Project survived -- mostly

I'm recovering 

on Friday morning the work began 

first all of the furniture from the family room had to be moved out of the room --- chairs, lamps, couch, entertainment center, bookcase ---- everything to other parts of the house for the duration of the work

next step -- the carpet was cut into strips and we pulled it up, rolled it and tied it so it can be put into the trash can for haul away --- and the padding underneath pulled up, stuffed into big garbage bags and moved out to go into the trash --- as I was working on those two parts, my son in law was using a crow bar to pry up the tack strips that had held the carpet

then came the tedious step of either pulling up or pounding down all of the staples that had held the padding in place, followed by a good vacuuming of the entire floor

finally the installing of the new floor could begin

first we laid down the foam "underlayment" material, then we started in the corner, cutting and fitting as we went

the DH did the cutting while my son in law and I placed and tightened each piece and marked for any needed upcoming cuts --- meantime my daughter entertained Mr Cute (she took some adorable pictures of him trying out the tools he had seen his daddy using, which I'll show you when she emails them to me)

because of the age of the house and the previous owner's changes to the kitchen floor (which is the ceramic tile there at the bottom edge of the picture) we couldn't use the transition strip that we had on hand, so that edge between the tile and the flooring isn't finished yet, and we still have the quarter round trim at the baseboards and the trim around the hearth to do, but we were able to return the chairs, couch, lamps and TV stand to the room on Friday evening so we could all sit down for a well deserved rest

it looks a lot different -- cleaner, brighter

but like I said, I'm recovering ---  I don't usually spend a lot of time squatting, kneeling on bare wood and pressing pieces of wood into place, so the muscles in my legs and arms  are still sore, and I'm discovering I have little bruises in various places -- like the back of my hands

all that said, I'm please with our efforts -- there is a certain sense of accomplishment in getting such a big job so close to finished

so for the next day or so I'll be recovering and we'll be working on the finishing work --- and I'll actually do some art work too

cool!