Home Improvement

When we bought our house in 2001, there were only two things about it that bothered me – the kitchen floor and the basement floor. The kitchen floor was replaced several years ago with Italian tile. I absolutely love it. So that leaves the basement floor…

I couldn’t take it anymore. It was covered in 1940’s asphalt tile. Totally laden with asbestos. I did some research on it, and discovered that in order to pull that tile up, we would have to have the EPA come in and do it. Apparently, when this sort of tile is cracked, it releases tiny bits of asbestos into the air. So, pulling it up would cause it to crack, thus permeating the basement with cancer-causing asbestos. Not an option.

I called my brother, Sonny, and asked him his thoughts. Sonny is quite knowledgeable about all sorts of things, so when I need a solid opinion on something, I call him.

He suggested laminate flooring. He also offered to help install it! How could I go wrong? I immediately began researching – Googling and You Tubing, mostly. The You Tube videos made installation of laminate look so easy, a monkey could do it.

Sonny and I set out in search of the perfect laminate floor one Wednesday afternoon. I brought some samples home and finally decided on the pattern. Laminate comes in many patterns, with wood grain seemingly being the most popular. Since the basement has lots of knotty pine paneling, the wood grain just overwhelmed the room with wood. I found a beautiful ceramic tile pattern with several different shades of earth tones. Perfect.

Then my back went out. Project put on hold for a few weeks.

Finally, this project had to get started, bad back or not. Sonny & I went out to pick up the stuff in my Furmobile on a Monday afternoon, and we agreed to start first thing that Wednesday morning.

The tile was like this in many places. I wrote on one of the intact tiles!



We had to disconnect and move this entire bar into the laundry room in order to lay the floor down correctly. I honestly don't know how the two of us got it in there, but we did!

We ended up not putting the bar back. Jim and I thought about it & realized that it took up more room than what it was worth. Jim spent a whole day disassembling it. There were millions of screws holding the knotty pine planks together.


Bookie needed to be petted every half hour. This was our biggest challenge.


Before & after pictures of the steps. Looks great!



I made the pole base out of a wooden craft plate that I found at Pat Catan's. I cut the center hole out with a jigsaw.


And here are the "after" pictures. Note the area where the bar used to be. No, we don't miss it one bit!

My brother did an awesome job. He was the mastermind behind the project. I was the flunky assistant. I am so thankful for all the work he did. We had a fun time doing this (well, I know I did) and Jim & I and the dogs are thoroughly enjoying our extra 400 square feet of living space!