We swear this post is about floors, keep reading to find out why we chose luxury vinyl floors and you should too!
Who knew having pets would be so hard?
I always wanted a pet! Growing up my mom was not a fan of having animals running around the house. Having grown up on a farm you would think that wouldn’t be a problem for her. Wrong! She likes animals just not in her house. I remember, whenever we asked for a puppy or kitten, she would respond, “I have enough animals in my house with you guys!”
As a result, when we first moved into our new house, I had the bright idea of getting a dog and a cat, at the same time! My thought process was they’d grow together like siblings and get along. And so, consequently, we got a beautiful Siberian Husky and an adorable Ragdoll. Both on the same day – at 3 months of age.
But I didn’t consider it would be double the trouble as puppies and kittens are pretty much like toddlers. Just imagine a whole lot of “no, don’t bite that, drop that, don’t pee on the floor, sit down, what’s that smell, is that poop?” Questions you might ask if you have a toddler or young baby. (For a complete list of these questions check out our post “Why am I sticky?”).
He was a naughty puppy that day. 
Aren’t they adorable!!! 
I think my cat saw the exorcist too many times.
Needless to say, the few section of hardwood and old carpeting had met its match! We knew our flooring was done-zo, but we were not ready to change it out. That is until we set our eyes on the powder room!
At this point I’ll ask you fellow DIYers, ever read the book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”? Well, here’s what happens “If You Get A Cat and Dog.”
For the reason that if we were to change everything else in the powder room, we might as well change the floors. And if we’re changing the floors in the powder room, we might as well have a consistent flooring throughout the first floor (and later the whole house).
The Planning
First of all, we considered hardwoods throughout. But we needed something pet-friendly that would resist scratches and all the foot traffic while being easy to clean. Coming from the Caribbean we like to clean with lots of water (I mean hose down the house literally).
Taking into consideration all that plus our budget, we decided to forego hardwoods. And forget tile, in our climate? Nope. After lots of research, my dear husband came across the luxury vinyl option. It was waterproof, easy to install as a DIYer, budget and pet-friendly, resistant and a great look! Win-win I say.
The Process
Now, it was time to roll our sleeves up and start to work. We gathered our material which were the floors, tapping block, underlayment (for some areas that were uneven), a chop saw, jigsaw (to cut the planks to length), oscillating tool, 4 ft level and our good attitude 😀
The process was easy. First, we calculated how much floor we needed and bought a few cases extra. We removed the baseboards and the carpeting; where we had hardwoods and tile we just laid the floor over it. Because we had different flooring throughout the house there were some areas that were uneven and that’s where the underlayment came into play to level any transitions. We started on one side of the house, moving furniture as we progressed around.
It took us about 3 weeks to finish it, just working on the floors in the evenings and nonstop during the weekend.
The only parts of this project that I would consider a bit tedious was cutting the planks due to odd angles in our house. It’s also important to be sure the patterns didn’t repeat. Other than that, these luxury vinyl floors were super easy and fast to install.
And this is how the finished product looks!
We are very happy we chose luxury vinyl floors! They’re easy to maintain and clean. Not to mention they have withstood all of Akamaru’s (our husky), Dante’s (the cat) and now Alejandro’s (our 1-year-old-baby) shenanigans!
What type of floors do you have in your home? How have the floors stood up with your pets? Who else has given luxury vinyl a shot? Have you experienced one project snowballing into another? Share your story in the comments below and let us know if you liked how this turned out!