When we first moved in, I promised Lauren that I would give her one finished room for her to escape to - a sanctuary from all the clutter and debris from demolition and renovations of nearly every corner of the house. We had barely moved in and unpacked when we ripped right in, after less than a week of owning the house.

This is the stained and worn carpet that greeted us when we moved in. (08/29/2012)

We trimmed teh carpet back careful not to breathe in the dirt, dust and pet stains saturated through this carpet. (09/02/2012)

As we pulled the carpet and the padding, we were greeted with what woudl prove to be an ubiquitous thorn in our sides, asbestos vinyl tile. (09/02/2012)

We had originally wanted to glue the bamboo floor down over the tile, but too many were coming up. We decided to tear them out. A gentle tap with a rubber mallet to the pry bar is all it took to 3 (09/02/2012)

With a bare floor, we finally started laying down the new bamboo. Its 5/8" (09/03/2012)

The den, foyer and living room are all on slabs, while the kitchen, dining room and hallway are above a basement. Lauren spreads the adhesive which also acts as a mild moisture barrier, since cement always has a moisture content. Luckilly we dont have moisture problems since the backyard runs downhill. (09/03/2012)

Bamboo is inherantly more stable, denser, and less affected by moisture, which is why we can glue it directly to a slab. True hardwood would need to be framed out, and on top of a subfloor. (09/03/2012)

Looking pretty good now. Just need to finish some trim work. (09/03/2012)

We added new radiator covers, and ran speaker wire through the walls to the 4 side and rear surrounds of the 7.1. (09/09/2012)

A new sectional, area rug, and some undermount lights really make the room feel warm. (10/19/2012)

We had to fabricate a rectangular frame out of 1-1/4 inch square steel tubing. We drilled and bolted the frame into the brick. Then we cut and painted aluminum L stock as trim. All this lets us mount the fireplace doors against the arched opening that otherwise wouldn't accomodate them. (12/31/2012)

We sealed up the doors with high temp fireplace silicone. The doors work great, and it all but completely eliminated any smoke spilling into the room. (01/01/2013)

some insensitive jerkwads have said: