nickelndime

Did I get you to click? Good, that was my intention. I'm going to go over a renovation I did in my home and why some would call it a million dollar renovation. First, let's talk about what I did. You see, my wife and I purchased our home a little under ten years ago, and when we first purchased it, the carpet was not brand new, but in good condition.

Zoe is, and always has been, a pretty, pretty princess.

That was ten years ago, and after five animals and two little toddlers, the carpet now looks like this.

Keep in mind the above pictures are after I had steam cleaned it. The carpet got to the point where I would clean it, and it would still look awful. That's when I decided enough was enough. My home, like all the other homes in my neighborhood, were constructed with hardwood floors. The main reason I've been holding off on redoing my floors is because I was afraid of what I would discover under the carpets.

Let me explain.

The man we purchased this home from did all of the 'repairs' or renovations himself. His name was Dale. I remember his name because every time I go to do a home remolding project I discover some of Dale's wonderful handiwork.

For example when I renovated the office, I had to remove the stone paneling (Yes, he had stone paneling) only to reveal wallpaper. Damn you Dale, I thought to myself. Why did you cover up the wallpaper with paneling? The answer for my question waited for me when I removed the wallpaper and discovered a massive hole in the wall. This was not an, 'Oops I accidently fell and my hand went through the wall' hole, but an, 'I cut a massive hole looking for buried treasure' kind of hole.

There are so many discoveries I have made over the years. So whenever I start a home project, I will curse Dale under my breath.

Another reason for putting off the floors was the time it would take to do. Like I said earlier, we have two kids, and I've refinished hardwood floors when I worked for my brothers' construction company. It takes a lot of work with sanding, staining, then finishing. It's a good week before you can even step foot on the floors.

That's when the lightbulb went off.

This would be a fair depiction on the number of great thoughts I've had.

I'll hire a floor company while I take my family on vacation!

Once I decided that this was going to happen, I took a construction knife, and cut out a piece of carpet. I did this for three reasons:

1 – Once a piece was cut out, that's it- we've committed to it.

2 – I could assess the state of the hardwood to know what I would be dealing with.

3 – Surprise the Misses when she got home from work.

I pealed back the part of the carpet in the living room and this is what I discovered...

Damn it Dale, I thought to myself. You covered up a bunch of pet stains, didn't you? If you're about to ask how did I know it was Dale's pets and not my pets that left the stains? Well, because the padding in between the carpet and hardwood floor was not stained, and if my pets ever had an accident it was cleaned up immediately and not, you know... carpeted over like a savage would do.

There was another little gift Dale left for me on the floor... *nails*.

Lots and lots of nails.

A lot of people who install carpet over hard wood will put a nail down here or there to stop the squeaking, but this was all over the place! The only conclusion I could come up with was Dale would relieve his stress by driving nails into the floor after a hard day of home repairs.

I called a couple places to get quotes and the price I was getting from contractors was $4500 to $5500 for a crew to come in pull out the carpet, sand, stain, and finish. I was starting to think I made a huge mistake pulling up a portion of the carpet until I contacted one company. It was a two man crew and they both owned the company. They came out looked at the floor and quoted me $4000.00.

“What if I pull the carpet out myself?”

“3000.00”

“Deal.”

I spent the next month, cutting sections of carpet out, and moving everything on my upper floor, into the basement. This may not seem like a problem, but anyone with two children under 4 will agree this can be a daunting task.

Somehow I managed to finish in time for our family vacation. The morning of our vacation the house looked like this.

We went on our vacation and returned to this...

There was just one more problem.

That night as the four of us slept on a sectional downstairs, I asked Grace if she liked the floors.

“I do, but...”

“But what?”

“I hate the wall color, I can't stand the peanut butter and jelly wall color.”

I was completely shocked when those words came out of her mouth. “I hate the wall color, too! I never said nothing because I thought you liked it! Well, let's paint it.”

“Are you sure?”

“We've got to be down here for two more weeks while the floor finish hardens upstairs.”

So, I began to paint on the days we both had off, or after the kids went to sleep.

I didn't think my back was so attractive, but I can't take my eyes off those shoulder blades.

I don't know how Dexter had time to do this every week.

I've still got to paint the closet doors, and replace the outlets, and vents, but I think it looks pretty good!

Emmett has taken quite a few spills adjusting to the smoothness of the wood floor.

Wait, you said this was a million dollar renovation, yet this was nowhere close to a million dollar renovation... Why are you a liar, Nick? -The reader that is reading this right now

The reason it's a million dollar renovation is because of how I financed it. You see, I sold 20k in XRP when it was at .30usd to finance the floors, paint, and go on vacation. I've been told many times over that 20k in XRP is going to be worth a lot of money someday, well maybe, but I have my own views on that. In the subscriber section I'll go over my theory on why I chose to sell that much of my investment.

Join me for our next “Million Dollar Renovation” when I cover redoing my basement!

Basement flood from two years ago.

Don't let the grainy picture deceive you. That's not water...

Take it easy, but take it!

NickelNDime out!

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