I am currently in the middle of what I would call a huge home renovation, completely redoing the first floor of our home.  My husband and I have lived in our home for what will be seven years this year (I cannot believe it has been that long!) so it is time for some much due updating.  Our carpet that stretches the living room and dining room has definitely seen its day, so we decided that we would have laminate floors installed and give an entire makeover.  Considering that I hired out for the new floors to be installed, still entailed plenty of work that I had to take care of before and after completion in which I felt in over my head, so it left me wondering, although it can be pricey, should you hire a contractor for home improvements?  I want to say yes because I am tired of working on my house, but honestly I am not too sure that is accurate.

The first to come up was the carpet, which taking off was easy, but then came removing the tack strips and the seemingly hundreds of staples, which not difficult, but annoying and time consuming to say the least.  Once all of those were finally removed, next came putting in screws to remove the existing squeaky floors that have bothered us for years.  To be extra sure that the annoying squeaks were gone, I screwed in every four inches or so, probably overkill, but necessary.  Next came the painting, as I had to repaint the ceiling, walls, and trim.  I completed the areas first just where the floors were going just to be sure I completed by the installation date, so now I was ready for the floors to be installed within the next few days.  At this point my house was all torn apart, and also doing the floors in my home office, so I had to relocate in the basement. 

The laminate were installed over the course of a day, so I did not have to do anything on my part, other than stay in another part of the house while they were working, and provide lunch, so that was nice.  They were in and out, which means I had to go back to work laying down the quarter round trim between the floors and the base molding, and then get back to painting, as I essentially have to paint the rest of the entire house.  As I type now the trim has been finished, nailed at least, I still have to caulk and paint.  I probably should have taken a week off of work, but as it is I am working my normal job and then working on the house until 11pm at night, so it begs the question, is it worth it to spend all my time doing this, or should I have just paid someone?   I will let you decide that one.