It's time for a living room update!

Here she is. Pretty, no? Ike is just happy his loveseat is back in it's proper location.

We last left off talking about our built-ins and mantel. As you can see, we've made some killer progress. Actually Nate has been kicking built-in hiney. They are built and painted. We are hoping to get them installed this weekend and possibly start on the mantel area.

We have the hearth tile picked out and a mantel plan. I ordered some new pillow covers and I have a rug in mind. (Details to come.) We are still pondering sconces. We're both having trouble committing.

Last decision. The wood floor. Let the record state that ripping up the carpet was Nate's idea. We made a stop into the flooring store where we originally purchased the wood floor. Luckily it is still being made and we were able to order it in. We got an installation estimate from them. The total for flooring and installation was going to be $4100. Ouch.

Next plan. We would install the flooring ourselves. Wait. Are we qualified? Nate felt confident installing the floor if we were ripping up the whole thing. He wasn't quite sure how to deal with the border that we currently have going on around part of the carpet. (Excuse the messy floors. We're remodeling.)

We pondered leaving the border and just installing the new wood floors around it. I think we only liked this idea because it made installation easier. We ultimately decided that we would probably end up hating this idea in a few years.

Next plan. I have a co-worker whose husband installs floors for a living. We had him stop by for an estimate (Where my dog tried to repeatedly hump him. Good, Ike. Good.) His quote for materials plus installation was around $3000. He also suggested removing some of the existing wood floor back into the kitchen area. He thinks this will help the new flooring blend better. Who knew! (We have Brazilian cherry floors. They are light when installed an darken over time. We had to patch a spot in our kitchen a few years back and it took a couple of months for the colors to even. We're hoping that is the case this round!)

The price is definitely a little more than we anticipated but we're going to hire it out. We are pretty busy this Summer and we're not sure that we're qualified. Sometimes you have to fork over the dough. The new living room flooring will be installed on August 26th. It should take 2-3 days. We're pumped!

Have you installed wood floor? When do you decided to hire out DIY work? Were we totally delusional thinking we could keep that border?