Moderate Home Makeover - Steinbrecher Edition

I'll admit that overall there is nothing "Extreme" about this.  However, if you want to stay tuned to an either really frustrated or really excited Steinbrecher household, I'm going to try and keep updated with some pictures.

What is it that I'm talking about?

For a while now Sarah and I have been thinking about some moderately significant home improvement projects.  We've really taken some time to look at our house, what we have, how it is placed on the lot, the yard, and visions of more than just Gabriella and Nikki's feet running around.  Since we moved in, we were never thrilled about the "formal dining room."  It seemed to be nothing more than a space that was used 2-3 times - max.  So about a year ago we moved our family room into that space and opened up the family room to a temporary play room for Gabriella.  Our kitchen table is a little small - and doesn't provide the greatest route through the home; we came up with the idea of extending the kitchen/dining room into the play room, but retaining a sitting area in front of the fireplace.  To make this happen we knew we had to do something about the floors.

Currently, the first floor is a mixture of carpet and hardwood.  The entry through to the kitchen is hardwood, but the office/den, living room, and "play room" are carpet.  We wanted to at minimum make the play room hardwood so we could extend the kitchen/dining room as above.  The trouble was that we couldn't find the same hardwood and wouldn't mind a darker color.  As we continued to brainstorm, the ideas got more and more elaborate and expensive.

That brings us to today.

Right now there are 51 cases of engineered bamboo sitting throughout the house.  I've been pulling off all of the baseboard, tomorrow David is going to help me move the kitchen appliances and other heavy items, and Thursday is demo day (hoping I can get it done in 1 day).  I'm ripping everything on the first floor out, and then installing (with some help from David as needed - I'll return the favor in a few weeks), throughout the weekend.  The result will either be a very happy, satisfied Andrew, a frustrated, defeated Andrew who finally hired someone to finish the job, or a homeless family because the frustrated Andrew destroyed the house.  I'm confident we'll get the job done well.  It has already been a fun (at times frustrating), but definitely a learning experience.  Tools needed, how to look at the floors, appreciation for the construction that is complete - there are a lot of things to consider.

I'll probably start taking pictures once I get to demo.  Stay tuned!