Flores. Or Something Like That.

Do you know how when you use a word a lot, like a lot lot lot, it starts to sound/look funny to you?  Well that happened to me recently with the word "floor".  I typed it into so many search engines that I forgot how it was really spelled.  Thus "flore" was born.  I'll blame it on Madi.  I think I lost a few brain cells while I was baking her.  Maybe I'll find them again one day.  Maybe they're buried under my pile of paper on our desk.  Is it obvious I'm in a weird mood today?

Anyway, I think I was supposed to be talking about our floors.  Let me remind you what we were working with originally:

That's hot.

As classy as that floor was, Pat and I were ready for a change.  Real tile was not an option, because our house shifts a LOT.  We probably would have had cracks on day 2.  I was hoping to find hardwoods underneath, but that was not the case.  And the $,$$$ to install them was a little out of our price range, especially considering we've already hit the ceiling on the value of our house.  A floating laminate tile floor would have worked, but it would still have been more than we wanted to spend.  Plus, I kind of think those tend to look cheap.  So we were left with two options: vinyl tile and vinyl roll-out.

Initially, I thought roll-out was the way to go.  Then I found out there would have to be a seam.  Way not cool, so vinyl tile it was.  Pat and I were torn between two options in the vinyl tile category.  Pat wanted to use imitation ceramic tile, and to use a semi-new process of installing it where you actually grout the edges like it's real tile.  I tend to shy away from "imitation" anything (except when it comes to spray-"butter", and you all know where I stand there).  I was drawn toward this crazy idea of using commercial vinyl tiles (you know, like the ones used at Walmart) in a checkerboard pattern.  I was inspired by this kitchen:

Source: kathrynjasper.blogspot.com via Kelli on Pinterest

 Guess who won?  Here's a hint: my mom wouldn't let me join the debate team in high school because she thought I had an unfair advantage I was already too stubborn, and she thought I would get even worse.

Long story short...wait, I can't even make short stories short.    Anyway, Wednesday afternoon, Pat, Madi, and I headed out to the Home Depot.  We're typically staunch Lowes shoppers, but Lowes doesn't carry my our flooring.  We searched high and low, and had just about given up on finding what we needed when I spotted the mother-lode. 

And then we took pictures of Madi's first trip to a home improvement stoor store.  Wow, I really hope I get those brain cells back soon.

I'll leave you with a shot of our new tile.  I picked a much more neutral palette than the inspiration room, only because we hope to sell this place soon.

Tomorrow, I'll reveal how much we got done over our four day weekend!

Were you working on your place over the weekend, too?

-Kelli