Vertical or Horizontal?

Source Unkown
So there is a great debate going on. Well maybe not that great but I mentioned to the Hubster how I would like to lay the new flooring horizontally instead of vertically. I figured it would be a nice change from the expected. I also figured since we are doing floating wood floors it would be easier to keep them lined up. We start laying at the front door and work our way to the back of the living room. Makes perfect sense to me.
The Hubster is not soo keen on the idea.

Source
Found this pic this evening of a floor laid horizontally so I know I am not crazy. I also stopped by Show &    Tell this evening and Sausha has her floors laid that way as well. Click to see her space! It is amazing!
So do you think I am crazy? What would you do? Do you think it would be easier to lay it horizontally??

4 1/2 Hours of My Life

Paula and I have been busy!

Not in the kitchen but in here! If you are wondering though I do LOVE this set and highly recommend it! We purchased it the day after Thanksgiving at WalMart. They are not dish washer safe but are SUPER easy to clean so I have not minded one little bit.

My trusty side kick who insisted he could help. I made him wear his sunglasses just in case stuff went flying and trust me when I say it did from time to time.

Here he is busy working on the grout line. 

Can you believe it!!?? He actually got a piece of it off all on his own. I think we may have a future DIYer on our hands.

What a MESS! Abt every 10 minutes I would stop and sweep up everything. I just could not work in a mess. Took more time but gave me peace.

The tile on the surround was pretty easy to get off. The tile on the floor not so much but I figured out that ya just had to go after the mortar underneath the tile and not so much the tile itself. If ya are able to pop up the mortar than it is pretty easy peasy! Also if ya hammer the tile a few times it helps to loosen everything up too.

Bye Bye old granite tile!

Between yesterday and today it took approx 4 1/2 hours to complete the rip out. Not to bad. All I had to work with was a hammer and screw driver and a 5 yr old!;) 

Oh no, that will not do! I can see a cat or two being nosey and going in there. 

Easily remedied till we get some new fire safe backer board put up. S for which direction we are going thanx for voting! I wanted to see what y'all thought and it was pretty much unanimous!  Faux stone it is!

This weekend I see  ripping out of carpet to prepare for this stuff and hopefully tiling one fireplace! Yes, we are a tad crazy but this is the year of doing for us!

If ya want to see what it looked like before hand click here and here.

Joining up with The Shabby Chic Cottage for Transformation Thursday!

To Stone or Not to Stone?

Here is a pic of the granite tile that is on our fireplace surround. It is the same granite we have in our kitchen. I want to know what y'all would do with it. Do you think it goes with the new flooring? 

Here is the other option we came up with.

Would you rip the granite out and do the faux stone tile or just leave the granite in place?

One last pic. I will put a poll on my sidebar!:) Please feel free to not only vote but to leave comments on what you would do. I am also taking any other suggestions as well!:) 

Linking up to Wow Us Wednesdays over at Savvy Southern Style!

A Change

The Hubster woke up this morning ( I write this morning but mean Saturday since it is already after midnight!) and got a wild hair! He wanted to see if our wood flooring was glued/nailed down. I had remembered that a piece of molding was popping off in the dining room.

 One thing led to another! So what do ya think!? 

Had ya going there for a moment didn't I!?;) Really The Hubster did wake up this morning and wondered that. He was wanting to pull some molding up and I was afraid he was gonna break it and we would never get a new piece to match the existing wood flooring we have in the foyer, dining, and office. It was a definite commitment to see what could possibly be in store for us. Thankfully that loose molding came right up and it appears some boards are glued down and some are not. So that got The Hubster to thinking really hard abt us starting on the biggest DIY project we have ever done together. Trust me there are not many and this will be HUGE! 

Later today we went looking for blinds  for the master...thankfully scored some....and came across this wood flooring. What a coincidence! It is engineered wood flooring which is what is down now in our home and was suppose to have been swapped out by the builder when we bought the house but never got done. We priced hiring it out and well just the tear out and install was $4500 not to include the flooring! That was not money we were wanting to spend at the time. We still do not want to drop that much but I think we REALLY want this flooring and the flooring and supplies will come out to be less than the quote!  So we think we can be DIYers just maybe.

We have tested the flooring for scratching and what not and it passed with flying colors. Tomorrow we are going to check out one other place just to make sure we do not see anything else. The only other thing that is holding The Hubster back is the fact he knows I want the stairs done and we are not sure how to accomplish that. So do we do the floor and ignore the stairs in hopes that we can match up one day or do we pass and live with carpet?? That I think will be the deciding factor. I say we can always match up later. 

Hope your weekend is going well!