Our Laminate Floor is (Finally) Here!

One week from our order date, we got a call from Home Depot saying that they had our laminate flooring at the store. That was great news, because at first they told us it was going to take at least two weeks for us to get our flooring.

The laminate floor boxes were pretty heavy, so it was a good thing that we found some shopping trolleys in the parking lot. Instead of having to take the boxes one by one, we hauled six at a time with these babies.

Let me zoom in on one part of the scene above.

Vee has done this at least twice, taking off his gloves and leaving them where he last put his hands. They look a little creepy, like they come alive when you're not looking.

By the way, you know those grocery stores with trolleys that automatically lock their wheels once you're a certain distance away from the store? Apparently, they lie because we see some of those "locking" trolleys in the parking lot and they work fine.

Anyway, this is what our new floor looks like. It's called Oslo Walnut from Beaulieu Canada. It's a nice medium brown and so far we're really happy with our decision.

But our laminate-floor-shopping experience was a saga.

First, the cheapskates that we were, we liked the 97-cent-per-square-feet laminates with nice pattern and coloring.

Then, after talking to a flooring specialist at a Home Depot store and getting some advice on choosing laminates, we decided on a 2.99-bucks-per-square-feet product with attached foam underlayment. Also, there was a 10-percent-off promotion for flooring products and 10-percent-off promotion for the first purchase on new Home Depot cards. In total, we got 19 percent off and also saved a little because we didn't having to buy a separate underlayment.

Then, our building manager said he wanted at least a certain level of soundproofing. We went back to Home Depot and found out that:
1. the laminate product we ordered did not have the required level of soundproofing in the attached underlayment.
2. we had to get the most expensive underlayment product in the store to get that kind of soundproofing.
3. we couldn't just add the soundproofing product under the said laminate because the attached underlayment would make the floor unstable.
4. therefore, we had to cancel our original order and choose another product.
5. the product we finally decided to buy instead had to be special-ordered and could take up to three weeks to arrive.
6. therefore, we might have to live on concrete sub-floor for a few days while we wait for the laminates to arrive.
7. Home Depot was going to honor our 19-percent discount again because it was the last day of the promotion on the flooring products and even though it wasn't technically our first purchase. This was the huge silver lining in the horrible shopping trip that it was.

But now that our new laminates are here, only about one week from the order date, we've almost forgotten all about the buying process. We're just happy we don't have to live on concrete because we can at least finish the flooring in one room before moving in. And it turned out for the best, because a friend offered to help deliver these boxes to our apartment (saving us $60 in delivery) and we spent the one-week wait time stripping and cleaning the concrete sub-floor anyway.