We have tried to save money everywhere we could throughout the building process. In some cases we were able to do so through smarter material selections or through sourcing our own vendors. In other cases we decided that we could do some of the work ourselves as long as we didn’t hold up any other progress.

Originally we planned to install most of the interior wood finishes including the tongue and groove ceilings and wall boards. We had also planned to stain the 2,000 sq ft of tongue and groove material ourselves and install the laminate flooring in the lower level, but we soon realized we couldn’t do it all on our own.

To make sure we didn’t delay the wood flooring installation on the main level, we had a small crew from our framer’s team install all of the ceilings using pre-stained beetle kill pine. While they were doing that, we were hard at work installing the wall boards.

We spent a few long weekends and late nights installing NewBarnwood wall boards in the powder room, master bedroom, bunk room, and rec room. Then we applied a whitewash finish to some shiplap pine and installed that in the master bathroom. It made us feel pretty good when the other trades commented on how good our work was.

While we were working on the wall boards, the flooring installers were hard at work installing the engineered hardwood flooring throughout the main level and on the stairs. They used a glue down installation method which was recommended by the manufacturer for use with radiant heat to reduce future issues with expansion and contraction.

When it came to the lower level flooring we turned a couple of unfortunate events to our advantage. For a long time, we went back and forth on what we were going to do with that flooring. We entertained ideas from stained concrete to engineered wood to laminate. We wanted something we could install ourselves that would look good with the rest of the finishes and could be upgraded later on if we wanted. We finally ended up settling on some laminate flooring that we really liked at Home Depot.

We placed the order online and expected to have it delivered in time for the long Memorial Day weekend so we could install it ourselves. Of course the delivery was delayed and we were running out of time to do it ourselves.

Then we learned of a mistake that was made on the edge of our island countertop slab. They manufactured a square edge instead of the chiseled edge that we originally specified. To make it up to us, they offered to replace the slap or give us a credit. We ultimately decided to use the credit with Denver Flooring and Finishes to install the laminate flooring once it was actually delivered. While we were disappointed about the countertop edge mishap, we made the best of the situation and kept the project moving!