.
I had barely made it a mile from Lumber Liquidators at this point.
My pounding heart was probably visible through my rain-soaked shirt, but fortunately my next two miles were far less eventful. I soon arrived to the new house, a few hairs grayer but with my hardwoods and truck perfectly upright and intact.
Then it hit me that I had to unload the darn thing. I had completely failed to think about this step in the process. I was alone. Sherry was still with Clara at home – where it never even rained (cue me screaming “What?! Was the cloud just over my truck?! Am I Eeyore?!”). Clearly I didn’t have a forklift at my disposal, so I sucked it up and started wrestling the boxes one by one off the truck and into the house. All 50 of them…
I think it took me a good hour to get them all unloaded. They were heavy (56 pounds each, I later learned), unwieldy (each one is about five feet long), and they all had to come down from the truck bed, up a few stairs and through a narrow doorway in the garage, before I could stack them in the dining room to acclimate before installation. There was no way in heck I had the energy to take them all upstairs at that point, so that would have to wait for another day. Between nearly giving myself a panic attack driving them home and then hauling 2,800 pounds of wood inside (seriously, I did the math) I figured I earned that much.
That was Clara enjoying the new flooring the day after it arrived. Here’s hoping she enjoys it as much once its out of the box and laid across her floor – because that’s what we’re working on today. Woot!
Ceci Bean says
Love the illustrations! Reminds me of Roo’s at Neon Fresh!
Kelly K says
This had me giggling in my office at work! I know it wasn’t funny at the time, but now that everything turned out okay, you have to admit it’s pretty freakin’ funny, right? Right?
YoungHouseLove says
I think it’s funny. John? Not yet…
xo
s
lydia k. says
What a champ! I’m sure you didn’t think so at the time, but the money you saved from doing this yourself instead of paying to have it delivered was TOTALLY worth the story. I don’t know many men who can say they singlehandledly carried almost a ton and a half of flooring into their house in AN HOUR! That’s some ESPN Strongest Man stuff right there.
And you’ve been holding out on us… mad illustration skillz! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, that’s what I think! I’m like my mom, saying things like “but it builds character!” – John, yeah he’s not into that as much yet. But I bet in a few years he’ll look back and laugh with me. I think…
xo
s
Karen F says
yeah, looking at the bright side, at least John got a good blog post out of the ordeal!! :)
Jaileigh says
I feel your pain. We’ve done the “it’s a short trip home, what could go wrong?” thing before. Glad you survived this, and you’ll appreciate it when it’s over.
A side tip though, if you spread the hardwood boxes out so air can circulate around them to the boxes, kind of in a lattice type spread, they will all acclimate. The ones in the center/bottom of the pile aren’t getting enough air exposure all shoved up together like that (but I’m sure you knew this already, and were just grateful to get it in the house and have since spread it out).
Looking forward to the after pics!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Jaileigh! Since it’s taking forever for us to install them, as we unstack the pile the others get days and days to acclimate even more as we go :)
xo
s
heather says
This definitely made me laugh! Glad everything got home safe.
*cough* Sherry *cough*: add heavy duty ratchet tie-downs to John’s Christmas list, and then just wrap them in paper made of these drawings. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
Pat says
Oh, my! I’m exhausted just reading about this. Can’t believe you have recovered enough to start the installation. Ahhh, to be young again.lol
Mary Ann says
Just wondering…is there a specific reason you are using quarter-round vs. just extending wood floors under baseboard? Kind of surprised b/c the look of higher flushed baseboard is much more appealing than quarter-round or shoe molding.
YoungHouseLove says
The installation instructions for these hardwoods (in order for them to be warrantied) are that the wall expansion gaps have to be as thick as the wood itself (3/4″) so just the molding isn’t that thick, and we need quarter-round to bridge the gap and meet those installation requirements :)
xo
s
Kara says
This is hysterical. Also, please illustrate every post. Also also, and perhaps this is the appeal of this blog, I feel like this has happened or definitely will happen to me.
Evelyn says
The floors look great, question though – I’m ALL for being as budget friendly and DIY as possible. I know you guys bring in outside contractors when projects are outside your wheelhouse, but when do you do a budget breakdown and rate the value of your time/stress level? ie: would it actually have been smarter to have the wood delivered?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, in hindsight it definitely would have been less stressful to have it delivered, but you never really know what will go swimmingly (we’ve hauled things with a rental truck a ton of times really easily to save money) so in the end if we had damaged the flooring or not gotten it home we definitely would have regretted this choice, but it’s hard to get mad when some things go wrong and others go right- seems to just be the way DIY works :)
xo
s
Nicole says
Oh, I can relate…or commiserate! We had our wood flooring drop shipped to our door, but my husband was in a mtg when it came so I had to meet the truck at the house and with the help of my 10 yr old son, unloaded all three pallets (87 boxes) from the curb into the house by myself…until teenage neighbor took pity on us and helped out with the last pallet. Still, I was pretty amazed that we got it done! Good times…
YoungHouseLove says
Woah! That’s amazing!
xo
s
Susan Hines says
LOVE IT! Love the picture with the mad face! Oh we have been “here” SO many times!!!
krys72599 says
1. Our cartons were 8′ long and I don’t know how heavy. I should weigh one. There are still 8 of those babies in our living room…
2. I hope with all my heart your walls are straight. Ours aren’t, hence my hopeful wishes for you.
3. Let me/us know how the end of the room went for you. That was the worst part – I think I stressed a bit more than hubby did, although we’re at the end of the installation, and we’re putting the floor down in the kitchen now. He got to one spot near a floor vent that will be covered with a cabinet (we’ll vent through the toekick) and he actually said, Mr. Perfection did, “Eh, it’ll be covered by a cabinet anyway.”
I almost fainted!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
Christi says
Our walls were crooked too! Everyone said it would be so easy… Wrong!
Lisa says
Hi! First off. Congrats on the new house!! I can’t wait to see the transformation!
I have been thinking about how much “back breaking” work you both do and how achy and sore you must be at times! There are 2 links here with AMAZING products to help soothe, massage and balance out your back (hunching over to install floors) Foam roller. And the Acuball for soreness and knots. I just discovered them a few months ago and was like “where have ou been all my life!” I know these products will help your bods with all your hard work thus far and ahead! Enjoy!
http://www.acuball.com/. http://www.amazon.com/OPTP-Pro-Foam-Rollers-Marble/dp/B002C9EX14/ref=sr_1_6?s=exercise-and-fitness&ie=UTF8&qid=1369757304&sr=1-6
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Lisa!
xo,
s
Jamie D says
I second the foam roller! Way to go Petersiks!
Meg says
A cartoon sketch, is there anything you two can’t do?! This is why I keep coming back to your site everyday.
Question: Does the ability to sketch a cartoon have the same affect on the ladies as a guy playing a guitar does?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I’m in love with John more for each sketch he does. But nothing beats this one for me, it’s my favorite of all time: https://www.younghouselove.com/2011/03/oh-snap/
xo
s
Katherine says
And this is one of the many reasons why you are a slim guy. You are a work horse.
How long does the wood have to acclimate in a house before use?
YoungHouseLove says
It usually takes a few days but we like a week just to be sure. Each room is taking forever so we’ll definitely have longer than that though…
xo
s
Kasey M. says
John, I think I related to you better in this post than in anything else I’ve read on this blog. That drive home from Lumber Liquidators could definately happen to me and I would react in the exact same way.
Not here is a question…if Lumber Liquidators delivers (and therefore has trucks) why didn’t they have a compressor they could pull out to fill up that tire for you? Something I would have thought of AFTER driving it all home and sweating bullets the entire time.
Hope installation go smoothly!
YoungHouseLove says
No idea! Maybe they didn’t have one in that location and the delivery truck comes from a warehouse or something?
xo
s
Julia @ Hooked on Houses says
Loved the reenactment! I feel for ya. We put hardwoods down in just one room of our house ourselves and it totally wiped us out (and there were two of us doing all the loading and unloading, etc). Can’t imagine doing all those rooms at the same time–but I bet it’ll be beautiful when you’re done! :)
Lindsay H says
Glad you guys waited to utilize a Cathy reference until this post. Very appropriate. I got very excited when I saw the “Ack!” Almost as excited as when Andy busted out on Weekend Updates as Cathy…lockerz.com/u/21132268/decalz/12074104/andy_samberg_as_cathy_ack_
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! We love that skit.
xo
s
Carrie B says
Fantastic! You should include cartoons in all your posts!
Becky says
I LOVE the word “ACK”!
becky says
hah-hah! I can only laugh at this because I had to laugh at ourselves 18 months ago when we were just starting our remodel and out of nowhere a LL three hours away suddenly had a mismarked rare/one off flooring that was on our dream list (think $20 a foot at that time)…they had accidentally listed it for 1.69 a foot and they had 2500 sq ft and would never have it again – and decided they would only honor the price if we picked it up that same day. cue my husband racing home from work in the middle of the day, renting a trailer and grabbing his dad’s truck and hitting the road -just to pull into the parking lot as they were locking the doors! around midnight i got a call from my husband saying i had to come get him and bring a tow truck – in all the hullaballoo, i had forgotten to tell him that the trailer was rated for that much weight and he needed to split it up between the pickup and the trailer…oops. i guess he had spent 2 1/2 hours driving 35 miles an hour with his flashers on while the trailer jumped all over the road behind him (our precious flooring luckily was tied down tight by the LL guys!)…but 30 minutes from home he went over a railroad track and the trailer jumped one last jump and jumped right off of the truck hitch and then ran underneath the truck and pick up the back end of the truck. sigh. luckily nothing/no one was hurt. there was a frantic call to the tow company and lots of laughing on the side of a country road in the middle of nowhere while tried to round up a hoard of teenagers from our church to meet us at the house to unload (teenagers are the only people i would call after midnight and know i am safely not waking up on a saturday night). they unloaded us in ten minutes and we fell into bed by 1:30 am and let our blood pressure come down while we dreamed of our dream flooring going down! little did we know getting it home was WAY easier than the subsequent weeks of gluing it down (flooring glue is EVIL). good luck and enjoy the stress – it will be worth it. we just finished the upstairs and finally got to use a staple gun and i loved it! so much easier! can’t wait to see the pictures.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh! That’s a crazy story! So glad it has a happy ending :)
xo
s
Anne says
John’s sketches made my day!
Anne says
HA! HA! HA! Very entertaining narrative. Comedy of errors. And I love the constant references to Cathy. ACK!
kristiina says
omg….dying laughing!!! awesome reenactment. sorry for your trouble, but appreciated the laugh today :)
Cori says
John, you are a hero. Why is it that sometimes, everything goes wrong??? And I absolutely love the sketch of you glaring at your wind-blown tarp. On the plus side, the floors in the master bedroom look beautiful!
Vivian says
Great post! Although I think y’all are crazy trying to install a whole story of hardwoods just days before you move … just sayin’!!!! I know it’s much easier to do it now, but gosh, it makes me tired just thinking of all you have to do!
Kitty says
The cartoons crack me up, especially the expressions!
I feel for you, John, those kind of “things are going wrong in an increasingly absurd way” days are a test of the most patient person.
KiTX says
Priceless. Probably the best post about transporting hardwoods ever written. This also just makes me itch even MORE to get hardwoods into our house!
Therese @ Fresh Idea Studio says
O-My-Gosh! I’m am laughing out loud reading this. Y’all are a hoot! The floors are awesome already btw :)
Cheers to you and yours!
Harinee says
You’re an excellent writer, John. And not half-bad at caricatures!
Corrie @ Little House On The Update says
That was seriously funny stuff. And something that would totally happen to us.
Jane says
ADORABLE grimace with the storm cloud!
Elaine - Visual Meringue says
Phew! I am so glad it all arrived okay. Your play-by-play is awesome. Is it wrong I am a bit happy that you had so much trouble since it allowed us all these amazing drawings? Hilarious. And the ‘dusty room’ looks fab!!! Can’t wait to see the rest!
aly says
Am I Eeyore? Omg too funny!!
Also HUGE props to John for doing all that work. Respect. *fistbump*
Kelly says
That was an a.w.e.s.o.m.e. post! Please do more with those photos in the future! My heart was pounding with you as I read it. Sir, I will pay for your delivery fee next time, just to save your back and legs. Oy! Sometimes the extra $ is worth it. But I understand trying to save in that regard. Hope you’re not too sore! Good luck with the install!
Steph says
UGH I had a similar experience with our flooring! We moved into our (first) house about a month ago and did the floors before we moved in as well. It started to rain right when we pulled into the driveway and we had no garage and the carport was converted into a covered porch. My boyfriend and I had to rush to get them all in the house, but I couldn’t imagie doing that alone! Glad yours made it!
Ashli @ But What About Protein? says
Oh my gosh, my anxiety was up just reading this post, I can’t imagine how it must have been for you! The whole time I was reading, I’m thinking “please don’t let disaster strike!” Thank God! p.s. the floor’s looking awesome!
Katie says
The floor looks great!
How did you end up installing them? Did you end up laying new subfloor?
ps: If you end up doing another gallery wall, you should seriously consider working in one of your drawings from above! They’re iconic!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! I totally want another John sketch in our frame gallery (we already have this one framed and it makes me laugh all the time). We’ll definitely be blogging all about those how-we-laid-it details (with tons of photos to help explain it all :)
xo
s
Criss says
This post was hilarious! John’s face when the tarp is flying in the wind was the best.
Allison says
Reminds me of when I (all 120 lbs of me) went to Ikea alone to buy 30 boxes of flooring (at 40 lbs each). I got it loaded on two carts, but then realized their carts have 4 swivel wheels and with a 500 lb load on each on they would not steer! Picture me fighting with one cart to move it 10 ft, then go back to fight with the other, while the people behind me in line just stared. Luckily, an employee helped me load them into my SUV, and I had my hubby to unload them.
Michele from IL says
Sorry for the trial you had to go through, but I was giggling like a maniac at your description and re-enactment pictures. Can’t wait to see the finished install!
Shauna says
Beautiful post and sensational teaser photo!! John, you have perhaps missed your calling. Giving Gary Larson a run for his money. I would still like to see a 4th picture of when you realized that you would be hauling all of the boxes into the house all on your own.
That house will be worth every bullet sized (or melon sized?) drop of sweat! Courage.
Christina P (NS) says
The stick drawings definitely made that post – hilarious!
I completely feel your pain John, we purchased hardwood for the upstairs level of our home – though we had it delivered the guys carried only it through the garage into the basement; little did I know that it had to actually go upstairs to acclimatize before being installed!
Which resulted in our Saturday night equalling 33 trips up 4 awkward flights of stairs struggling with those same huge, heavy boxes – all the while trying not to nick up our newly painted walls!
All worth it though right?! Have fun – the master looks great!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, that sounds rough! Glad you lived to tell the tale!
xo
s
Laura & the Shell says
Oh man, the floors look great! I’m so impressed you guys are doing this yourselves!! Can’t wait to see it all done!
JenniferF says
Glad you made it home safely! Was I the only one who was expecting Nellie Oleson’s picture to pop up in the Nelly link (despite the spelling difference)? http://lauralittlehouseontheprairie.blogspot.ca/2009/05/alison-arngrim-lhops-nellie-oleson-book.html
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
Rachel says
WOW! What a stressful day, but great drawings :)
Alicia says
I have been following your blog for awhile now (approximately a year and a half) and totally loving it. I am so excited to watch and share in the small part of your life that you share. Not to sounds creepy or anything! My husband and I recently purchased our first home (a year ago)and have been slowly updating the space aethetically and environmentally. Long story short, thank you for sharing, it has been great to know someone else is as crazy as us. It is possible to make a difference and make your house a beautiful home.
PS. No need to post this email I simply wanted to say thanks and dont stop!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Alicia! That’s so sweet. All the best with everything!
xo
s
Holly says
Oh man, that was hy…sterical, not for you, but for me and my husband! We just had a right good wee laugh! I think the facial expressions in the cartoons were the best part : )
Christi says
Great post, you should sart a picture post day each week!
I know you want to get it all done (and knowing you both, I am sure you will), but the new office could be a “sleeping zone” if you run out of time. We had to do that when we moved… Not the best but another solution :)
Anyways, your master bedroom floors looking amazing!
Jessica says
Maybe it’s just in Florida where I live, but around here, the Lowe’s and Home Depot parking lots always have people waiting around looking to get hired for a day job at a cheap price. When John picked up the truck, he should have picked up a helper to help him unload all those floors. My back hurts just thinking about having to unload all those boxes without any help.
YoungHouseLove says
I don’t think we’ve ever noticed that! I wonder if they do that here in Richmond too!
xo
s