Did I get what I really wanted? You bet!
For a wedding gift my husband gave me the down payment to my dream home - a (now) 106 year old farm house with six outbuildings in a small rural town. When we bought it, it was perfect (except for the carpeting on the back of the bathroom door - but that's a story for later!). Now, 20 years have passed and it is time to make changes.
We really wanted to replace the flooring. The kitchen had an old sheet vinyl that had really suffered from the years of scrubbing. The glossy top coat had finally worn off and I could not get it clean anymore. Being a designer, I had a lot of exciting products to choose from. We looked at lots of samples, talked to the sales reps, and finally, we decided - Knotty pine or hickory, wide planks, hand hewn. Perfect for an old country home! Then, reality raised its hand and I realized I had to advised us as I would advise a client.
Consider our life cycle vs that of the flooring. Hardwood floors, subjected to dogs and dirt and narrow traffic patterns would have to be refinished about the time I retire. That is also about the time medical expenses rise. We would have to save for both. Upfront costs - Because the sub floor has a large hump in the doorway to the hall, the result of having to jack up a broken floor joist, floor prep for hardwood would be problematic. There was not good place to stop the leveling until you reach the family room and then there would be a 2" difference in the two floor heights. Also, once we paid for the flooring (even at wholesale) there would not be enough left to do much else. All our eggs would be in the flooring basket. So, we did what most everyone does, we put off the decision hoping for a lottery ticket to be the big winner!
But we had to do something. I was embarrassed to have anyone over. Off to the local home improvement store to see what was new in the world of peel and stick. Wow! There is was! 6" wide x 36" long knotty hickory planks for just about $2.50/sf, a savings of more than $10/sf over hardwood. And it was vinyl! Easy to install, easy to clean, hard to scratch! Would I have liked to have the real thing? Of course. But when we weighed all the requirements for a floor in our house at this point in our lives against the characteristics of the two choices, wood vs vinyl, the vinyl won hands down.
In the end it wasn't about the money, it was about solving a problem without creating another one! See what you think about how it turned out.
We really wanted to replace the flooring. The kitchen had an old sheet vinyl that had really suffered from the years of scrubbing. The glossy top coat had finally worn off and I could not get it clean anymore. Being a designer, I had a lot of exciting products to choose from. We looked at lots of samples, talked to the sales reps, and finally, we decided - Knotty pine or hickory, wide planks, hand hewn. Perfect for an old country home! Then, reality raised its hand and I realized I had to advised us as I would advise a client.
Consider our life cycle vs that of the flooring. Hardwood floors, subjected to dogs and dirt and narrow traffic patterns would have to be refinished about the time I retire. That is also about the time medical expenses rise. We would have to save for both. Upfront costs - Because the sub floor has a large hump in the doorway to the hall, the result of having to jack up a broken floor joist, floor prep for hardwood would be problematic. There was not good place to stop the leveling until you reach the family room and then there would be a 2" difference in the two floor heights. Also, once we paid for the flooring (even at wholesale) there would not be enough left to do much else. All our eggs would be in the flooring basket. So, we did what most everyone does, we put off the decision hoping for a lottery ticket to be the big winner!
But we had to do something. I was embarrassed to have anyone over. Off to the local home improvement store to see what was new in the world of peel and stick. Wow! There is was! 6" wide x 36" long knotty hickory planks for just about $2.50/sf, a savings of more than $10/sf over hardwood. And it was vinyl! Easy to install, easy to clean, hard to scratch! Would I have liked to have the real thing? Of course. But when we weighed all the requirements for a floor in our house at this point in our lives against the characteristics of the two choices, wood vs vinyl, the vinyl won hands down.
In the end it wasn't about the money, it was about solving a problem without creating another one! See what you think about how it turned out.
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