A rental container in the driveway (for storage) and a several "spa days" out of the house (feel free to stay over night somewhere else). I'm not kidding. Really.

You are treating your home to a new flooring surface which is STRESSFUL. You might as well treat YOURSELF to a Staycation that involves your favourite relaxation stuff.

It A) gets you OUT of the house while this is all happening (so you do NOT have to struggle to "live" with/around the mess created).

B) Keeps you close to home so that you can stop by every morning to supervise the delivery/acclimation/installation (super important to be within visiting distance while your home is being renovated....especially with flooring)

C) Keeps you as relaxed as possible during one of the most stressful events of your life.

Remember: Stress kills (the biggest silent serial killer in the world is stress yet no one feels it necessary to prosecute)! Go ahead and treat yourself to a quick jaunt in a nice hotel/spa staycation location. You will be glad you did.

Staycation? You mean leave the house open to strangers? Oh dear no. LOL! I would be in a far worse state if I did that. It's not possible to lock up everything I own - I'm not even going there. Peope do that? Holy crap. No - not an option - I have lived here for nearly 20 years - far too many personal belongings. I just never thought that getting new flooring would be THIS HUGE FRICKING deal. I suppose that is why I left it for last, as I just could not even think about what it would mean.

sofaspud, yes, it would not be so overwhelming if it was one room at a time. Maybe I need to do this in stages. It wouldn't be so bad if I was retired and had TIME for this sort of thing, or had help with all the moving of things. I'm a busy person...lots of demands on my time and it makes it all the harder to think about.

"it would not be so overwhelming if it was one room at a time. "

No just doing it THREE times. Do it once, and as SJ says, couple days away and all will be finished.

My flooring installers had me box up the smaller things, and they moved everything outside under the overhang and into the garage. Just the downstairs tho.

Im so bad with TV connections, I have every single connection labeled with masking tape tags written with Sharpie. I think the flooring guys moved it to the garage. They rolled up the rugs and put them on top of the furniture in the garage.

The moving wasn’t so bad. Left the kitchen as is. If I were doing the whole house, I’d take it one story at a time. It’s not like moving houses, because you don’t have to pack everything.

Are you moving the stuff yourself?

Jeez, I’m in So Cal and flooring stores quoted prices all included moving “the big stuff” for free (included, I mean). I guess I didn’t appreciate it....can you get help? Advertise on Nextdoor for some strong people?

Similar situation but we are completely removing the subfloors down to dirt and replacing. We are in the midst of packing the entire house, removing light fixtures, everything... The boarding the dogs for a week and leaving for a week. That is just to replace subfloors. Then we can move back in while the flooring is installed room by room. It is overwhelming. I think it is easier to pack/move than pack/reno. Not sure why but it is rather distressing...

I worked in a family flooring business half of my life. Dad was an old school kind of guy..."full service retail dealer"...we did it all...disassembled and moved everything, except for expensive artwork, china and glassware...then moved it all back when the job was complete. You won't find that kind of service from many floor companies today.

I sympathize with your plight...having to pack up everything yourself and move it all out is stressful. The temporary pod is the best way to go, if you don't have room in the house for storage.

The landlords of the house I reside in want to replace all the wood flooring on the main level (conflict of interest prevents me from doing the job). So...knowing what is involved with packing up and moving everything out, I asked them to not do this while we are the occupants. The only way I will agree to have these floors redone is for the landlords to hire a reputable moving company to do all the moving, storage and resetting. Otherwise...not going to happen.

Mrs. S, I am with you on the stereo-tv connections. I hooked all that up myself but it was a bear (I have my tv running through an av receiver with separate speakers) and I will have to make sure I label every single cable. I do have a lot of breakables in my etagere, so that all has to be packed up. I have a TON of movies and cd's (I am a bit of a music freak :-) ) and of course the normal knick knack stuff. Also I have two very very nice glass-top tables, that I know I will have to remove the glass from.

Yes they will move the heavy pieces, AFTER I remove the other things. The room upstairs will be the worst. They told me I have to disassemble the bed, disassemble and move a piece of exercise equipment downstairs, (they don't disassemble ANYTHING) move all the small items out, and remove everything from the top of my sewing cabinet. That cabinets is basically a storage unit with 2 cabinets/doors on each end, with a formica top spanning them. I keep all my craft/hobby stuff in them. The problem with that room is that it's really still my son's bedroom when he comes home, and he has belongings EVERYWHERE, in addition to my stuff. Faced with cleaning it all up and what the heck to do with it all - it is intimidating.

It will have to be two phases I think, to stay sane. 1) Kitchen/laundry and upstairs, and 2) dining/living room. If I think of it that way, I can deal with it much better. For one thing, I need the area downstairs to store things from upstairs when I move it out. The wood floors will be engineered - not site-finished hardwood (I would shoot myself LOL) so that is a plus.

glennsfc, "You won't find that kind of service from many floor companies today."

Apparently. I had no idea what to expect - I knew it would be awful - I have been dreading the very thought of it. I have moved enough times in my life that I never EVER plan on moving again. I don't know how these people that move every couple of years, do it. I have been here 19 years. I am not going anywhere. :-)

Love that carpet! Really pretty!

Mrs. S, thank you. :-) I am so happy with it. The installers carried almost all the furniture down the stairs - they left only the dresser/mirror, and the kickbox bag. They even took the bed apart - so my concerns about having to do all of that moving, were for nothing, thank goodness. The other estimators had stated that they "preferred" that all the furniture be moved out of the room, or they would just move it to one end of the room, and then move it over. But this company - one I had come out after I had posted this thread - these guys said they always take it all out as it made installing much easier. I do think I picked the best company to do this job. They did leave a few marks on the skirt board, but I touched it up with fresh paint and the marks are quite undetectable now. I had everything else (16 dresser drawers, lamp, sewing machine, etc.) that I had either carried downstairs or stashed in the attic, back in place, bed linens washed and back on bed, and everything straight by the end of the day.

@Chess - I know you have been on the look-out for the right flooring for your home. I'm really glad to hear you are happy with the company you went with (I'm guessing they were NOT the lowest priced option).

What floor/company/wood did you decide upon? You've been searching/asking about flooring, I would love to know what you decided on. Curious minds want to know (ahem...idleness during Spring Break gets the better of me;-)

SJ McCarthy, I had decided to do the floors in 3 stages, and I really wanted the room upstairs and steps down to the kitchen, done first - just to keep me sane. :-) So that is all I have done thus far.

I had 4 quotes on the carpet, and this company was actually the highest quote. I was disappointed in that but kind of expected it as they have an excellent reputation. So, due to my budget, I had decided to go with a less-expensive quote. But before I had scheduled, this company's estimator emailed me and asked me to let her know if I got lower estimates and she would see if they could match it. Not expecting much, I gave her the amount of the next-highest quote, which was $700 less. She asked for and I sent her a copy of the quote, with all the company identifying information blanked out. And within 10 minutes, they beat that quote by $1. I was completely surprised! I had researched the price of this carpet (it wasn't inexpensive) and knew that was where they were coming in high - their labor prices were not off much from my previous quotes. And that is where they dropped their price - materials cost. So I learned a valuable lesson as well as FINALLY getting my new carpet in.

My kitchen floor will definitely be Armstrong Vivero glue-down, and the company I am going with is actually the only Armstrong-certified dealer in the area. I was just more comfortable with that. I won't be scheduling that until after June though. I have a trip to Greece in a few weeks, just today put my car in the shop for some very expensive, unexpected repairs, and a few other large unplanned expenditures that has sidetracked my budget for a bit.

The wood flooring in the dining and living room - weeeeelll.. I am TRYING my best to not spend a freaking fortune, but I have looked until I am blue in the face and found nothing I love locally (I have mentioned that I am picky, right?), but I DO love this:

https://craftfloor.com/product/savona/

It's double what I had wanted/planned to spend, it's a direct order, but it's gorgeous, and it's exactly the look/color/finish/tone of floor I wanted. The company has been very generous and has sent many large samples. The only thing that gives me pause is finding a local installer that I can trust.

So it will be a while before I get the rest done. I have no reason to hurry, so I am okay that it will be a bit longer of a wait. :-)

Glad to hear that your in-depth search has ended (whew...that's the hard part isn't it?) and that you are simply waiting on the right time to do things.

Just for fun, check to see if your quotes have time limits. Some companies will offer 90 day limits while others will offer a much shorter time line. If you ask for the work to be done OUTSIDE that time limit, you might find they will change their costs to suit the local market needs.

It's a quick heads up to make sure you are not upset/disappointed with a bit of small print. Keeps us posted.

Thanks - I had already discussed that with both of the other companies, and I am good on that front.

And yes, SEARCHING is by far the hardest part. I am beyond picky, and I swear my BF is SO over me looking at samples and going in flooring stores. But it's my house, he doesn't live here so he has no voice in it. :-)