While I was out of town last week perhaps the biggest change to our house to date took place... NEW FLOORS!! While the before photos of the living room look OK, to be honest the laminate flooring was gross.  It obviously had gotten wet and as laminate tends to do was buckling..... Wanting to be as environmentally concientious as possible, I went with a fantastic vertical carbonized bamboo...

buckling laminate flooring was not working out... ripping them out was the best option.

After ripping up the laminate flooring we found out that the subfloors actually had been painted (per neighbors the homeowners lived like this for some time).  Woodboys, our new flooring installers, were happy about this as it apparently created a new moisure barrier in addition to the barrier they installed.

You can also see my husband installing new 6" baseboards in this space.  I like the statement of 6" over 4".

I'm really pleased that these lead into the dining room as well, creating a more open feeling (i'll have photos, but we are still working on the ceilings and rooms are taped off - for now that includes the dining). New french doors have also been installed and all the trim work painted with a nice crisp white.  The new color is Basketry by Behr.

The rooms in the family room/den have been a bit of a quandry too.  We knew we needed to do something with them.  The question was, to refinish them or to put in new bamboo floors here too.... We went with the less expensive option (about $1000 less) and then held our breath having no idea how it would turn out.

We started this space by priming and painting to get rid of the cave feeling....

Then they refinished the floors....

I think we made a great decision!  The floors are really stunning in person with the variety of wood grains shown off so well.  (btw, in case you are wondering about that unpainted window to the right... it's being replaced so we haven't spent time painting it yet.)

So, what was the cost of flooring in the living room, dining room and refinishing the family room? It was a little less than $6000 professionally installed.  The return on investment is significantly higher however... not that I'm doing this for resale (this time).

Now are are about 2-3 weeks from moving in.... I can't wait to see what this room will look like with furniture!