Shawn and littleT,

My husband laid Pergo two years ago through the entire house all by himself and around his work, it took a couple of months to do.

We were told they were very durable, epsecially wiht high traffic areas and children. We had many knicks early on and now, since our second home flooding last year, had one entire half the house pulled up and we had tile laid later in the year last year.

The Pergo is VERY difficult to keep clean, you can't run a vacuum over it, it'll scratch. I vacuum my ENTIRE house with our Dison vacuum 4" brush - at least it's convenient in getting the baseboards and trim! Then I mop it all and some of the tile (what we alreay had) gets wax. It's a TON of effort, but I DO love the tile far more than the Pergo!

We have put out soooo much money on our floors in the past two years between toilet basins flooding and then our washing machine flooding more than 40 gallons of water into our home I am sick at the thought sometimes. We had the tile guy lay it on a 45' angle and it does look very nice!

Make your flooring choices carefully. We finally went with the least destructible material possible, tile, although right now, the type escapes me! I'll get back with that. Not all tile are good for children or high traffic areas and may chip, then if they chip, are they colored all the way through or will they show white-ish? It took us months to decide on the tile.

Anyway, I wish I'd had your info, littleT on the price/sqft.

Shawn, I would go with real wood over laminate! From the standpoint of resale value and it'll last longer with the children and their friends, etc.....

I LOVE what ja2003wow said about "patiently waiting for Ty Pennington" that is funny! I really enjoy home improvement shows. I saw a show the other day while the boys were in quiet time on the Country Music Channel called Mobile Home Disasters where a single father of 5 boys asked for help. One of the boys was sleeping down the street at grandma's house, dad just didn't have enough room. It was sad and heartbreaking, but I absolutely LOVED how that Dad did what he needed to to keep his family together. He even traded in a well paying job to become a teacher so his schedule was on track with his boys!

Anyway, I don't know what happened to mom, I came into the show about 5-7 minutes in and missed it.

They did a super job of getting that mobile home to what would benefit that family.

I am a sap for stories of the heart. I sit and am thankful to God someone out there is doing for others in this way. We do our small part, but sometimes, I wish we could on a larger scale.

Sorry for digressing.....lol

Michelle

I'll reply about the laminate. We had ours installed 1 year ago. Probably would not recommend the installer but I love the floors. We went with a Shaw laminate as it was less expensive than Pergo. I do not have too much trouble with cleaning it except that I do it all the time. IT has been very durable. We have had it a year and it has held up to 5 cats, 3 dogs, and a baby. I would have loved hardwoods but with all those pets I cringed at the wood.
What we are looking for is someone who paints. I did most of my house and have a few small projects that I just cringe at thinking about doing. Anyone know any reasonable painters?

Shawn, have you considered Bamboo for your floors? We did and my sister looked into them too and when she pulls her carpeting up will probably do Bamboo. I researched quite a bit, but have yet to locate all my favorites from having the computer in the shop and system redone/cleaned, etc. If I find it, I'll post what we looked into. Plus, considering Bamboo grows at a higher rate, far more environmentally safe and sound.


Michelle

I could tell you all about who *not* to call. We've had a roof leak for nearly 3 years now and so far... 4 companies have been unable to get the job done. The most recent company abandoned the job, and we had to file a BBB complaint to get our money back.

For most other things... my hubby is very handy and does it. We have an 83 yr old house, so it requires LOTS of work.

Shawn - I dunno about wood stairs and kids. I think I'd be apprehensive about slippage. But having stairs is expensive in the flooring business. Our carpet install was budget breaking!

I agree on the bamboo for flooring, I've heard good things about bamboo.

My dad also recommended some bamboo for floors. I went to take a look and it is beautiful. I had several people though tell me it will probably end up being a "dated" thing. Example, in 20 years from now someone will say, "Oh they did that bamboo back in the day" Kind of like orange shag carpeting. It was in and then hated so bad and now, they are trying to bring it back in... So weird.

Bizeemomma- I love older houses. They have character and personality.
I wonder about the wood too with all my kiddos. Lilly is my most clumsy babe and she doesn’t get to go up the stairs. It is gated off and her bedroom is downstairs, but it is still something to think about.
Carpet wears and stains so bad on the stairs though.

Well, I'd prefer to have rugs where needed. I'll tell you why, the dust and dirt that collects in carpets is nearly impossible to get rid of completely. It just kind of grosses me out to think about it, and I'm not germ a phobic, but my son showed me a video of when dust mites attack on you tube. Now I want to get rid of all my carpet, lol, I really do.

quote:

Originally posted by Shawn Arnold:
I had several people though tell me it will probably end up being a "dated" thing.

I see what you are saying, however, you can promote your home by saying that it is more environmentally acceptable!

I wonder about the wood too with all my kiddos.

The bamboo wears VERY well and has lots of give and take

Lilly is my most clumsy babe and she doesn’t get to go up the stairs. It is gated off and her bedroom is downstairs, but it is still something to think about.

Lilly is still young that keeping the gate up is a good decision, Shawn. Sometimes, their coordination isn't that great even at 3-4y!

Carpet wears and stains so bad on the stairs though.

Oh, carpet, we agree! Not only with how they wear on stairs. I can always tell that carpet is old when we visit places, our boys start sneezing and wheezing! It's terrible, but we can't stay places long when they have old/er carpeting. Besides that, they also break out in hives and rashes from the buildup over time to the carpet fibers. When they were still "floor" babies, I brought a blanket with us and put it down where ever we went just in case. Ick!

We don't have any carpeting anyplace. We do, however, have a small runner in one son's room that gets beaten outside and vacuumed all the time. In our younger son's room we have those foam numbers and letters locked together in the middle of his floor. Soft and he can still run his vehicles over it. AND, all the while protecting the nice new tile we just put down last year. I can still run a vacuum over it with the brush/hose attachment and then once weekly I pick them all up for a better cleaning. He puts them back down. We do want area rugs for our living and family rooms though. We had such a beautiful one in the family room last year for a short time before the flooding again and we can't seem to find another one we really like since. Our search continues! lol

quote:

Originally posted by guitarjee:
It just kind of grosses me out to think about it, and I'm not germ a phobic, but my son showed me a video of when dust mites attack on you tube. Now I want to get rid of all my carpet, lol, I really do.

I could see how seeing that would make you want to pull it all up right then and there! lol

I know the rest of this is "off topic," but I can't help but ask about it. How does You Tube work?

Our sons would LOVE to see the video! My husband just looked at it once, with our younger son to watch a hippo get eaten by an Anaconda (our son wants to go to Africa and research Anacondas and Crocodiles, etc), but I've never looked at a video personally.

My husband said there was so much to it and that some people put just about anything on it??? He hasn't had much time to really get into the "site" to know how to navigate it. How do you avoid something unacceptable for children if some put things under titles that would be for children? Preview every one ahead of time?

While on vacation last week, we drove from Cocoa Beach to friends in St. Augustine and their son showed our older son how to view roller coaster rides on there. Namely the Mt. Everest ride at Animal Kingdom. Our boys liked how "rock-n-roll" was put to the videos. But, again, I wasn't doing any of the navigating myself.

Our sons keep a microscope out on the counter to view "things" all the time. Just a couple weeks ago, they pulled skin from the palm of our younger son (it was peeling from a spill on the concrete) and put it on a slide to see what cool things they could see.


Michelle

I guess these kind of things are what a boy of mom has to look forward to! Jaden, my 14 month old took apart the flashlight at about 10 months old and I said then "I think this is only the beginning."

I will get the link for "Dust Mites Attack" for you, but as far as the computer questions go ~ my son and hubby know so much more than I. I know enough to get by on, with what I do, and that's it.

And I don't search youtube or know anything about it, I look at what they show me, or what a friend sends me from time to time.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but I will put the link on here later.

quote:

Originally posted by Scrappin mom:
I guess these kind of things are what a boy of mom has to look forward to! Jaden, my 14 month old took apart the flashlight at about 10 months old and I said then "I think this is only the beginning."

Yes, Lisa. I LOVE being a boys mommy! I get to rough it with them AND still dress up. lol

It is only the beginning! Ours enjoy taking things apart and figuring out how they work and putting them back together. At least for that. When we've had to have "workers" here, I always make sure to bring the boys out to watch and explain if I can and if I can't, have the workers explain (we are paying them, so may as well have them explain what they're doing as they do it - makes them more accountable, too!! hehehe).


Maybe we should create a separate thread for interesting links we can show/share with our children??? A one stop web-education experience!

Michelle

Anyone have a really good, reasonable pressure washing person they could recommend to do the outside of a home and pool screen enclosure? Taking names and numbers.

I have a GREAT Pressure Washing Company for reference----

Target Pressure Cleaning Owner is, Martin Boseman - Ask for BRETT

They do FREE ESTIMATES and have very reasonable, comparable rates.

I can attest to the professional, friendly work ethic and workmanship!!

Hi Lisa! We're back! So,Jaden is a normal little guy, huh?! Then you should see Hayden!! On vacation, he was bug catcher extrodinaire! He's been Mr. Fixit for a long time though. Not many toys survive him! All get broken down to see the inner workings!! This bug hunting was fun though. He had an ant on his arm & just let it crawl all aroundas he studied it! He would catch various bugs just to worry them to death! Loved daddy long legs!
See you Sunday.

quote:

Originally posted by Scrappin mom:
I guess these kind of things are what a boy of mom has to look forward to! Jaden, my 14 month old took apart the flashlight at about 10 months old and I said then "I think this is only the beginning."