Renovation Project #1 Laying timber floors in the living room

I can't believe we are really doing this

My husband and I have never renovated anything by ourselves in our lives. In the past, we have undertaken renovations, mainly painting and installing timber flooring in our last home. The floor installation cost about $15,000 about 5 years ago, just for the floors. Most of this was the cost of labour. As we were time poor cash rich ( at the time, I was commuting to and from work 3 hours minimum each day to my full time finance job) we engaged a company to do it for us. Fast forward five years to 2010 and we want to renovate our townhome. We have much less cash as we have changed our lifestyle so that I can be home more. So we are doing the renovations this time ourselves! The first room is the living room. I don't like carpet at the best of times, so up with the 16 year old carpet, and we are laying the timber floor ourselves. We researched how to do it, and armed with the tools of the trade, here we go! “ Although I don’t appear in the photos, I am kitted out in all the same gear, and we did the renovation together. I was the photographer and movie maker as well as DIY renovator. (Yes we made a home movie about this, warts and all!) I actually enjoyed doing this together with my husband. We had some “moments”, like when he hit his thumb, and when we had laid about a quarter of the floor and had to take it up again due to a misunderstanding of the instructions, but on the whole, it was really good fun, and very satisfying. Renovation Project #1 is now complete.