My Laminate Floor is Killing Me (Lumber Liquidators WARNING)

Update: Lumber Liquidators somehow won their lawsuit. They don't even have to do a recall of their obviously dangerous floor because of the BS excuse that it's better left undisturbed .. Sounds kinda like Asbestos, doesn't it? They didn't even get fined for putting people in harms way. I don't really have any words to explain how I feel about this, but it sounds like the typical BS where companies are typically protected more than citizens. The only change is that they are now required to make their flooring in the US, but I still would NEVER trust this company. Buyer beware!


Hi all!

I haven't posted in way too long, because I'm a huge slacker!

I'm still working on getting a brand new blog on Wordpress set up but, like a said before, I'm a slacker. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, I really wanted to warn you all about Lumber Liquidators, especially because this site is probably attracting new home buyers, DIYers, or renovators. Here is the episode of "60 Minutes" that made us aware of the problem.

As some of you may have seen, 60 Minutes did a story on them and how a good amount of their flooring is tainted with a very high level of formaldehyde that violated safety limits set by the California Air Resource Board (CARB). Formaldehyde is used in the glue used to put together laminate flooring. If the levels fall within the safety limits the flooring should be safe, but the flooring from Lumber Liquidators (sourced from China) surpassed the limit on almost every single test 60 Minutes adminstered. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen and can cause health problems as serious as cancer. It is especially harmful to children.

This article by CBS does a good job at discussing the issue. In the article (and on the 60 minutes episode) they say "In test commissioned by '60 Minutes,' 30 of 31 boxes of the product labeled compliant were not, with some emitting as much as 13 times the Carb 2 limit."

The video also shows Managers of the manufacturing plant in China admitting the products made for Lumber Liquidators are not CARB 2 compliant despite what the boxes say. They also say how it is about 10-15% cheaper to buy products with this level of formaldehyde, and they COULD make it CARB 2 compliant, but this would be more expensive. AKA Lumber Liquidators is a money hungry, greedy, low-life company that cares more about profits than the health of it's customers (Of course, that's just my opinion...).

The company is defending their product and is STILL selling this flooring, but they are now offering customers an air testing kit that will measure the amount of formaldehyde in the air of your home. In my opinion, this is ridiculous. This test does nothing to test the actual flooring, and they could easily argue that something else in your house could be contributing to the levels in the air. The company says, IF the levels are higher than normal they will CONSIDER replacing your floor at no cost.

As some of you know, my boyfriend and I put our own flooring in after our home was built in order to save money. Guess where we bought our laminate flooring... Lumber Liquidators. Guess where our floor is sourced from... China. Guess what our floor looks like... The floor the Manager in China was pointing to when he was say it was definitely not CARB 2 compliant.

Awesome, right?!?!

As of now, we're not sure what our immediate move is. Our flooring costed us  around $2000 and countless hours of installation (I was sore in places I didn't know I had and my knees and hands we red, cracked, and aged about 10 years). I'm also really concerned about the health affects of cutting all of that wood. As you may know, I installed this flooring myself. I was surrounded in saw dust from this product for DAYS, and so was my dad, mom, boyfriend, and dogs. I would imagine sawing open this flooring would release whatever chemicals are hiding within, and a very large portion of their customers do the floor install themself. Also, what about the companies they work with for installation? Those workers are around this stuff ALL day EVERY day.

Deep down, I know we can't live with this floor. I feel like I'm breathing in poison. With all the testing done by labs (you can see them all in the 60 Minutes video), I have a hard time believing they aren't dangerous to have in the house. We absolutely need to replace them before kids become a reality. We'll probably reach out to the company, but I have a feeling this will lead nowhere. They're sticking to their "our floor is perfectly fine" story, and I think a lawsuit will be the only way to make them give people a refund or replace their flooring.

Anyways .. I really just wanted to get the word out, because I think you deserve to know this if you are thinking of buying flooring from them. I know I would have liked to know before I made the decision to do business with them. I will never do business with them again, even to buy their un-tainted, formaldehyde free flooring. I can never support a company that clearly cares more about money than the health of their employees and their customers.

If anyone knows of any good, affordable flooring places in the Pennsylvania/Delaware area, please let me know! It looks like we'll be replacing flooring instead of going on a vacation this year...

Quick Update

I have been MIA for a really really long time! I don't have pics for you (Sorry!) but I figured I'd just check in about stuff.


The Good Stuff

• We truly love our home. I love our elevation, our upgrades, everything really.
• Love the lay out. It's so nice having an open floor plan when we have people over.
• I'm really glad we chose to put the TV on the wall separating our office and great room. This allows us to see the TV from the kitchen which makes cooking much more enjoyable, and I don't feel as left out when a game is on and I'm making food.
• Big shower! No regrets about getting the Roman Shower versus a tub and smaller shower. We NEVER take baths so it wasn't worth it to us and it was a great decision. I love having two shower heads!
• Cabinets - Really glad we upgraded these to the color we wanted and to the higher quality. Definitely worth it.
• Quality - so far the overall quality seems very good! We've had barely any problems and we credit that a lot to our PM and his team. They clearly care about their work and it shows. I think your home all depends on the construction team and doesn't have as much to do with Ryan Homes
• Upgrade carpets/carpet pad - This was a really good decision for us. I know some people HATE carpet but I really don't mind it and the level C carpet we got is so soft on my feet!

The Not So Good Stuff

There's not too much to tell here but we already have some things we need fixed at our 10 month check in.

• Nails pops - This isn't really a "bad" thing since it's completely normal but we have definitely noticed some. I think the number we have seen is below average though.
• The molding on the stairs is separating from the wall. It looks like they REALLY filled it in with caulk to compensate for the gap. Definitely will be asking about this.
• Our breaker switches kept flipping. A few times a week a random room/area would lose power and we'd have to go to the garage and flip the switch. It was just really annoying. We had someone come out and look at it with Ryan Homes and it hasn't done it since (apparently it was a really simple fix).
• Toilets - Our basement toilet is terrible at flushing and the downstairs toilet isn't much better. We had our PM look at this at our 1 month inspection and he basically just told us we need to hold down the handle for a few seconds rather than just pushing it down. I think that's a stupid solution but whatever. They say it's because they're the water saving toilets but my parents have one and they definitely work a lot better than ours. Oh well.
• There aren't enough places to hang towels in the upstairs bathrooms. The places you could put an extra towel rack are kind of awkward and far from the tub and the one they installed in the secondary bath is over the toilet which is also kind of weird. Not a big deal but kind of frustrating!
• The Paint they use is seriously horrible! This isn't a huge deal because we plan to paint anyway but everything marks up the walls. Everything. Plus, once there's a mark, it isn't going anywhere, and they're impossible to scrub off. I wish it was at least a little better because we were only planning on doing the first floor with paint at first so now we either need to shell out extra money to get decent paint on the walls upstairs or just live with the crappy paint for awhile.

All in all, not bad! We are really happy with everything and to be honest, I really thought we'd run into more problems by now (knock on wood).

Hope everything is going well with everyone else!

Christmas Decorations!

We are still here! I know I've been MIA for awhile but I've just been really busy. I decided to start a new blog so that's been taking up some time as well. It's going to be based on all of my DIY projects with a lot more detail on the how-to and the overall process, so stay tuned for that!

Our projects have slowed a little bit, but I did get some decorations done for Christmas which was fun! Here are some pictures of those:

 

We also had a dog escape incodent. You see the innocent looking dog laying peacefully by our fireplace? He's also an escape artist. This is what happens when you have smart dogs! One morning he just wasn't in our yard (Thankfully this happened to my boyfriend and not me because I would have completely freaked out). We originally thought he jumped the fence but yesterday we saw him trying to squeeze through a small gap between the bottom of our fence's gate and the ground. So, this is another project. We just have to figure out how to fill in the gap (It's about 8 inches) so it's dog proof! Huskies are great dogs but they are way too smart!

I hope everything is going great with everyone else!

Pics Galore!

I finally took pictures of most of the downstairs in our home! I left out the dining/living room because it's a mess and currently has a naked Christmas tree in the middle of the floor. The office and bathroom look the same so no need for pictures there either. I left out upstairs because it's nowhere near finished!

Here are some pictures of the downstairs though! It still needs some work but I'm so happy with it for now! We'll start at the front, shall we?

Our home! The tree on the right side of the picture is a newly planted tree (Props to my mom and amazing boyfriend for this present and the labor required for planting it). It's a Weeping Cherry! I'm not sure what kind of tree they gave us (on the left). I guess time will tell!

Our guard frog by our front door! He's rusting already but I kind of like it ... I know, I know, we artists are weird.

Walking in the front. Check out that floor - whoever installed that floor is mad skilled ;)

Front door/Entry - The door color is Sherwin Williams "Watery." I love the pop of color (especially since we can't paint!)

Mudroom freshly floored

Before / After : Rug from West Elm

Hallway and basement door

Glimpse of Hallway, basement door, pantry door (also Sherwin Williams "Watery") and our beautiful fridge

Before / After

Kitchen! Freshly floored and cleaned. I'm also going to paint the basement door the same color as the pantry and then paint the top central panel on that door in chalkboard paint for notes/grocery lists/etc. The trashcan was going to be a dog food container but ended up being, you guessed it, a trash can! I got it for around $15-$20 at Home Depot and just spray painted it.

Doggy fuel station

Before / After

Morning room and my sexy table and new chairs!

Great Room - These pictures are kind of dark so my apologies! My phone doesn't have the best quality!

Love my Fireplace and big clock!

Close up!

I love my Teal Couch and funky pillows!

Back yard - left side. See those holes? We had to move our Ryan Homes trees to the other side of our fence because our dogs were digging them up. When looking into dog breeds we heard huskies were diggers .. Those sources were right. We had them trained for apartment living but home living is a little bit different .. They test our patience frequently. They are so darn cute though!

Right side of the yard - Love having a fence! We also got some solar fence caps for the corner and middle fence caps that light up at night! Love them!

Now that Christmas is less than a month away (Umm what?? When did that happen???), we started talking about Christmas present ideas. My boyfriend had a great idea about presents, and we decided to split a large cost for the house and then just get each other something small. We pretty much settled on getting backsplash for the kitchen. We talked about a grill or nice pots and pans (Calphalon has these dishwasher safe pans now .. What I would do for those bad boys ...), but ultimately we decided those things could wait and backsplash is a fun purchase! We went and looked around yesterday. We either want something simple shaped with a touch of color or  just something with a nice texture/shape (or maybe a little bit of both??).

This is called a "windchime" pattern. I liked it because some of the glass is frosted and some isn't which gives it some extra visual interest. 

I really like this shape and the color. It's hard to tell by the picture but it's about 4 inches wide. It has a tint of grayish teal (I may or may not have just made up that color..)

This is the same shape as the one above but smaller and in a marble. I really like it, but it was pricier than the others .. we'll see. We're going to look at places like Lowes and Home Depot too for similar stuff just because of price.

I hope everyone is loving their home! I feel like everyone has disappeared, but I'm sure everyone is crazy busy! I know we were for over a month (and we still kind of area).

I'll be decorating for Christmas all day today. I'll try and do a Christmas decor update! 

Progress, Progress, Progress!

THE FLOOR IS FINISHED

THE TABLE IS FINISHED

CURTAINS ARE ALL HUNG

Phew!

We have been busy! We finalized a bunch of stuff this past Wednesday ... aka 2 days ago. I finally finished the floor (well most of it .. not the trim, but I can't even think about that right now!)! I will be taking pictures (hopefully tomorrow) and put up some before and afters. It looks great! I looove it and I love that it's basically finished even more! Putting down flooring is quite a process and very time consuming. I'm also convinced the weird shape of the area I did made it more difficult. A lot of angles, a lot of door frames, a lot of obstacles (going around that island).

I also finished the table! It is finally complete! It has been built and stained for quite awhile, but I started slacking when I had to polyurethane it. I got laaazy. So I finally finished putting several layers of poly on and screwed everything together and I love it!

Here are some pictures! You also get to see the newly installed floor as well!

That is one sexy table! (If I do say so myself)

All ready for Thanksgiving dinner



Chairs are from Ikea! Very comfy and cute!

I'll be sure to take more pictures of the rest of the house. Everything is pulling together really nicely! I just haven't had time and our home was a mini construction zone for awhile due to the floor.


Other than that, we celebrated Loki's first birthday! He got to go to Dog Daycare (one of his favorite places in the whole world) and they took this adorable picture of him. I thought I'd share because he's just so darn cute (I may be a bit bias).


 

The dogs are also enjoying their new fenced in yard. We, on the other hand, have a love/hate relationship with it due to the digging and mud (Sod makes the yard really soggy for awhile).

Muddy dogs = happy dogs

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

 

Loki Approved!

Now it's time to decorate for Christmas!! Is anyone else as excited as I am?? I love decorating for Christmas!

Update

So I figured I'd pop in and do a quick post/update.

Things have been good! We're still loving our home as much as ever and we're still pretty busy! We've slowed down a good amount just because we were tired (not because we don't have stuff to do!). Over the past few weeks we've:

• Sealed the garage floor
• Put the TV on the wall
• Bought and installed our surround sound speakers in the great room
• Had our fence installed
• Installed all of our ceiling fans
• Put up almost all the curtains (still need to do the morning room)
• Put up shades in the Powder Room
• Replanted the trees in the backyard
• Planted a new tree in the front yard
• Installed a lot of the floor!

Since then we've kind of stalled. Frankly, that floor made me exhausted! This past weekend my dad and I worked on it a little bit. We cut out the rest of gaps needed under door frames. I also added a few more rows in the morning room and finished the area at the bottom of the steps. From here, I think I'm just going to add a little bit here and there throughout the week. Eventually it will get done! It needs to get done! The fact that the floor is half finished is driving me crazy buuut I'm tired and don't want to do it anymore!

I also have to finish our table .. I am seriously a slacker!! I promise I'll have it done soon and post pictures!


Problems

Now that I talked about all the good stuff, I figured I'd mention some stuff that needs fixing. Overall, we haven't run into many problems at all but here's a list:

1. Stain (or bleached spot) on Great Room carpet
2. Nail pops in the hallway
3. Toilet in basement barely flushes
4. Toilet on 1st floor doesn't flush great (maybe the energy efficient factor??)
5. Morning Room door is hard to open and close

Another problem, not related to the house quality, is that our dogs have destroyed a few things in our home already. Awesome, right? They chewed a banister and last night snuck away to pull up some of the carpet. They also dug up 3 or 4 of our trees so those trees have all been moved to the other side of the fence. Currently, we're trying to figure out how to make them stop. Any tips would be very much appreciated!

I hope everyone else is having great experiences!

Sneak Peak of Our Flooring!

It looks like there was a good amount of interest in our flooring so I figured I'd give a sneak peak! I finished most of the kitchen but still need to do a little bit more. I also need to go down the hallway and do the mudroom as well.

I'm taking a bit of a break from completing it, because my body hurts! The joints in my fingers are swollen and I have bruises in places I didn't know I could bruise (bruising the palm of your hand is possible, apparently). I also slightly strained/sprained both wrists when trying to remove and replace some stubborn boards. I'm a mess! This girl needs a break!

Note: It may sound like this flooring is crazy hard to put in, but it really isn't that bad. I think it is definitely a doable DIY project for people, but just be prepared for it to be time consuming and a bit tiring (and you may hammer your fingers a few times too ... I'm speaking from experience...). I'll go more into detail on everything once I'm completely done the flooring!

While I'm taking a break from flooring, I may work on getting the table all ready to be put together (I'm polyurethaning the legs and top separately since it's easier than doing it after I assemble everything). Hopefully, I'll have pictures of that soon!

Anyways, as promised, here's a sneak peak of my beautiful new flooring!

Really poor picture quality!! Sorry about that!

Please excuse our messy counters!

And just for reference, here is the old flooring:

I'm in love!! I just need to finish the kitchen, hallway, and mudroom and then add on some quarter round. It's going to look fabulous!