Lumber Liquidators Flooring Conundrum

2 years after we moved into our home, we saw reports of flooring from Lumber Liquidators with unsafe levels of formaldehyde.  We immediately research to see if our flooring made the list since we had gone through them to get all of our "high-end" laminate. Sure enough, it was there! Because we have two little girls who spend ALL of their time playing on our floors, we were very worried.

I did not trust Lumber Liquidators to tell us the truth about the health of the flooring so we hired a Seattle environmental firm to come test the air. A scientist arrived and conducted the very controlled test while we were out of the home. The results came back 3X the safe level for formaldehyde! Just to compare, I also got the test Lumber Liquidators was offering to customers with this flooring and this ridiculous test strip came that we were supposed to send back in a paper envelope.

We knew we could try to use our savings to fight Lumber Liquidators in court but found others had little success because Lumber Liquidators was saying nothing was wrong even though they had stopped selling all these China made floors. SO we decided to use the money to replace the flooring, all 1,800 square feet. Ugh.

We ended up with wide plank white oak flooring that we LOVE and that has been the only silver lining. These floors fit our home much better.

Even though we are included the class action lawsuit, those suits are losing steam all over the US and fear we will never see any kind of financial compensation and we have no money to fight a large corporation. It is so disappointing that Lumber Liquidators simply sent out these inaccurate tests and called it a day, even though I know many, many more people have these floors in their homes off-gassing formaldehyde without knowing it.

State of the house.

I took a few new photos of the house. Right now, much of our focus is on the yard these days. Landscaping is a LOT of work and requires a lot of thought.

We also have a few on going projects that are always on the back of my mind and I would love to finish. But there is so little time! Plus my husband is missing a few tools needed to complete them.

Living room: I would love to add two framed quotes on either side of the shelves. We want reclaimed wood frames, which my husband would like to hand-make (on top of his 30,000 other projects). I also want to get matting for these frames on the shelves.

This is our newest piece of furniture, from Restoration Hardware, on sale. We want to all trim to this mirror, but it is another project for hubs with his limited tools and time, lol. We shall see. I have been waiting for this one to be completed for MONTHS.

Dining room table is still the same, but I still love it.

We framed some of our family photos from this summer, frames from IKEA. 

The office!! This we just completed about a week ago. I love the space now. My husband built the desktop out of vintage floor boards we found in Seattle. The shelves and cabinets are from IKEA. We haven't even filled the frames. I am thinking a quote in one and art in the other. 

Girls bathroom. The deer is "charlie".  Towels from Anthropologie on sale, art from Land of Nod and mirrors from World Market. 

Our bathroom, my favorite little tub. There is another matching vanity on the other side of the bathroom for my husband because sharing sinks is a no.

Living Room Shelving

A few months ago, I posted about an empty spot behind the couch. Well, we decided to go with shelves but the next step was to find the right size and color. We found some large ones on steep discount at restoration hardware. The shelves were listed as "reclaimed" but when they came in the mail, they were painted to look reclaimed but they looked very fake. My husband spent the next two days sanding them and revealved beautiful wood underneath! No idea why they chose to paint them!

I printed some photos I have taken and am really happy with how it turned out!

BUT now I have this empty spot that we need to fill. I am not sure what to put here:

I have looked and looked and I think that one day I will just stumble upon it. Whatever it is :)

Rubio Monocoat on Restoration Hardware Reclaimed Wood

Thought I would stop in and give an update on the table! The table, from Restoration Hardware, was unfinished wood. A few weeks ago, we set a glass of water on the table and it left a very clear ring and we decided it was time to better protect the top. We did a bunch of research and decided to go with Rubio Monocoat natural oil finish in clear/pure (no, they are not sponsoring me or know I am writing about them).

Application was pretty simple and although we were a little sad that it made the table darker, it is well worth it to have the table to protected. Water now just pools on the top layer.

Soon I will be updating about the couch corner!

Dining Room Chairs!

Our chairs have arrived. We went with the Pottery Barn Isabella Sidechair. I love them so far.

My latest issue is how to decorate the two walls behind the couch. We don't want canvases (hubs doesn't like them) or black and white because we are trying to pop with color.

Any thoughts? :)

Restoration Hardware Dining Table

We finally got our table thanks to a nice little sale they were having. I know many people would not be willing to wait 8 months for a table, but we were to get something as beautiful as this! :)

It is a restoration hardware table at 108 inches long (with extensions to 122 inches). However, the table to not sealed. So we will have to figure out which way we are going with that and what chairs will get. I really want to get cloth to add some warmth to the table. I think we are going to go with off white removable slip cover chairs.

The majority of our meals will still be eaten at the counter so we are not in a rush.  But Thanksgiving WILL be hosted here this year!

Our all white Ikea kitchen.

As I mentioned before, we used Ikea cabinets for our kitchen. When we originally met with our builder, we told him we wanted Ikea and he was fine with that as long as we installed it. We did have him price out a custom kitchen just to see. The custom kitchen price came to 17K and we bought our cabinets during the kitchen sale for around 6K. Our appliances are all Kenmore except for the mircowave, which is also Ikea.

Door on the left is to the pantry, door on the right to the mudroom.