Floor and Decor Outlets

There is a store that is a budget re modelers dream.They have everything you could possibly want. They offer tile, laminate, glass, natural stone, engineered hardwoods, cork, bamboo, and they now offer cabinets. We have gotten all of our flooring from there. We have purchased the laminate for the flooring in the house, the porcelain tile for the upstairs bathroom, and the granite tiles for the counter tops in the kitchen. I cannot tell you the amount of money we have saved by buying from them instead of the big box home improvement stores. I am not getting paid for this post.The store here in Las Vegas offers free classes every Saturday to even teach the novice how to install tile and wood flooring. What remodeling moron wouldn't love that right? I know I did....

Here is a link to them. Go and check them out!

http://www.flooranddecoroutlets.com/

 I just know that if you have a project coming up and you want to cut your remodeling budget you might want to give them a try.

  Las Vegas/Henderson
1080 Sunset Road
Henderson NV US 89014
Store Manager:
Ali Zahedi
azahedi@flooranddecoroutlets.com
(702) 547-0146

Hours:
7AM - 8PM Mon - Fri
Sat 8AM - 8pm
10AM - 6PM Sun

The Living Room or the Master Bedroom.. Design by Democracy

When C and I bought the Chateau it had blue carpet in the living room. It was covered in pet excrement and where there was a spot free of poo it had cigarette burns from the chain smoking nasty folks we purchased the place from. Yeah, I can't even begin to describe that smell to you…

   The day we got the keys we pulled up the carpet and threw it away! It didn't get rid of the smell completely but cinnamon scented pine cones did. Being newlyweds and new home owners we needed a cheap fix for the floor and carpet just wasn't in the budget after buying a fridge plus washer and dryer. So C and I walked around Home Depot trying to figure out what to do. C was convinced we should use pull and stick vinyl tiles but the thought made me less than happy. He dragged me to the aisle and showed me the huge array of colors, textures, and patterns. I was amazed that there was so many and that it was so cheap, I feel in love. It was $14.00 a box, each box covered almost 120 feet. It is now A LOT more expensive. A few months ago when I went to price it for the kitchen it had gone up to $35.00 a box. I discovered it was cheaper to put laminate in the whole downstairs than it was to put the pull and stick in just the kitchen. I hate laminate! It has a funny feel to it when you walk on it and it drives me crazy. I envisioned gorgeous hardwood floors gracing my house in a dark tone. However, with the value of our townhouse plummeting every day (or so it seems) it is beyond stupid to put in hardwood when the market can't sustain that sort of investment. Did I just sound like I'm in accounting there??? Whoa day job sneaking into the blog world. C convinced me to go to this new store called Floor and Decor Outlets and when we did we saw tons of wonderful colors and styles. The possibilities seemed endless. Once again I was in love. I threw my prejudices out the window and we bought Heart Pine.



Heart Pine flooring 7mm

 However, we installed it in the kitchen and half way down the hall. I have enough to do either the master bedroom or the living room.

Here is the dilemma.... Get ready now Because it is a doozy!!!!

We have enough flooring for one of two rooms. I need to pick one and let the other one wait until we get our next bit of remodel cash.

The living room would be completely done with a few small, okay I lie huge projects.

1. Use the Oops paint and actually paint the living room.
2. build that awesome entertainment center I have the plans for.
3. Caulk the crown molding that has been on my "to do list since 2006"
4. install the flooring.

The Master bedroom has a lot more issues before we can call it done. They are as follows:

1. Pull up old carpet and replace the sub floors. Currently the sub floor is so warped that it makes you queasy as you walk from one side of the room to the other.
2. Install the new flooring
3. Paint
4. install lighting
5. Get the HOA from Hell to approve new French doors (maybe some that close and aren't a wind tunnel for draft testing.)
6. replace the door to the closet
7. Paint the fabulous new built in bookcase/TV/computer space

So most of me wants the Bedroom done or a step closer but part of me thinks go with the practical. After all how many people do you have traipsing through your bedroom as compared to your living room...


My loyal readers I put it to you. Which room gets flooring the living room or the master bedroom???

Leave a comment and let me know what you think...

A new weekly feature! Oops Paint what a Delight!

Welcome to Falling Down House's new feature called "Houses that Inspire". My sister-in-law (Laura) has done some wonderful work on her house with paint found in the Oops section of home improvement stores.

If you are unfamiliar with Oops paint it is when a customer asks the paint department to mix a color but after it is mixed the customer is unhappy with the it and opts not to make the purchase. The store is then forced to sell the paint for a very reduced price. Below you will find in Laura's own words her Oops success:

Computer room was painted light rosy pink from a gallon of oops paint. The reason why I picked this was because I knew the curtains I had in that room had a bunch of pink flowers and the giant painting had pink undertones. The boys including your brother pitched a fit when they saw the walls painted (boob) pink without furniture. After I added the curtains, the furniture, and the painting, they liked it.  Every time I mention that I want to change the color, he tells me I can't.

 Family room was painted this light grass green from a gallon of oops paint. I picked this one off the shelf because I thought it would match the green in the window swag and the green leaves in the rugs. I happened to be right and the 5 dollars wasn't such a gamble after all.

 The master bathroom color is our latest project. It was oops paint found by my husband. He brought my attention to it and said that it would match our bathroom rug. We had a large light blue rug with navy blue designs in our master bathroom. I wanted to make sure, but he convinced me it was only 5 dollars and it was worth the money if it matched and then went back to find it was gone. We took it home and found out that it matched the rug perfectly. Unfortunately lee shook up the paint without knowing I had removed the lid earlier and not pounded it back with a hammer. The paint ended up all over the inspiration rug and my beautiful rug could not be saved. Fortunately there was enough paint left to cover the bathroom walls. The white and blue stripes around the tub were to make up for the rug being gone and to match the hand towels.



So inspired by Laura's success I started looking at the Oops paint and just a few weeks ago I found the exact color I wanted to paint my living room in the old Chateau Ghetto. It is called Tangerine Dream (don't worry it isn't as scary as it sounds). I scored a galleon of Deep Base paint for a whopping $5.00! I'm doing some repair work to the walls right now before painting begins but I promise I will post all about it.

I hope your Oops inspired too! Now run out and check your paint department and report back with your success. We will have a link party in the future where you can share your results!

Hello my blog readers. I have been working on a few things with Mandy on how to get this blog really up and running. We have come up with a few segments that we will post on. We haven't decided how often these will appear; weekly, monthly, bi-weekly? Maybe they could even show up when we have something great that falls into these categories.









Here is what we have so far.. Please leave feedback with us.

1.     Ask Sher - People can ask if I've done something they are going to attempt and I can lead them how to stay away from the mistakes C and I made

2.     Design by Democracy - where  a choice of what is going into the  latest project is presented and you readers can vote on it.

3.     Homes that inspire us - we show pictures of places that gave us ideas

4.     Good Deals - like the Home Depot deal previously posted

5.     Confessions of a Remodeling Moron - where we discuss stupid things we've done and how we would do it different now that we know

6.     Dream Vs. Reality - what I want to do to my house if money and time wasn't an object and how I take the dream and convert it into Chateau Ghetto reality or at least a version of it.

7.     My Custom Home - it sounds dumb but it's the home I've been designing in my head if I ever sell my book (yes I am writing a book and no I won't make anyone read it)  and have money.

These are just a few ideas we have. The first post of Homes that Inspire Us will be posted this week. I promise. I am actually working on it today.

Stay tuned for OOPS Paint What a Delight!

The Suprises of Remodeling!

Last October marked the 5th year of our remodel. It's not that it has taken us this long it's that stuff keeps breaking, collapsing, and generally getting moldy. I think having kids has definitely sped this up. Also if I am going to be honest and I promised you readers I would be we have broken a lot of stuff while we were figuring out what we were doing.

This post isn't about that though. This post is about some of the horrific things we have found as we have torn things down room by room. Some rooms twice just cuz it was so much fun the first time...

Not knowing I was going to start this blog in years past I didn't think to take pictures but I swear that C and different family members were present when everything was found.

I think my favorite was when we removed the old 1986 horror that was the mirror in the half bath.


The following was found behind the mirror:

• a condom wrapper
• a note from the Southern Nevada Health District informing the previous owners their "Test" results were back and they needed to come in and speak with a counselor.
• a yellow sticky note with the words "Your Parole officers name is _____ ____. His number is  ________." Name and numbers were redacted for obvious reasons. Somewhere we probably have that note. C never throws anything away.

The following was found when we removed a section of the wall behind the water heater in the storage space under the stairs:

• Girl on girl porn!

The piece DE la resistance was found when we ripped out a filler piece in  base cabinets in the kitchen:

• a corona beer bottle filled with pee!

Well, if you are brave or dumb enough to jump into the world or the fixer upper just expect some freaky stuff...

Or maybe we just bought from some major freaks!

Home Depot: Cuisinart Microwave $52

Hi there! It's me, Mandy. The ghost of the blog who stays in the shadows. I've decided to make an appearance long enough to tell you about a steal of a deal that Hip2Save shared.

Home Depot's facebook page is hit with a deal where you can purchase a Cuisinart 1.0 cu. ft. Countertop Microwave in Stainless Steel for just $52 (after shipping)- $152 value!


You HAVE to purchase the microwave through the link on the facebook page or else the discount will not be applied to your shopping cart.

The Top 20 things Two Inexperienced Remodelers discovered (I mean us)

1. When you are going to paint something sand it first!
2. Know that if you ask other's for help you are not going to get a job to your specs but to theirs!
3. Designing as you go! Big mistake!!!
4. Buying one part at a time. The rest of the parts are never there when you have the money and it forces re-design!
5. Not measuring but giving it your best guess.
6. Letting other's paint! I had to replace carpet I wasn't counting on.
7. Design doesn't and should never go before structure! Even though it's the fun part!
8. Theme rooms! Yeah, wasn't a good idea! They are all being re-done!
9. Upgrading beyond the neighborhood. If your neighbors house is only worth $29,000 and yours is identical but with nice upgrades it doesn't matter your house is still only going to sell for what the neighbors did. Save your money and buy a IRA!
10.Don't pour paint down a sink. It's bad for the environment and ruins the sink. If you do pour paint down a sink have a patsy to blame it on...
11. Don't get carried away with demo! I can't state that enough! The urge to rip out and throw away is very powerful. I threw out the bathroom sink and have been brushing my teeth in the bathtub for months. That wasn't well thought out!
12. Think things through!
13. There is never enough research to do before you start a project.
14. Invest in tools. We didn't and when my father moved away so did the tools!
15. Find someone to borrow tools from.
16. Be careful who you ask to borrow tools from. Some people interpret this as come and do it for me and this is no fun.
17. Finish a project right away or 5 years down the road you could be saying "I really should caulk that crown molding I put up in 2006!
18. Make lists and stick to them.
19. Watching UTube can teach you how to install kitchen cabinets! Two years later they haven't fallen down!
20. Grout lines are supposed to be straight and epoxy grout should be used by professionals!

How I stained the New Vanity!



The top of the vanity before the new stain


The vanity was old and very dingy plus it had some nasty scratches in it I had to use wood putty on. I found wood putty in Dark Walnut and it blended right in. 









I used Minwax Dark Walnut




I found Minwax Dark Walnut and I was excited beyond belief. I love dark Earth tones. C likes pastels and yes this is a point of contention amongst us. 

The Vanity gets much darker



The stain as I paint it on




 

So, you paint the stain one in the direction of the wood grain. DO NOT GO AGAINST THE GRAIN THIS IS A VERY BAD MISTAKE!!!!

Let the stain sit for around 5 minutes. Do not try to let it sit longer... This makes it get very sticky and it becomes hard to get off..

Then wipe the stain off also in the direction of the wood grain. Let the object sit for at least 24 hours and then varnish the project. Varnish is an important as it adds shine. (I love shine! I'm a full gloss kind of girl!) Plus varnish also adds a layer of protection. When you have the proper layer of protection down on a surface that will have a lot of water on it IE a sink vanity in a bathroom it will make it so the water beads up. You can then simply wipe the water away and not worry about the water penetrating the surface causing warping and rotting! No more mold in this house please!

I didn't include the varnish pictures because I think that it deserves it's own post....

The Bing Crosby to my Bob Hope

Anyone that knows me knows that I have a few true loves in my life (other than my family). The biggest of them is Bob Hope! I adore Bob Hope. I celebrate his birthday and was inconsolable when he died in 2003. It's not weird Bob and I are just kindred spirits. The point of this post I promise I am getting to. Bob Hope was part of a comedy team. Hope and Crosby. Bob played the love starved crazy goof and Bing played the straight man that always got the girls. I never got that. Who would want ole Bing when there was Bob and that growl right? Anyway I digress. Here is my point....


I am new to blogger and I am learning as I go. I have the benefit of my very own Bing Crosby. My straight man (or woman in this case) that gets me out of jams and knows what is what. My Bing is named Mandy.

Mandy set up this blog and has been teaching me as I go. She is a blogger pro and even has her own genius craft blog at http://www.smallfineprint.blogspot.com/ . She set up my blog so until I get a handle on this I email her what I want to post and she makes it pretty and posts it. You can certainly tell the posts she has done compared to the ones I've done.
So keep checking back and see how well I am learning and don't forget to check out Small Fine Print. You will love it!