Evil MOLD! oh, and Happy Mother's Day!

So this year for Mother's Day Todd and I decided to do something special for both my mom and for us (sounds selfish, I know). but how many people make some really nice improvements on a rental property, eh? Not that many. So on Monday morning we drove to Lowes to check out some laminate flooring. We picked out this really pretty oak laminate that has glueless installation, which of course was also the best price except for maybe the stick on kind. It was on sale. (For those of you who know my mom, you should know that she always likes her presents more if they were on sale). So we got home and Todd got right to ripping up the old, VERY ugly linoleum that has probably been in that kitchen for 60 years.

Well, at first all went well. The linoleum was only attached on the sides where it went up the wall a little bit, so the bottom was a cinch to pick off. But then we saw it. Mold. I didn't act too worried, but really inside I was freaking out a bit. I was worried that we would have to tell my mom so she could pay a professional to clean it up, then she would get mad since she just spent a bunch of money refinishing her hardwood floor and getting tile laid in the kitchen. I had work that night so I spent my extra time while patients slept looking up mold cleanup and when to call a specialist. We really wanted to get this done by Sunday.

Later in the evening I called Todd to tell him of my concerns and my research. Well, he let me go on for a bit, then told me I didn't have to worry about it. He had gone to the Home Depot and bought mold cleaner/remover, and had cleaned the whole floor already. I told him I was still a little mad because I was worried about his health being so close to it, only to be told he also wore a mask, gloves, and goggles. Wow. Sometimes the amazingness of my amazingly amazing husband just amazes me. :) I was shocked. Tuesday he went back over the whole floor with bleach just to make sure all was well. Then I did it again on Wednesday just for good measure.





Notice the linoleum that was there before- just so you know, it looks dirty in the picture, but that is how it looked right after mopping. Yuck!


So once we had all of that mess taken care of, we laid down the underlayment for the floor. It is anti-mold and keeps moisture from coming up from below. It was sometimes a bit frustrating to try to get all the wrinkles out of it, but I think we did a pretty good job.







Once we had all that down, it was time to start laying the laminate wood. The first piece we did was around a doorway, and took us about 2 hours to complete. That was a little discouraging, as we had hoped to lay down the whole floor in one day. Luckily the first piece that we cut really bad ended up being usable in another section of the floor that we had to cut the pieces lengthwise, so at least we had that goin' for us.



We suckered Nikenzie into helping us cut some wood when my parents left her to us to watch while they were at Lauren's ballroom concert. All she had to do was help the clamp keep the wood in place and hold a flashlight. As a 12 year old, she complained a lot while we attempted to break child labor laws, but didn't fail to take credit later during the big reveal.




Some of our fine handywork:







Things were plugging along really well, but went exponentially better when Anna and Will came to town. Will had helped place laminate flooring before, and having three people along the length of the room to "click" in each row made the goings much, much easier. The room came together quite well.







Nope, we are not smart enough to get pictures of my mom seeing the new floor for the first time. Sorry.

So at our awesome ward, the Elders quorum has some sort of reward for the guy who has the coolest moment of the week. It is sort of a trumped up version of a "good news moment." Todd said that he had been trying to win the reward, a trophy the man gets to take home for the week, since it was introduced a few months ago. He said he had to do some persuading, but ended up winning the award for laying the floor down for my mom.