A few weeks ago I told you about the home project list I put together and the highest priority items we planned to work on first. Since then the list has been completely turned upside down. But, it’s still all good, because we’re getting things done and making a ton of progress painting and updating light fixtures.
Working From a Project List
You can see our original (very long) project list HERE. I make these lists to get organized, see everything in one place, and then accomplish ONE thing at at time. If you skip this step, then you may just look around your home and feel completely overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. You may feel like you’re buried in dirt, clutter, and things breaking down and not know where to begin.
So I suggest making a project list – even if it’s miles long – then checking one thing off the list at a time. Small victories are still victories. And eventually, the list won’t seem so overwhelming.
The other reason for making a project list is so that you can make decisions more easily. Did you know that decisions are easier at certain times of the month (aka… during certain times of our female cycles)? Yup, it’s true. Go read THIS post and you’ll see why.
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Choosing Flooring
Let’s say today you’re struggling with choosing a paint color or a light fixture. Just wait a week or two and that decision will suddenly feel instinctual. You’ll feel it in your gut and know the right answer.
One of the top priorities on our original project list was to replace the carpet in the upstairs hallway. that was a fairly easy one on the list… Go to the carpet store, choose a new carpet, and set a date for the carpet store people to install it. Easy right?
Not so easy.
Do you know how many different types of carpets, manufacturers, and colors there are to choose from when you walk into a carpet store? It’s completely overwhelming!
You’re talking to a girl that cannot go into a large department store to shop for clothes or search through more than the first three pages of search results online because there are too many choices.
Now, picture walking into a carpet store being faced with thousands of carpet samples. No way! Not happening!
I tried. I really did. But I couldn’t make a decision.
When are carpet stores going to figure out that they need to make a small room of their best carpets and display less than 50 (or maybe even less than 20) for people like me to choose from?
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The Decision – Wood Floors
My husband always wanted wood floors installed upstairs. When we built the house 20 years ago, I figured we would save money and I was fine with carpet upstairs. I still would be IF I could decide on a replacement.
But if we installed wood, what type of wood?
Throughout the first floor and running up the staircase to the second, we have oak wood floors. Red oak I think. Maybe it’s white oak. But it’s some sort of oak.
The planks are a medium width with some grain and they fine. The only problem I have with the oak floors now is that they were clear-coated with an oil-based polyurethane which made them yellow.
I really don’t want the yellow color on the upstairs floors. When you read my upcoming posts, you’ll see that we’re actually getting rid of some of the yellow tones downstairs. More on that later.
At the same time, I was worried that if we installed a different type of wood upstairs, it would clash with with the other woods in the house. And I like a cohesive feeling so clashing woods is absolutely out of the question.
Then, after a few weeks of torturing myself trying to decide, one day, like a lightbulb turning on, it just came to me.
Upstairs, we would install the same oak wood floors that we have downstairs, but instead of using the oil-based polyurethane as a topcoat, we will use a water-based polyurethane. That way the wood is exactly the same but the color will be a few tones more natural (less yellow) as you go upstairs making it an easy transition on the eye.
I preach to you all about the use of water-based vs. oil-based topcoats on furniture so I should have known the answer to my yellow floors was a water-based topcoat.
Sometimes the answer is right in front of us and we don’t even realize it. Remember this when choosing finishes for your home – flooring, paint, decor.
Good Lord! Sometimes I torture myself for no reason.
So that’s the plan – oak floors with a clear, water-based poly.
My husband says he can install the wood floors, but due to the prices of wood skyrocketing over the past year, it’s something we will likely do in the Fall and hope that the economy levels out and the price of wood comes back down.
You see, if I never made that project list, I may not have come to this decision. At least now I have a well-thought-out plan.
Stay tuned for my next post. I’ll show you the color we’re painting over our yellow walls and the new light fixtures we got in this week.
And you won’t believe how inexpensive they were! I’ll tell you exactly where I shopped for them.
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