Aw, thank you! We put a lot of time, money, and hard work into it, and it's lovely to have it 95% done. (Living in it while it was under construction was seriously not fun. There are some in-process photos in that Flickr photoset "house" that may give you some idea.)
I like the floors a lot, although they have acquired a few dents that are not fixable the way a real wood floor would be. The thing about laminate is that you get what you pay for, and the lower-end laminates look like laminate. I didn't want the kind that came in three-board sections (most common) because you can see right away that that's exactly what it is. The flooring we got comes in both wide and narrow "boards" which we alternated in a WnWnnWnWnn etc pattern, and it really looks like wood unless you look closely...but it cost as much as hardwood.
The difference that swayed us was the ease of installation, which would have brought the cost of wood way up. These things click together and were easy to do with just us and our hired hands. We popped them together and laid them down, easy peasy.
I really wanted to refinish, though, and I think if the wood had been in better shape throughout I would have pushed for getting the really water-damaged bits repaired, and then refinishing the rest. I love real wood!
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Date: 2008-01-21 09:16 pm (UTC)I like the floors a lot, although they have acquired a few dents that are not fixable the way a real wood floor would be. The thing about laminate is that you get what you pay for, and the lower-end laminates look like laminate. I didn't want the kind that came in three-board sections (most common) because you can see right away that that's exactly what it is. The flooring we got comes in both wide and narrow "boards" which we alternated in a WnWnnWnWnn etc pattern, and it really looks like wood unless you look closely...but it cost as much as hardwood.
The difference that swayed us was the ease of installation, which would have brought the cost of wood way up. These things click together and were easy to do with just us and our hired hands. We popped them together and laid them down, easy peasy.
I really wanted to refinish, though, and I think if the wood had been in better shape throughout I would have pushed for getting the really water-damaged bits repaired, and then refinishing the rest. I love real wood!