Our Bedroom Suite Has Flooring!
It has been quite the long road to get to this point, but our bedroom suite finally has hardwood flooring throughout! It was last September that we hired someone to take out the original flooring and subfloor in the home gym and replace the subfloor.
The whole thing was done in a very piecemeal way as our plans for this area of the house evolved. Originally, the home gym was going to stay the home gym, and the guest bedroom was going to stay the guest bedroom. But over time, everything evolved into our current plan of turning the home gym into the bedroom, and turning the guest bedroom into the walk-in closet and laundry room combo.
It was mid-September when they finished up this room, taking out the original closet and installing the new subfloor…
And then it was towards the end of November that I decided to have them remove the entire doorway into the bedroom, and I also removed the hallway cabinet and took up the hardwood flooring in the hallway since it had been installed around the hallway cabinet. To me, installing all new flooring in this relatively small area seemed easier than having to feather in new flooring where the cabinet had been.
And then it was in December that I had them open up the doorway into the closet/laundry area, remove the old flooring and subfloor, and install new subfloor in there as well.
So all of this has been underway since last September, partly because the plan kept changing and evolving, and partly because of my contractor issue. After dealing with the contractor and finally telling him not to come back right before Christmas, I just needed a break from this whole project. After telling him not to come back, the whole thing seemed overwhelming to me, so I had to step away from it for a while, clear my mind, and focus on some fun projects that would get and keep me motivated. So I spent the last week in December and the whole month of January of this year focused on fun projects for the exterior of my workshop. And it worked! Once I had done several projects on that workshop, I was starting to feel motivated to finally face the big bedroom suite project again.
So all of that to say this. With this area being torn up one area at a time since last September, I’m sure you can understand just how elated I am to finally see major progress on this huge, unifying project for our master bedroom suite. After living with subfloor in part, and then all, of this bedroom suite for the last five months, I could jump for joy at going from this…
…to this over the last three week days…
And I’ll say it again to any of you who are local to the Waco area. I absolutely loved having these people in my home. I would highly recommend this local family-owned business, Valdez Floor Masters, if you have any flooring needs.
They were an absolute joy to have in my home. The man who owns it is semi-retired but enjoys being on site to keep an eye on his sons and the work being done. He’s such a nice man, and he was so nice to talk with while his sons stayed busy and got the job done. And they have an amazing work ethic, showing up on time, working until 5:00 (or a bit after) each day, and doing a beautiful job on the installation.
And I know this is a little thing, but it’s one of those little things that impresses me a lot. Since I was in here in the evenings and over the weekend doing other things (like the drywall mudding, sanding, priming, and testing out paint colors), I had left some of my tools lying around. And then I left yesterday to have dinner with friends while they finished up the final edge details ont the flooring.
And when I came back last night to see the finished floor, they had not only cleaned up after themselves, but they had lined up all of my tools neatly on the window sill, they had rolled up my air hose for me, and they had my flooring nailer, air compressor, and air hose neatly lined up in front of the window.
I know it’s a small thing, but small details like that impress the heck out of me.
If you’ve been around here for long, you know how hard it is for me to hire out work. It’s so hard for me to trust other people to do a good job and to pay attention to the details that I want them to pay attention to. So hiring out something as important as the flooring installation in our entire bedroom suite was a big leap of faith for me.
Finding a company that not only met, but exceeded my expectations, makes me want to shout their name from my rooftop. That’s the kind of business you hope stays around for a very long time. We need more contractors and subcontractors with that kind of work ethic and attention to detail!
Obviously, the flooring has a long way to go before it’s actually finished. As I mentioned in a previous post, they only do the installation. But the owner recommended someone to do the sanding for me (the part I really dreaded doing myself).
And they told me he’s coming today to start the sanding. I didn’t actually confirm that with him myself, but Mr. Valdez said he talked to him and said he’s planning to be here this morning. If that doesn’t happen, I won’t be upset about it since Wednesdays are the day that I have lunch with my mom and brother. So if he doesn’t show, I’ll coordinate with him by the end of the day, and hopefully he can get the sanding done by the end of this week.
And if he can get it done by the end of this week, that means that I could start staining and polyurethaning this weekend! (Side note: I can’t believe I actually had flooring left over! I was so worried that I hadn’t purchased enough, and even when I measured and refigured, my math told me that I was about 40 square feet short. I have no idea how I wound up with flooring left over!)
And another side note, I had someone ask me about those few boards in the foyer that are darker. She wondered if they had slipped in some boards of a different species than the rest of the wood floors. Those are the same red oak as the rest of the floors. I had tested out stain colors on them, but once they’re sanded, they’ll be the same color as the rest. I’ve only ever bought red oak hardwood flooring for our house.
The A2D Daily update:
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
Nice! I like the elongated look of the flooring in the closet. It’s always a wonder to me how to lay out flooring direction. This looks excellent!
Thank God for the great flooring guy you found. It is no smal feat allowing others to come in and then find you could have done a better job after they have left with your hard earned cash 🫤. Praying the sanding guys works out.
Hi Kristi!
I had two thoughts this morning while driving to work: 1- you should ask Mr. Valdez for more sub recommendations. I’m sure that in his years doing work around Waco he’s come to respect several other tradesmen; 2- where are you guys sleeping? I’m sure you’ve mentioned it but I can’t remember. Or it’s none of my business, which is also cool.
Cheers!
Hallie.
1. Great idea! I’m sure you’re right about him knowing other subs in the area.
2. We’re back in the breakfast room. 😀 It’s actually pretty comfy and convenient, and it’s where we spent all of 2020 after we moved out of the original bedroom and did the demo on it to turn it into the bathroom, and then while I finished up the guest bedroom. We’ve moved our Wednesday night group to another house while all of this is going on, so it hasn’t been inconvenient at all.
They did a great job! I can tell how excited you are, for the job being done so quickly and at finding the perfect group of workers to do the job! It truly is becoming a rare thing to find good, reliable people these days. One question – I didn’t see you mention if you will need some sort of transition strip going into the master bath separating the hardwood from the tile. Is that something that is needed, or not?
It won’t t be needed. They did such a good job installing the hardwood flooring right up next to the tile, so once the floor is finished, I’ll add a bit of caulk between the two, and it’ll look great. I try to avoid transition strips if at all possible because it’s easier for Matt if everything is perfectly smooth, so I impressed it upon them that there would be no transition strip so that they would take care to cut and install those pieces as perfectly straight as possible so no transition strip would be necessary. They did such a good job on it!
I love it when a plan comes together. And I understand your frustrations with flooring contractors. Our first one down here kept telling me that I had ordered too little, I would order more, have it here to acclimate to the house and then find that mysteriously I had no leftovers when the job was done, that was because he was taking them home to his house. Three flooring contractors later, and we have the same situation, a semi-retired guy and his sons and nephews and sons in law, you can’t beat that. I actually look forward to those jobs because the guys are so great, and they work like the devil. Your guys did a great job with the transition to the master bathroom, not every flooring guy gets that.
Cheers to you and Matt!
YIPPEE!
Flooring looks fantastic but equally as awesome is the lipstick that you are wearing in the video!! Would love to know the brand and shade!
Beautiful job and how nice they sorted your tools too! It must be a great feeling to have the flooring installed and finding a contractor you can trust. I can barely wait to see them all sanded, stained, and ready for you to move to the next stage in your rooms!
Now if only I could find a contractor to replace my deck – I’ve been looking for almost a year!
The floors look beautiful. I’d want them the natural color because the grain of the wood shows. I’m guessing you want a darker stain but looking at the samples. I wrote down the name of your flooring guy because in the future (I don’t know when) we will be have some of our floors redone.
Most people picked the Vista blue, I noticed yesterday. It is a pretty color and maybe a bit more calming that the other one. You do want your closet to be a calm place.
You are moving right along, and I know that makes you happy.
Floors are gorgeous
Just curious, who stays with Matt when you go to lunch. You said sometimes it is for hours. Could the guy sand while you are gone?
We have people who can stay with Matt if and when he feels it’s necessary, but it’s always up to him if he wants that. I do allow people I trust to work in the house when I’m gone.
You definitely got a double win with the flooring now all installed and with this amazing flooring family business. Well done!
It’s all coming together and we’re excited to share your master suite vision and progress come to fruition.