How a water leak ruined our laminate flooring

August 29, 2011

Some mornings I wake up and have NO clue what I’m going to blog about that night. I rarely schedule posts ahead – I’m a fly by the seat of my pants kind of blogger.

This morning I was thinking of the projects I could complete to blog about, and was trying to figure out what I’d have the time to finish up.

Well…I got some blog material. Just not the kind I wanted. ;)

If you follow me on Twitter you’ve heard some of the goings on around here over the past few days. It started Saturday morning when we woke up to a puddle of water in front of the refrigerator.

Turns out the computer on the fridge had died, so everything inside (including a huge ice bucket) had melted, and then spilled out onto our floor. AWESOME, letmetellyou.

Long story short, the repair guy couldn’t fix the fridge with the parts he had, but he did fix the one in the garage that had been broken for months (we got it free from friends, so it was worth fixing, considering we had NOTHING otherwise).

Because we’ve had so many issues with our kitchen refrigerator (GE Profile) we decided to purchase a new one. I was annoyed and upset, but after a while was a little excited to get a new fridge, I’m not gonna lie. :)

But then we noticed the floors…the laminate was bubbling and buckling and all those bad “B” words you don’t want to use to describe flooring. ;)

Our insurance company sent someone out today to see how bad it was, and within a few hours of him arriving, this:

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Had turned into this:

image(Different angle, bear with me.)

Needless to say…it was bad. :)

We have no idea how long the water sat on the floors – we figure at least six hours. Because our laminate is “floating” – not glued or nailed down, the water traveled under the floors throughout half of the kitchen.

It also reached the basement, but luckily we got to it before it got too bad. They had to cut a huge section of the floors out – the laminate, underlayment, original vinyl floors and plywood under that all had to be pulled out.

So for the next few days, we have four blowers and an industrial dehumidifier in our kitchen, and three blowers and a dehumidifier in the basement:

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I was doing OK with everything, considering, until they had to move the kitchen island.

My lovely beadboard island had to be taken apart so they could move it. It’s now sitting in the office:

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And I was actually making progress on that office. ;) I had hoped to finish painting it today.

HAR. That so didn’t happen. :)

Because they had to remove the island, they took the trash compactor out too – it’s now in the garage. So this is our trash can for the next week, two weeks…month?:

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We have no idea what the timeline will be. Because our flooring goes throughout the kitchen and family room, it’s ALL going to have to be pulled up and replaced.

For now, we will be living upstairs for the next few days. You can’t hear much over the blowers. :)

Our trash can is a chair and our refrigerator is in the garage (opposite side of the house from the kitchen, of course). Good thing I’m not a cook!!

That’s a joke Dad. ;) (Kind of.)

I’m not good at having our house turned upside down – messes and toys I’m OK with. But this…this is going to give me hives and I’m well aware of that. I’m trying to fight them off by at least cleaning up the kitchen. It’s been a disaster all day, so I tried cleaning tonight:

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It’s just a MESS. And the blowers send all the dust back onto the surfaces all over again, so I’m not sure why I’m even trying…but I’ll keep doing so. I must. :)

Tomorrow the insurance adjuster comes out to check it all out and we’re hoping for good news. We’ve never had to file any claims on our house, so we’re kind of learning as we go.

This has been an eventful summer around here – first the back door disaster, then we had some siding fall off in a storm, then we realized a couple weeks ago that our back door frame is rotting away (like, crumbling) and needs to be replaced and now we need a new fridge, new flooring and let’s not forget a whole fridge full of food. (Of course I had gone grocery shopping just two days before.)

We’re rolling with it though, and I’m reminded again how thankful I am that we are all safe, happy and healthy. That’s all that matters to me, and I am certainly counting my blessings tonight, even while the hives form. ;)

Soooo…Murphy has been hanging out around here fo sho and we need to kick him to the curb. He’s been sleeping on the couch waaaay too long. Gots to pack his bags and GO. He doesn’t have to go home but he can’t stay here. ;)

Any recommendations on flooring? We’re looking into engineered wood this time. Seems to be a good in between option – better than laminate but not as expensive as hardwoods. Because our kitchen and family room is one big space, we won’t break it up with two different types of flooring (like tile and hardwoods). If the kitchen was a separate room I would use tile for sure.

The guy overseeing all of the clean up said they have special mats that soak up any water damage from engineered flooring now, if it’s caught early. (Crossing my fingers and toes we’ll never have to find out how that works!!) Any thoughts? Anyone have them and like them?

That was my exciting weekend…how was yours? ;)

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Comments

  1. Oh Man , that's rough. I can feel for you because that's how our kitchen ended up in a remodel because of a water leak. i will tell you be super careful with that laminate. it is notorious for harboring mold once it gets wet. You should have seen ours. That's why we ended up going with wood on the replacement. I hope it all dries out and life gets back to normal soon!

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  2. Sarah! What a mess! I'm so sorry about Murphy. Kick him to the curb, but don't send him our way. We've had enough with termites and mold. LOL!

    I know it will be beautiful when it's all fixed up.

    xoxo

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  3. wow........ what can I say..... I went to Sam's club. Bought a case of ground chuck for $1.90 a lb. wrapped 80 lbs of meat for the freezer. I HAD A GREAT WEEKEND.... :) (i was thinking it was boring and uneventful... now I'm glad it was)
    Hope you get good news from the insurance company.

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  4. Oh THAT Murphy. I know him! I am sorry, that is not how you want to spend your weekend. And don't you just love the noise all that industrial equipment makes? Hang in there, it shall pass. Everything always does.

    My weekend was blissfully uneventful.

    Hanneke

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  5. Oh I feel for you. A similar thing happened in our kitchen. The dishwasher was leaking for who knows how long. It caused mold which grew and grew until it was noticed.

    The end result was a whole new subfloor, linoleum, AND all the base cabinets had to be replace which meant new countertops. Total ripple effect.

    Good luck. I hope it all works out.

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  6. I'm so sorry to hear this! On the bright side, I think of my friends who were hit with the hurricane this wknd and have trees laying on their homes and no electricity :( besides, maybe I'd stay out of the fridge more if I had to walk farther to get to it! ;-) actually, that probably wouldn't stop me!

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  7. you poor thing! my fridge died at the end of last month, but we haven't started renovating the kitchen yet, thankfully. Hubby spent most of the next day grilling meat on the BBQ to try and save it. Borrowed a fridge from a friend, and it is still there, so our kitchen is a bit of a squeeze right now! We had laminate in the last one, though, and never thought of the fridge stopping and flooding it.

    You did the right thing calling the insurance company, I once spent 3 days sucking water from my parents basement with a wet'n'dry vac, and the first thing they said when they got back from vacation was the the insurance would have covered it. So I can tell you from experience that these industrial fans and dehumidifiers work!

    Jeanette

    ps toss that Murphy, but not in my direction - tell him my couch is lumpy or something

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  8. #$%^! Murphy. At our house, we went about a remodel - moved the fridge to replace the flooring and found it was held up by splinters and miracles. Termites. Yeah, that project got a whole lot more expensive overnight. Hope your insurance company delivers good news and excellent service, so you'll have things to rights quickly. Meanwhile, dare I say enjoy not cooking?

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  9. Oh, I'm so sorry for your mess. I hope it doesn't take too long to get you up and running again.
    :) CAS

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  10. That sucks! I am hyperventilating just reading this. Best of luck!

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  11. we just had our washing machine leak and the laundry is right next to the kitchen. It was lucky we were home and heard a funny noise coming from the area or we may not have noticed it for hours. You'll do an amazing job fixing it all up and I know it will look amazing when its done!!

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  12. GOOD LUCK! I just barely, last weekend finished painting baseboards and all the "fun" finish work from this EXACT thing happening to us(except ours was a dishwasher leak). Ummm, it happened back in April, and I'm just getting to the baseboards! We went with engineered hardwood, although no one told us about the cool pad....too late for that I guess! We did install the wood ourselves though and it wasn't too bad. Good luck to you!

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  13. Sarah, I have no suggestions or recommendations - I just have a virtual hug to give you if you want it! Wow. Sometimes Murphy is such a psycho! ;) Here's hoping you have good news tomorrow.

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  14. Holy Moly, that's a doosey! So sorry. Hate going backwards and having to fix things that were done and you were moving on to other things...

    I've had engineered floors. Loved em. The only difference you'll ever notice is when you refinish them for the 10th time and you finally sand through the top layer. Who ever sands of THAT much? And you may not have the shrinking and expansion that you do with hardwood that makes your house creak and pop at night whenever the season's change and your A/C or Heater are on changing your humidity level. I could definitely do with out the creaking and popping. Especially when the hubby is out of town! Yeah, I'm a fan of engineered floors. I do pay attention to the thickness of the top layer of wood. If it's really thin, you might actually sand through if you ever refinished. Good luck. (Good greif, I just wrote you a book.)

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  15. You can be thankful for that second fridge. Reading this remeinded me of our own fridge disaster. We lived out of a cooler for two months! Um not fun. I recommend not purchasing a Maytag. :)
    As for the flooring, we have the engineered flooring in our house and I love it! We have lived here about five and a half years and have never had any problems. It always looks nice and is very easy to clean, it has held up well with four children trying to destroy it with every step. Just make sure to not get deep groves, they are terrible to clean.

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  16. Ugh. So sorry for the mess! We have engineered hard wood, and it is SO pretty! Ours is cherry, and while it is hard, it does scratch. I think it is a good in-between option, however I think I'll do a honed slate in our kitchen the next time around because I'm tired of freaking out every time one of the boys spills something. PLUS, we are entering the soccer shoes season of life, so laminate would probably have been a nice option. HOWEVER, it would have looked cheap next to our pretty cabinets and granite counters. There do make MUCH nicer laminate these days than they did when we were building! I want something that is already "beat up"! :)

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  17. Ahh, that's NO FUN!! Keeping my fingers crossed for you that the insurance company will pay for everything. I guess lucky for me, I have no story to share about when our fridge broke. Knock on wood, it hasn't happened yet!

    My weekend consisted of a splash park, the playground and watching a 9 month old baby for the evening. I do have to say, LOVE babies! But soooo glad I'm not having anymore.

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  18. Oh girl, I am sorry for all you woes! That super sucks! And it would totally give me hives, too. As for floors, we have Thomasville Walnut engineered hardwood floors. We have had them 2 years now. Love, love, love them. Ours are dark (though there are tons of options) and wide which I really wanted. We have a couple of small scratches but nothing deep enough to actually scratch the surface You'd never know if I didn't point them out and now I kind of like how they look textured from all of our heavy use. And we are rough with a capital R on ours! Kids, toys, dogs, rearranging furniture, dragging out 9 foot artificial Christmas trees. And these babies hold up great. And I love that the surface is truly hardwood. Just my 2 cents.

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  19. That is terrible!! We have the same type of floors in our kitchen and it's so hard to keep it from getting water damaged on a daily basis. My Mom just did the engineered hard wood and they are gorgeous. Can they just replace the pieces of laminate around the fridge? Good luck getting everything back in order!

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  20. So sorry about your house! I'd be going CRAZY (but secretly enjoying going out to eat or having the hubby bbq)!
    We have engineered floors....came with the house when we moved in. I don't care for them, sorry! To me it has the negatives of both Pergo & hardwood, but without the benefits of either. It looks & sounds like Pergo (negative) but dents easily and liquids have to be cleaned up quickly or it leaks in between the panels (another negative). I guess the only positive is the price and it does clean easy with my Shark steam mop :)
    Good luck!
    Oh, & I LOVE reading your blogs! You give me a TON of inspiration!!

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  21. Murphy visited us in a similar way right before we were about to sell our house. We were able to work a deal with the floor guys and pay a little more to upgrade to hardwoods. Our leak went behind the fridge too--did you check under the baseboards and whatever's on the other side of the wall? That was the dining room in our old house, which was also damaged. That flooring connected to the foyer and living room. The kitchen tile connected to the laundry room. It had to be stripped down to the floor joists around the fridge! Anyway, new floors helped sell the house. Hopefully there's some tiny rainbow for you too.

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  22. How awful! I often worry something like this would happen to us as I know our flooring could not handle it.

    We've had engineered hardwood (Bruce, floating - i think)for about four years and I wish we would have used something like congoleum in the kitchen and real hardwood in the dining and living. The grain is raising on the engineered hardwood near the dishwasher (from the steam, maybe) and a bit in other areas. Also, it's just really showing wear from two shoeless adults, one toddler and a dog. We went with this product to save money, but we really should have just saved up and got real hardwoods installed and finished onsite.

    I'm believing Murphy has moved out and wish you the best as you clean up his mess.

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  23. My mom always said bad things came in 3s and sounds like you've had your 3 so Murphy should be moving along!

    Love your blog!

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  24. Dear Sarah,
    I am so sorry to hear what happened. We had a leak from our faucet once and came home to the sound of rushing water. Needless to say, not a sound you want to hear in your foyer. Consider putting the hardwoods in yourself... you are so handy, you can do it girl!

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  25. Hi, sorry to hear about your water damage. I would go with a pretty tile instead of wood.

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  26. It happened to us once, and the insurance adjuster was very generous. You might just end up with something even more amazing than you expected, if you can get through the next few weeks!
    Stacy

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  27. Oh.My.Goodness! I'm SO sorry you have to go through such a mess. Ugh! I'm especially sorry about your island, as I know you put your whole heart into it. Try to think of it all as a blank canvas, tho ... you will do amazing things, I'm sure. Oh, and you won't have to try to come up with things to blog about for a lonnnnng while! ;) Hang in there!!

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  28. Ugh, I got hives reading this. But good for you for taking it in stride. Hopefully, something good will come out of all this...like a new fridge & a new floor!

    We have hardwood in our den and laminate (that the previous owner tried to "match" to the hardwood) in the kitchen, which is attached to the den. Tacky..and the reason you won't be seeing pics of my kitchen anytime soon :)

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  29. Oh No!!! On New Years day 2007 we woke up to an inch of water in the upstairs bathroom, down the hall, into the master closet. Got down stairs only to find another inch or so throughout the kitchen and family room! We went through the same thing with the fans, ripping down the drywall and ripping up 75% of the carpet upstairs. It was a disaster!!! Hopefully you wan't have to live like that for six months! That's how long it took for the contractors to fix everything! Good luck!

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  30. Guess I should have mentioned that the toilet in the upstairs bath ran all night. (it just kept filling water) Not quite sure what happened. But 9 hours and who knows how many gallons of water later, we were in quite a mess!

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  31. I'm like Lynn, I had a toilet that overflowed for 8 hours and flooded my entire house with TOILET WATER, last Halloween! So we had those big de-humidifier things going too (don't forget to send your electricity bill to the insurance company, they pay for those too, after the machines are done!).

    A big pain, but worth it in the end.

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  33. Went through this a couple years ago, and I feel for you. I hated having the heart of my home, the kitchen, ripped apart.

    Now a few tips:
    ~As another poster commented make sure to check area behind frige and under cabinets. Our area kept growing and growing.
    ~Ask for an air purifier; it will help with dust. Yes, add another piece of equipment.
    ~Keep receipts for all meals eaten out. Since the kitchen is unusable you will probably be reimbersed for food.
    ~When power bill comes in, the insurance company will pay for any difference in your bill due to all the machines running.
    ~Now is the time to upgrade. You will just be paying for extra cost of item. They will pay for demolition and construction.

    Good luck and keep focused on the blessing.
    Hugs,
    Heidi

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  34. We had this happen years ago, and I was just sick about it! I feel for you here, big time. I'm sure you'll find a flooring that works for you. I think my parents used the engineered wood in their family room, but theirs seems to be very soft, and shows dings. I'm not sure if that's just the kind they have or what. I'll have to check it out.

    Hang in there - at least you're debt-free now, right? Makes it a little easier to deal with Murphy now. Still not fun by any stretch, but you know what I mean. :-)

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  35. Oh, yuck! Sounds like a good time to take a vacation & let the contractors work while you're gone. Only kidding! Kinda! We have nail-down hardwood in our kitchen & family room & absolutely love it. We're on a crawl space & I noticed instantly how much better the wood felt on my feet & back. That's why I never wanted tile because it has no "give". We have friends who have the engineered wood in their entire home and they absolutely love it. They also have a bulldog & I'm telling you, that wood can take a beating. Having said all that, I'd go with the engineered wood if it were my choice. Hope your mess is behind you quickly & good luck! BTW, don't get me started on appliances. You know, how expensive they are, how often they break down & how much I started hating my stove & refrigerator less than a year after we bought them & they WERE NOT cheap!!!
    Donna

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  36. But like Dave Ramsey reminds us, these things aren't as devastating when you're out of debt!!

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  37. I hope everything works out okay. All told, you seem pretty calm about the whole thing, and I am impressed that your sense of humor is intact!
    I had a huge leak recently, but it was underground, under the slab. I had to shell out big bucks to have it located and fixed, and the electric/water company is "evaluating" the bill for the 50,000 + gallons of water consumed before they told me my water meter was spinning nonstop...
    I had bought an extra box of laminate flooring, and I'm so glad they didn't have to rip up any flooring/concrete slab inside.
    Will the insurance company pay for flooring in the adjoining room or just for the section that was damaged?
    Good Luck You poor, brave thing.

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  38. Personally I would never have tile in my kitchen ever again - it's sooooo hard on your back and legs when you stand to cook for any period of time. Not to mention, anything glass you might drop on the floor is definitely a goner! I have hardwood now in my kitchen and love it. Mine is real oak, but I've heard others say that engineered is great, just make sure it has a nice thick top layer so you can sand and refinish more than once. I hope Murphy realizes he has overstayed his welcome and leaves asap!!

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  39. What a nightmare! Isn't it great how one thing snowballs into another? If it makes you feel any better, we are in our own hardwood flooring hell over here. Haven't had floors for 2 1/2 weeks, and won't get them for another 3 weeks. (I can tell you who NOT to order floors from in your town :)

    Hang in there!

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  40. Good Luck on the clean up. Hoping it all goes well. julie :)

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  41. WOW What a weekend!

    So sorry to hear about your mess - it's not easy to live in chaos, but it will soon be done. We are in chaos too as a new kitchen is being installed. DUST EVERYWHERE!!

    As for FLOORING - we have the same issue - floors running through the entire open area, we found tile too hard, wood too expensive and laminates too scary (with water damage...and now we know why!)

    We went with CORK FLOORING. Torlys Cork Flooring - Florence Plank and ohmygosh it's amazing!!

    It needs to treated like hardwood - meaning wipe up water spills from drooling dogs and because we have an entrance to patio - piles of snow etc need to be wiped up, but, that is fine, harwood and laminate would be the same.

    IT IS AMAZING - warm, quiet, pretty. IT's NOT ALL CORKY COLORED LIKE YOU ARE THINKING - it comes in a ton of colors and ours is plank style, but there are all kinds of styles.

    There are a lot of different corks (cheap to expensive) I did a TON of research - cuz I'm kinda anal - and found this brand to be the best - but a lil more expensive. By shopping around I found amazing deals on it and it installs like floating laminate floor so it's not expensive to install.

    (by the way - I don't work for them or anything, I just LOVE it)

    Good luck - take a deep breath and be thankful the weather is good so you can at least go outside and play with your Bub (or have a glass of wine) it will all come together!

    Hugs
    Wendy

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  42. We are in the process of choosing between laminate and engineered flooring. I was shocked at how realistic the laminate is now! (Shaw Timberline)

    We were told that water will damage engineered, laminate AND hardwood floor. That said, laminate is cheaper, the most durable and if it gets damaged (except for massive flood obviously) you can replace individual boards.

    After reading your post, I'm starting to reconsider, but engineered is actually the most expensive option around here and we couldn't afford to do our whole area yet...

    Sorry to hear about your predicament! Hope there is a silver lining there for you.

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  43. GE appliances stink. We were talked into GE Profile appliances because "GE has really worked on their quality and they are much better than they used to be." Whatever! I would spend the extra money on real hardwoods. As you have discovered, if you use an engineered product and something goes wrong, it ALL has to come out. With hardwoods, you wouldn't have to replace everything if Murphy comes back to visit. You would have had to pull out the kitchen area, replace the damaged hardwoods, then sand and re-stain. Good luck!

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  44. Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry that happened, you poor thing. I'd be sooo stressed out but I'm sure everything will be fine & work out in your favor...at least I'll be praying for you that it will. :-) Have you thought of tiling the whole kitchen & living room? I know its not as cozy as wood floors but you could easily cozy up the living area with a few well placed rugs & I know the tile would pretty easy to clean & there's tons of options out there, just something to think about. At least you'll have blogging material for all of September now! :-) Take care!

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  45. You poor girl! We had something similar happen several years when termites came in through a crack in our foundation and feasted on the wood in our foyer. It connected to our combination dining room/library. Whee, what fun moving ALL those books, furniture, etc. into the living room and kitchen just in time for some old friends to be passing through town, who ended up needing to stay overnight because it was so late when they got there... Yes, this, too, shall pass.

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  46. Oh man, we just went through this in the Family room...water break from upstairs bath. Those blowers blow, don't they? We did get a whole new room just had to be patient for 3 weeks..we also just upgraded our laminate and I got the darker Brazilian Cherry color I always wanted. :) You can get through this..just think it's going to be even better..

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  47. Awww, man~when it rains it pours! But new floors & refrigerator could be a very good thing in the end?! We had 2 slab leaks and a water pipe break in our last home~it just throws everything off when you can't be at "home" in your home. Hang in there and good luck with the adjuster!

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  48. I feel your pain! This summer the plastic line for the ice maker got a crack in it and leaked overnight. The water went down into our basement that we had finished with our own sweat and tears only one year ago. We had tile in the kitchen and it soaked under that as well. We had 10 dryers in our house for 10 days! The noise was killing me! We ended up having to tear up our old tile floor (which took over 16 hours and was a complete mess). We got a new tile floor and part of the basement ceiling had to be replaced. This too shall pass!

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  49. Oh gosh! Our weekend was very calm compared to yours. Hoping for good news from the insurance guy.

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  50. Yuk. So sorry to hear about this. Before long it will be all over. Thank God for insurance. Like a previous poster said, if you want to upgrade some this is the time to do it. You just have to pay the difference.

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  51. Sounds just like how I've been living the past 2 weeks. Water heater burst in our rented condo and flooded our first floor and our downstairs neighbors 2 floors. Blowers and dehumidifers everywhere. Torn up carpet. Waiting for insurance and new floors. Living upstairs....This too shall pass

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  52. What's the story behind "Murphy"? I'm from the South and I don't think we have that saying. Good luck with the insurance guy. I had a washer machine that broke and overflowed once. Luckily I was awake and at home so the damage wasn't too bad. I rent and the maintenance office helped me out before there was any mold problems.

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  53. Erika---It's called Murphy's Law. "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".

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  54. How sad for you all. My mom always told me trouble comes in threes.....let's hope your trouble didn't start over! I didn't even realize refrigerators had computers in them!!! That is SCAREY. I have my fingers, toes and eyes crossed for you that your insurance will pay for it all. Remind them of your blog....tell them how many followers you have....let them know you will tell what kind of insurance you have and what they end up paying....it could be good advertisement or bad....their choice.

    My mom had to get a new roof because of hail. The insurance adjuster said they would pay for it...sent her a check for $800. Of course, that wouldn't even begin to roof her house. My brother told her not to cash the check....get another independent adjuster to come give her an estimate. She did, sent it to her insurance company, and guess what! They ended up sending her a check for $5,000. Quite a difference!!! Sometimes, you just have to give them a nudge in the right direction to get them to do what they are suppose to do.

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  55. we're having similar issues since our basement flooded during the hurricane so the mold guy is coming today and it should take 3 days to clean up.

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  56. Is that where that Murphy guy ended up? Because I tell you, he camped out at the new to us house we were renovating last winter. Problem after problem. But we kicked him out one problem at a time and we finally moved in and were able to enjoy our summer. I hope he moves out of your place soon and that you can get back to normal!

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  57. Last year (Oct - Dec) remodeled 1 bath, partial kitchen, paint, new flooring (kitchen tile, rest is hand-scraped wood) throughout condo. Late last month, watching TV late on Friday night when water dripped on my arm. Water was bubbling under the paint in 1 corner from pinhole leak in water pipe in ceiling. Just last week, HOA finally fixed/replaced ceiling/wall sheetrock so everything is back to normal now, except still cleaning plaster dust everywhere (in leg cast so slow going on this). I just thank God I was home when it happened and could get floors covered until plumber got there (left following Tuesday on business trip). Luckily on about 2" spot on floor but think stain will come up when I use recommended floor cleaner on it.

    I would recommend engineered wood, but whatever you decide, Good Luck.

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  58. What a pain!
    On the flooring...we have engineered hardwood. I can't say I'd do it again. I like the look of it and obviously, the cost was better, but, it has the same issues as the flooring you have with regard to water. When I clean the floor I can't just mop it. It has to be nearly dry mop. As another post said, you have to make sure you get enough thickness on the top layer to be able to sand it a couple times, and by then, you have to watch the cost. I have dogs...it scratches, but I like that because it puts some character into it. I don't have it in my kitchen, but my neighbor does and she said she wished she hadn't done it. You drop something on it, it gashes. You spill anything, and you worry about it doing all those B words...I have kitchen, dining, family combo also and I have tile in the kitchen and dining area, then a nice edge piece, then the engineered hardwood. I like it, although I somewhat which I had a darker tile so the contrast wasn't as great. But, live and learn. Good luck..I'm sure you'll pick something nice. I'll try to find where I can send you a pic of how ours looks.

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  59. So sorry to hear about all that! I'd be right there with you with the hives and the mess. Hope the repair/replace process goes smoothly for you. We had a slab leak in our bathroom last year which resulted in a huge hole being blasted out of our floor. Of course, this lead to new flooring. I wanted a wood look but obviously couldn't go with laminate because of the water/wood issue. We chose to use a cushion vinyl that looks like wood. Sounds really cheesy, right? It has texture and tiny grooves where the "planks" would meet but its actually one sheet. We like it so much that we're ripping out our laminate in the kitchen, which has water damage, and putting it down in there as well as the living room and hallway. Can't wait.

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  60. Yikes! Well, on the Pollyanna side, you really do have a lot to blog about and you know we'll all be back to see you through the whole process! :)

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  61. Home depot has hardwood Oak flooring for around $1.99 a sq ft. That's pretty cheap for hardwood flooring and it's real HARDWOOD, not fake stuff.

    We've had laminate flooring and we've had hardwood. We'll never go back to laminate, it's not worth it. Hardwood lasts, it's an investment worth doing!

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  62. I did skim through the comments and you got good advice re: insurance claim. You should have at least $250 in refrigerated food spoilage on your policy. Claim it. You're already out your deductible, so go ahead and add that to the claim. Give them the total amount of the food that went bad. They'll only pay you for whatever coverage you had but don't foget to add that to your list.
    Good luck!

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  63. Just a tip.....My mom is an insurance adjuster (which is such a huge blessing when we have house disasters like this) and she informed us, that you can claim the food in your fridge. We had no power once for days and I too had just been to the grocery store. I wrote down everything that was in our freezer and fridge and the price it cost and then our insurance company gave us the money for it all. Not sure if all insurance companies do this but it might be worth checking into.
    Hope it all gets cleaned up and back to normal quickly for you!

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  64. At least you have that "Dave Ramsey Emergency Fund". :)

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  65. I put in engineered wood floors a year ago and LOVE them. Since engineered wood only has a thin layer of finished wood on top of layered plywood (?), you will need to be careful of deep scratches and also if any moisture seeps between the planks, you can get some warping but it usually goes back to its original shape after COMPLETELY drying out.

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  66. I have engineered hardwood in my house minus our bedrooms and I have been really happy with it. We haven't had any flooding issues (yet) but day to day use and cleaning are very simple. Plus we get about a million compliments anytime anyone new comes over :)

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  67. Oh holy hell. That completely sucks. Having something like that happen that completely rearranges my life inside my bubble of a house is my worst nightmare.

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  68. Oh Sarah - I so feel for you. It is so hard living in those conditions. Hopefully it will be back to normal soon. On a positive note - look at all the fun blogging material you can create with your water and flooring problems.

    I have Bruce engineered floors in my home. Installed about 7 years ago. I like the look, but they do wear in places - the top layer of wood just starts splitting apart. This has happened by a door to the outside and where my desk chair is in my office. With normal hardwood you see wear and the finish becomes worn. This is more like splitting wood. I am not sure how I am going to fix it as the floor itself is thin, not thick like hardwood. Every place else the flooring looks brand new and it is easy to take care of.

    My best- Diane

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  69. I'm told that engineered hardwood CAN be refinished ONE time. That's what I was told by both the companyI bought wood from and my installer. So if it gets really bad, they can be refinished one time. I also kept a box of the wood in case I needed to replace some of the planks. Although it looks to me like a whole section of wood would have to be taken up to replace a plank.

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  70. That sucks! If I were you, I'd find a way to be out of the house as much as possible for the next week or so while everything gets taken care of. It would drive me batty to be in the house all day considering the state of things. ((Hugs))

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  71. I'm sorry to hear about your fridge disaster. We had water damage a couple years ago when an ice dam occurred outside our home and about a week before Christmas we were tearing out the drywall and our beautiful fireplace to repair the damage. (NOT fun!) We had engineered hardwood and while I loved the way it looked - it also scratched easier than real wood. Not bad, but just so you know. Good luck!

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  72. So sorry, Sarah. I don't have a clue about flooring - but I want to redo our kitchen soon, so if you'd like to share what you find out, that'd be a huge help!

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  73. wow! Talk about the domino effect!! We have engineered wood floors in our home and I really do like them. Make sure you get a really good, I mean REALLY good quality flooring. I installed some in our old home and didn't have a lick of problem with it. It was great!
    When we built our new house, we had it installed everywhere in the house except for bathrooms,laundry and mudrooms. I think the builder went with a lower grade or something and we've had a few problems with it chipping and bubbling extremely easily when water sits on it too long. So do your homework on the better quality ones. Other than that, I love it...it is glued to our concrete foundation and doesn't have the "clackity clack" sound that floating floors have. Hope you have a good day despite the chaos!

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  74. That is terrible, terrible, terrible!!! I really feel for ya!! I can't give you any recommendations - we're in a year long quest to find a flooring for our kitchen/family room as well, so whatever you decide on will probably be useful to us as well!

    Hang in there! This too shall pass :-)

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  75. Oh so sad!

    We have a hand-scraped, distressed engineered flooring in our kitchen, entry and hallways. I love it! It feels like wood and has been a breeze to keep clean. We haven't had any mishaps or scratches and we have two dogs and two boys. Good to know about the mats -- thanks for that info!

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  76. I myself have been thru a flood with a family of 7.  I am so sorry you are going thru this!  Couple of things to keep in mind. Your food that was in the fridge should be covered. Take photos of it and price it out do not throw anything away unless your adjuster tells you to!!! When you do your flood list use categories food/ furniture and so on don't list item by item because most policies( if you have  added it on )  cover replacement cost so if you decide not to replace the pickles they don't cover it but if it is food you have that dollar amount. Kinda crazy. Your policy should also cover any additional expences you incur due to the loss ( eating out, hotel when they replace flooring ) now when I say cover this is pay the additional amount you incur so you spend 25 dollars a day on groceries to cook dinner now you eat out and spend 100 they give you 75. Take photos! Keep a list of all damaged items and good luck!!!

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  77. I would say DO NOT put more wood in the kitchen. NO WAY!! Pick out and lay some beautiful ceramic tile. We had wood in our last kitchen and had a similar thing happen when our water softener had problems. ugh. Wood is beautiful, but wow, it scares me now. But if you do it, I would def not choose laminate, but engineered. Good luck!

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  78. Oh Sarah; Welcome to my world. My last year has been one calamity after another. Last year both my sons and their families moved back home. First thing to go was the hot water heater in March. DH thought that he could fix it. Nope. Had repairman out and over $300 later, still not fixed. The heat exchanger was bad. Had to heat water on stove for bathing for 6 months until I finally insisted on a new hot water heater. Then in June our 3 1/2 year old frig went out. Warranty expired 6 months earlier. Spent over $200 on parts and still it didn't work. We lived with a compact frig that held milk for the baby and my DH's beer for 4 months. Then in August the oven quit. No oven for an additional 4 months. In the meantime we're in the process of replacing carpeting that was destroyed by unnamed and uninvited pets. Then one night it was a bit chilly. DH put on the gas furnace. About 2 a.m. we were woke up to a house filling up with propane gas. The gas line was corroded and allowed gas to leak.
    Hopefully we will have that replaced soon before the snow and ice comes. And if that wasn't enough, we had an invasion of thousands of centipedes in our house. They were crawling every where and in every thing. Happy to report that the kids left the nest again and so did the centipedes, new appliances are still working, still working on the new carpet and furnace. All in due time. (And my husband thinks I'm happy!) I hope all goes better for you and your family.

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  79. Funny that you mention this flooring fiasco. We are in the middle of renovating our kitchen and went around and around about flooring - hardwood or tile? I wanted hardwood so badly for the look and cozy aspect. But after already having a 1 year old dishwasher leak in the kitchen we decided that having hardwood in the kitchen would be too stressful. We will always worry about leaks. So we are going with a tile that has a wood look - Marazzi Riflessi Di Legno in Ebony. I think it will give us the color and feel we want in the kitchen without the worry. Best of luck to you!

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  80. We had a similar think happen back in December. Our dishwasher had been leaking for a while, a slow leak, turns out it was defective. We had laminate as well, throughout the whole downstairs! Since we had a warranty on the dishwasher, they covered the whole thing! Got a new dishwasher, an awesome KitchenAid, and we decided to just do tile in the kitchen. When they pulled up the laminate there was mold on the cement slab! Yuck! Love the tile now. It is a small kitchen and there is a doorway of sorts to the dining room, so used that as a break. I have pics if you want to see. Good luck, I know you will figure something awesome out!

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  81. After months of research, hubs and I settled on Amtico brand--Spacia. It's a PVC product--it's what Disney uses in their theme parks where it "looks" like hard wood. They're thin "tiles" with woodgrain that looks amazingly natural--and it's totally waterproof. Also, practically impossible to damage. Because we live on one of Florida's lovely beaches, we're always concerned about water damage.

    After we had the flooring for 3 (yes, 3) weeks, our dishwasher died and leaked all over. I only had to mop and it was like the mess never happened. I was so happy!!

    If you haven't seen it in person (I think it's relatively new to the mass market) you need to find a place that sells it so you can check it out. We've had it 2.5 years and couldn't be happier... plus like everyone who comes in compliments it... LOVE!

    Here's the link:
    http://www.amtico.com/pages/HomeFullWidth.aspx?id=4969

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  82. Mine was good. I along with all my loved ones made it thru Hurricane Irene. Some problems, but nothing that can't be fixed. We finally got power yesterday. So I am working on filing my insurance claims. Thanks to the Good Lord, we are safe and sound........

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  83. Hi TDC- I am so sorry for your recent flood. I am writing to share that I was in the same boat 2 months ago. Water damage is so destructive, but I have to say, it has allowed me to change and up-date a few things in my home that I would never have done otherwise. I personally had to find a silver lining to get past all the damage. Our flood originated in our laundry room which is on our main living level. I had cherry hard wood floors through out my entire first floor all of which were destroyed by the water. They had to be torn up and replaced which is time consuming, dusty, and very noisy loud. We also had damage to our finished basement (drywall, carpeting, and electronics) but this was much more manageable for me compared to upstairs as we do most of our "living" on the main level.
    Long story short, we took the money from our insurance company and hired our own vendors rather than using our insurance companies vendors. That is why it took over 2 months as that route has a lot of red tape. We did this because I personally fell you get more for your money and we were able to hire contractors from our small town here and support the community. I will have to send you photo's so your prepared for what comes next. I do have to say, I am so happy with my new floors!!

    Best of luck.
    Terry K.
    Writer for: 11MagnoliaLane.com

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  84. Check out my progess..I just layed (uh ummm...my husband just layed) Brazilian Koa Engineered Flooring in our remodel project of a house and it looks AHHHMAZING! I have dark cabinets like yours but I have a light natural color heirloom dining table that does not match my taste in cabinets. The Brazilian Koa (from Lumber Liquidators) has lights and darks bringing all my wood to a happy medium! I am very happy with how it ties the dining room/family room/ kitchen together! Look me up on Facebook :)

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  85. It must have been the weekend for flooding, but yours wasn't due to Irene! It was about a year ago (exactly) that I was house sitting for a friend...I woke up one morning and my feet went 'sqoosh'...carpet and wood flooring flooded! I feel your pain.

    Have you looked into a moisture sensor/alarm for under the fridge & dishwasher so that at the first sign of a problem you're in the know!

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  86. Oh my!!!!!!! Would drive me crazy if my house was turned upside down also!

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  87. Your summer sounds like mine. I had a dishwasher leak and we had to replace our wood floor in the dining room, living room, and kitchen. We went with an engineered hardwood (hickory). I love it and would recommend it. I got a dark wood and I do get frustrated with all the dust I see but then I can see it so my floors are cleaner (right?). Anyway, good luck. It was a 2 week turn around (engineered hardwood doesn't have to climatize the same way wood does.)

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  88. You might want to reconsider the engineered flooring. We built a house that installed it, top of the line engineered flooring and needless to say in about 18 months we had to file a claim. It was 5K in damages.

    Engineered floors can be sanded down SLIGHTLY if any scratches or scuffs happen, but true dents and dings are not repairable. (in our case, a "friend" walked on the floors with high highs and the tip fell off the heel and put dents in all of our flooring). It also can't get wet even the slightest bit. We now have "real" hardwood again let me tell you.. I love it! Never again would I even consider engineered flooring!

    This is just my story, but do your homework. It's a great product for low traffic areas.

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  89. I totally feel your pain!! Water is our arch nemesis! We've had a water heater die and ruin carpet, a leak in our slab that ruined carpet, a leak in a wall that ruined drywall and carpet, a huge toilet flood that ruined flooring in a bathroom and hallway and entire ceiling downstairs. Believe me, we've been there. Noisy drying machings, jack hammers....we've seen it all. It does get better and sometimes you get a little bit better "stuff" because of it. Good luck!!

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  90. Hey Sarah! We got engineered wood floors for our kitchen and really like them. You can even seal them like real wood floors. We got ours at our local Lumber Liquidators. Maybe there's one in your area? Good luck with everything!

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  91. That really stinks! I hate when stuff like that happens! Over the years, we've had water coming out of the frig, the washer, the toilet (that's the worst), and the air conditioning. Luckily, hubby owns an appliance repair business, so he gets the problem fixed quickly.

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  92. Wow -- that is a big ole pain....but the upside is your insurance will cover and you get new floors!!! We just discovered rot in our bathroom from a leaky shower pan...but it's not covered!!!!!!! Ack.

    I know it sucks having your life upside down...hope it comes back together quickly for you! xo

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  93. Ugh! GE makes the worst refrigerators! Beware! Do not buy them! Mine went out last month too and after trying 3 different repairs, it turned out to be the heater that was screwed but I replaced it and for the time being *crosses fingers* it is working. God willing, it will stay that way. Would hate to invest another $1K on a new fridge. I would invest in an LG or Samsung next if worse comes to worse. I hope your insurance will pay your claim. They are usually pretty good about these things so I'm sure you will be fine. If you just have to pay the deductible, just pick whatever their contractors suggest...hopefully it is something way more expensive than laminate. You have to be tough with them. Even if they choose another laminate, just suggest something more expensive and more often than not they will go with it. Don't be afraid to ask. You will be fine.

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  94. Oh no that is awful! Just wanted to say that we have engineered hardwoods in our kitchen/dining/breakfast area and love them! I've dropped pots on them before without any dings, and I'll admit I'm not the greatest at cleaning up drips and small spills right away and they always clean up just like new!

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  95. WOW!! Try Home Depot for the hardwood. We got a great deal on real oak for our den. Good luck.

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  96. Have you seen the ceramic wood tiles? They look a lot like wood. We're considering it for our entire downstairs (minus bedrooms).

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  97. all I gotta say is LUMBER LIQUIDATORS - if you have one near you...so much cheaper and you can get NICE stuff! maybe carpet?!and just do the kitchen in hardwood...carpet is awesome sauce...no dusting, no dings and it's half the cost....berber is great right?

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  98. We have laminate everywhere but the kitchen which has old fashioned linoleaum (sp?) still. I have seen tiles that look exactly like wood; grain, cut lengths and all that are really cool. That is something I would put in my next house. Wood look but tile simplicity!

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  99. Sorry to hear of your troubles! Yikes! I have laminate in my kitchen and living areas as well and will be replacing it in the next year or so. I love the wood look but I'm thinking of some kind of vinyl or such product. I've seen some wood looks that are very realistic used in commercial areas. One quilt shop owner that had a wood patterned vinyl said the insurance adjuster at first told her they wouldn't be able to insure the building because they had barn wood floors. He could hardly believe it was vinyl. I hear these products have come to the home market now. I'm strongly considering going for it. Maybe you could get a deal by using your blog to review it?

    It would be much easier to care for than either wood or laminate. I've never been happy with how my laminate looks...spots too much. Maybe there are better laminates out there now, I've had mine for about 10 years. I don't think enginereed wood would be an improvement over laminate...same issues with water and cleaning, just different.

    Love reading your blog and will be following with interest your choices and progress. Hang in there it will get better!

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  100. Oh my what a weekend you had. I had a good one with my kids in town and time with #1granson.
    You take care of yourself. Diane

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  101. Sarah, I know it's awful now, but I bet in the end you're gonna love your new frig/flooring, etc... Life really throws us some curves, doesn't it?! Hugs sent your way!

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  102. You'll probably end up happy with whatever flooring you choose as long as you don't make compromises.

    That being said, as a buyer when I look at two homes and one has laminate, and the other has engineered floors or hardwood ... it's SO much easier to fall in love with the latter.

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  103. Thanks for naming names on the piece of junk frig. I for one am tired of scraping and saving to pay cash for something only to have it go belly up before I even get around to filing the owners manual! I'm pretty sure my parents owned the same frig for 27 years. I thought "avacado" was the only color a frig came in until I was 18. Hope things move in the positive direction soon.

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  104. We just built our house and happened upon this FABULOUS handscraped engineered flooring by Mohawk. It is a warm chestnut brown and it looks AWESOME! Best part of all- and trust me, with four kids running around I checked this out ahead of time- if it gets scratched, nicked, dented, etc., you just fill it in with a Sharpie and Voila! Good as new. So sorry to hear about your kitchen. Got an old ex or something you can send that Murphy to?

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  105. When we started our house reno we first picked out our flooring. We discussed all the options but decided on a commercial grade vinyl with a wood look. We chose that because we have pets and plan on having more. If they do happen to make a mess and it's not found in time it won't ruin the floor. Also, before our garage was built we did all trim painting in the house and was so easy to clean off the floor when we did drip. With a magic eraser I even removed hair dye. We wanted a fuss free floor. To this day everyone who comes into our house thinks it is laminate or hardwood! It's gorgeous and so easy to clean. This was the best decision we made.

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  106. After losing a laminate floor to a leaking fridge, we chose to go with the ceramic tile that looks like wood...it's may favorite part of the whole house and we love it.

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  107. Wow, so sorry you are having to deal with this. :(

    I can't speak on engineered wood but I do know I made a HUGE, expensive mistake when I had laminate wood installed in five areas of our house, including the kitchen, about 1 1/2 years ago. Our wood laminate floors are slippery, very noisy to walk on and I quickly found it does not take much water to cause bubbling. We hate it with a passion. Having lived with it, I don't understand the popularity of wood laminate. From the comments above, it doesn't sound like engineered wood is any better and personally, I don't care for cold, hard tile so that wouldn't be an option for me.

    Nine months ago, I had Trafficmaster Allure vinyl (wood-look) planks installed in one of our bathrooms and I absolutely LOVE it! It's inexpensive, soft underfoot, quiet to walk on, waterproof, and it has slight grooves in it which contributes to its realistic wood appearance. It is super easy to care for. Even dried paint flicks right off! I almost wish my 1 year old fridge or dishwasher would leak so I would have a good reason to rip out all the laminate and replace it with the Trafficmaster Allure.

    BTW, I first read about the Trafficmaster Allure at The Lettered Cottage. I think Layla & Kevin installed it in their bathroom.

    Here's a Home Depot link but you should be able to check some of the colors out in person at your local HD store.

    http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentView?pn=BP_Trafficmaster_Allure&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=

    Good luck. I hope the chaos doesn't last too long.

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  108. That link in my comment above didn't print completely...

    http://www.homedepot.com/
    webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/
    ContentView?pn=BP_Trafficmaster
    _Allure&langId=-1&storeId=
    10051&catalogId=

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  109. They have BEAUTIFUL tile that looks like hardwood. It has the wood grain look and everything. BONUS: it always looks shiny and polished AND you don't have to worry about water damage from say, a melting piece of ice like you would hardwoods in your kitchen. Totally class and awesomesauce!

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  110. have you considered Allure flooring found at Home Depot? It would be well worth your time to look into!

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  111. Wow. Sorry you have all that going on! Oh and BTW, we had Murphy's evil twin with us for a few days-we just got home from a vaca in NYC( Yep, Irene came with us) and found that our dog had skunked up the house( he was with a sitter) while the skies are full of smoke from wildfires in central Oregon! Oh and school starts for teachers here on Thursday. Yeah. That. :P

    So, any good skunk order removal tips????

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  112. Sorry about your floor. I have learned due to a similar run of bad luck to buy the little water detectors at Lowes. They are about 10.00 Similar to a smoke detector but can be placed on the floor by the fridge (a little extension wire allows placement out of sight. I have them under all my sinks (where a slow leak might not be detected for a while), by the washer, fridge, and laundry sink. They saved my brother's kitchen when a leak happened overnight and the alarm went off. Of course you have to be home to hear them.
    I have sensors wired into the alarm system for the two hot water heaters (50 gal each) in the attic. They put them in the attic in Texas, and I have visions of water pouring down.

    I have engineered hard wood by Mannington throughout the house, installed on concrete slab and have been very happy with the product. When I had a leak (pre detectors), after all the drying, they just cut in to floor and replaced. I have the slightly distressed type so it doesn't show at all and no wear and tear with two dogs.

    Hope it gets better soon!

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  113. I hope you are pleasantly surprised by how much your insurance will help you. You deserve to be after all the trouble Murphy has caused you. I have a friend who had engineered hardwoods and I will agree that the grain seemed to raise up on them quite easily and they also faded in areas where the sun heat them more. We have laminates and just had the ones in our bedroom replaced. I LOVE the new laminate flooring. It is so much quieter and just had a much better look to it. I would also look into bamboo. It might be another option. Good luck with everything.

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  114. I don't have a blog--I am an avid reader of DY blogs!!! How do you get an invite to join pininterest??

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  115. Oh TDC - I feel for you! We are going through the same thing right now. We have a toilet overflow and our laminate got water-logged. And now, we find out our dishwasher has been leaking too so we have hella crazy mold growth in some of the cabinets. I have those same drying fans all over my first floor right now. Good luck and I hope you get things put back together quickly. We are unfortunately looking at a month or more...

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  116. All home decor lovers must visit
    www.bathkitchendecor.com

    Thanks!
    Larry :)

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  117. That darned Murphy - you realize it's b/c you reached the point of being debt-free, right? Same thing happened to us after we paid off everything but the house last December. We went through about 6 months of hemorraging money, with the biggest item being my car engine blowing. We replaced the engine ($6K), rather than the car. What's great is you guys have a plan, you're following Dave Ramsey's teachings and you'll get through this! Blessings are right around the corner and, let me just say, God will BLOW YOU AWAY when you get to the other side!!! We're getting ready to put down new flooring as well and have been told engineered is the way to go since we have 2 large dogs. We're going for a medium-dark bamboo. Good luck!

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  118. So sorry to hear about your weekend. Keep the faith, it WILL get better.

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  119. Sorry you are going through this but look on the bright side. It could have been A LOT worse. The storms along the east coast last weekend totally distoryed many homes.

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  120. Is Murphy the guy that said, "When it rains, it pours."? I don't like that guy.

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  121. I was thinking about your floors and decided to post a comment because I don't want you to go back to laminate or engineered! Haha! We just had our floors done last summer, and we found a really reasonable price for real hard wood - the same price as engineered. I'm so glad we did it, too. It looks so much better than the fake stuff, and it will hold up better in the kitchen with spills and traffic. Just something to think about! You won't regret it! ;) Here's some before and afters of mine in case you wanna see: http://arlingtonmama.blogspot.com/2010/08/were-coming-home.html

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  122. Oh Sarah how awful!!!! We had a summer flooring disaster and I just started typing up the post today. I've been to stinkin' mad to write about it until now. Hang in there lady. At least you have your (my?) dream couch!

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