Shopping Trip Numéro Un

We have a Lowes, Home Depot, and a mom and pop hardware store all within a couple minutes of us! Score! After a trip to Lumber Liquadators turned out fruitless we headed to Lowes. Because, yes, lets build something together. 

(Our shopping cart)

We knew what we needed and were in and out in under 40 minutes and exactly at our budget of $500. We purchased 350 square feet of laminate, a repair pen for the laminate, (haha, I anticipate accidents!) 10 outlet covers, a scraper (to free those french doors from the paint on the windows), lots of utility blade replacements, a pro chalk reel set that I am elated to use (I like straight lines!), a GFI outlet for the kitchen (we have managed to put one in every place we have ever lived- my husband takes safety very seriously), magic erasers, a usb outlet for our bedroom, and a bathroom door knob that locks. 

**Full disclosure I am typically very forward about how much I spend on things, especially when I get a good sale. I wish I had a coupon for this shopping trip BUT I am happy we shopped around and got what we wanted at the best price. Would you like to see the receipt? I will post those if folks are interested in how much we are spending on everything. 

We did a lot of research before buying the floors and learned that we really wanted to lay the underlayment ourselves as opposed to buying the laminate flooring with the underlayment (or padding) attached. We will be laying the floor next weekend, so the laminate will have had an entire week to acclimate to the temperature and humidity of our new place. Laminate flooring is still made from wood and it will expand and contract as the temperature and humidity change. This is very important because if this happens after you lay the flooring you will end up with spaces and crowding. We also read on-line that when installing the underlayment you only put out one row at a time, as opposed to installing the entire floor. Underlayment can rip if you stand on it, depending on the type you are using (I think a little common sense goes a long way here).

The next shopping trip will be underlayment from Home Depot- 50% cheaper than Lowes!! and two utility blades (Lowes didn't have anything of quality that was reasonably priced). We are also going to pick up a laminate floor laying installation kit. The kit contains spacers to leave space around the perimeter, between the flooring and the wall. The kit also contains a "pull bar" for setting the boards closest to the wall, where you don't have room to fit a hammer.

After it's installed we will be buying some quarter round to install at the base of the floor and we need to order some reducers to place in between the rooms. Reducers, a type of transitions, transition floors of varying heights. We need them between the rooms where the floors aren't the same but we also need them to reduce the space under some of our doors!  

We have some friends and family coming to help with the floor. In my brain this is going to be an easy project. We shall see! 

Happy Tuesday Ya'll!