Okay, so I’ve been wanting to redo my floors for, like, forever. I finally decided to tackle it this weekend, and let me tell you, it was a JOURNEY. I went with this “rubber dancing maple assembly wooden flooring” thing – sounded fancy, right?

First, I cleared out the entire room. That was a workout in itself! Everything, and I mean everything, had to go. Furniture, rugs, even the little decorative knick-knacks.

Getting Started

Next, I prepped the subfloor. I made a test, it was pretty level already, which was a HUGE relief. I just had to sweep it a bunch of times to get rid of all the dust and little bits of… whatever that stuff was.

• Sweep, sweep, sweep! Seriously, so much sweeping.
• Checked for level. Thank goodness it was mostly okay.

Then came the fun part… or so I thought. I unpacked all the flooring planks. They looked so pretty all stacked up! I laid out a few rows without any adhesive, just to get a feel for the pattern and make sure I had enough. It’s like a giant puzzle, and you don’t want to mess it up.

This “rubber dancing” part is supposed to make it easier, I guess. It’s some kind of interlocking system. Let me tell you, it wasn’t quite as easy as the YouTube videos made it look. I struggled a bit to get the first few rows to really click together properly. I had a little rubber hammer, and gently hammered. It took some, uh, persuasion.

The Middle (aka The Struggle)

Once I got the hang of it, it went a little smoother. I worked my way across the room, row by row, clicking and tapping those planks together. My knees were definitely feeling it after a while! I had to take a few breaks to stretch and, you know, complain to my cat about how much my back hurt.

The cutting! Oh, the cutting. I used the old plank measured and marked where I needed to cut the planks to fit around the door frame and the weird little corner by the closet. I used a jigsaw,it took forever because I was so scared of messing it up. I did,I cut the error one, but my cat didn’t seem to judge me.

Almost There!

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I got the last plank in place. I stood back to admire my handiwork… and it actually looked pretty good! There were a couple of spots where the seams weren’t perfect, but overall, I was pretty proud of myself. It looks SO much better than the old, sad flooring.

Last step: I put all the furniture back. That was almost as much work as laying the floor itself! But it was worth it. The room feels completely transformed. Now I just need to figure out how to keep it clean… maybe I’ll just ban shoes in the house from now on.