We're getting a new kitchen floor!

We're getting a new kitchen floor! When I left for school Monday morning, we had an empty kitchen. Here's the old flooring. Notice the lovely gap in the seam in this picture? It's right in the walking path between the kitchen and dining room.
And here's the sunburned area next to the window. There are several places in the kitchen where the vinyl has darkened, under furniture (like the china hutch and really bad under the fridge) and also places where it has pulled up - like in this picture up against the window.
Here's the old entry vinyl. See how it's pulling up against the door, and how it's darkened in some areas. It is scratched up as well, probably from all the gravel that comes in from the streets in the winter. This is a clean floor, at least as clean as it can get.
Here are some of those scratches and pits up close.
Now here's the entry with the new tile in. It's not grouted yet. They'll come back in the morning to do that. The new carpet comes Friday.

This is the flooring in the kitchen. Some of the grout has been put in - just where they will need to put back the stove and fridge, and under the dishwasher.

Now it's Tuesday evening. The guys came back this morning and did the grout. I LOVE it! The grout really brings out the look of the tile. Of course you know this is not ceramic tile, it's called "Dura Ceramic." It's thinner than real tile, and more flexible so it can be installed on top of the old vinyl without a special board underneath. It is also warmer to walk on and easier on your feet than regular ceramic tile. Check out how gorgeous it looks in those areas that were previously problem areas - next to the doors and where the seams used to be.


Now for the surprise! When we moved in, we finished the downstairs bathroom, and we used a piece of vinyl that had been left in the house after they did the kitchen. It was pieced in front of the sink, and in a couple of other places, and the seams were all pulling up as badly or worse than the ones in the kitchen. When Travis (the head installer) was talking to Bryce this morning before they got started (I was gone to school), he ask Bryce if there was anything else we'd like to have him do. Bryce said, "well, we've been also wondering about that downstairs bathroom . . ." Travis got a big grin on his face. Apparently he and his crew have been using that bathroom and noticed the bad flooring. He told Bryce that we had enough tiles and grout left to do the bathroom and that they could get it done today also. So, when I got home, look at the surprise I found!

The only bad thing about this, was that I didn't get to take "before" pictures of the terrible floor. Bryce is right - it's much better to do it now while we have the guys here. It ended up costing nothing more for tile, because we'd already bought it. We just had to pay for the labor to install. So, it was a great surprise.

Now we wait a few days. On Friday the guys come back with carpet for the living room, stairs and upstairs hall.