a few DIY tips

so the hubby and I have been living in our home since November and we have decided we really hate the existing floors.  it's carpeted and it's a beigy brown, way to light for a family with 3 kids, plus the previous owners didn't do too great in the upkeep of it.  we also didn't care for the dingy white linoleum in the kitchen so we dedided upon wood laminate flooring.  we had to rip out the carpet and linoleum, remove the base boards and clean all the glue off of the concrete foundation.  talk about FUN, yeah right, it's torturous!  but it's oooh so worth it.  it's coming along really nicely.  i just wanted to share some tips. 

but here's a pic of the before, and i will post an after photo soon i hope.

1.  read instructions completely, we didn't and we started the floor off with the planks in the wrong direction. right way: tongue against the wall but with the tongue sawed off, wrong way:  groove against the wall. yikes!  good thing we realized after placing 2 rows!
2.  this goes with #1 follow instructions! the instructions said to lay full boxes of planks or something with substantial weight so that the floor wouldn't "float away" from the wall.  so halfway throught the length of the kitchen and dining room we realized that our 1/4 inch gap had turned into 2 inches!! holyfuckingshit, right?
3.  have fun, and help with what you can.  i am not handy or coordinated, but i helped in laying the plastic membrane needed and i handed planks, kept the hubby fed and hydrated, oh, and i also kept the place as clean as i could, you don't want any little debris under your boards.

here's a pic of the project we still had a ways to go. (sorry, i don't know how to rotate it:( )

but you can kind of get the picture.  my hubby is off all week and will complete this project along with another little project in our back yard, or so i hope! 

i've been whining that i really miss my old back yard, we had a pool and a patio, now we have neither, not even a slab of cement to set up my old patio set.  so the hubby is promissing to make the back yard look nice.  so far we have a lot of sand back there. heres a pic.  we hope to add a slab of cement and eventually a patio for shade.

the kids having entirely too much fun with the sand!  i love how much fun kids can have with something simple like sand.