We Floored Our Screened-In Porch for Less Than $100!
Well…. we almost floored our screened-in porch.
We’re not done yet, but we will come in under $100 when it’s all tallied up! Flooring our screened-in porch was the one project we had slated for spring break, and thanks to Coach, a pretty day, and a little bit of child labor, it’s almost there! Read on to find out how we floored our screened-in porch for less than $100! Finally, a home improvement project that doesn’t break the bank!
The screened-in porch used to be just part of a deck that wrapped around the front of the house, right outside the master bedroom window. Madre thought the little area would make a good greenhouse at one time, and she surrounded it with plastic to put her plants out there in the winter. It was still too cold, so that idea got nixed. Her next idea was a keeper, though…screen it in! She had her favorite handy-men come do the job, and add French doors in the master bedroom. It’s on the West side of the house, so it’s perfect for watching the sunset! This screened-in porch was the one thing that made it hard for Madre to move, because she’d only had it a little while when the move took place. She comes to visit me, though, and we hang out on the cute little porch quite often.
The floor was just a deck floor to start out. Madre, or the favorite handy-men, or someone… put down black tar paper over the deck boards, and then Madre found the perfect sized scrap of carpet somewhere and stapled it down herself. It looked pretty smart when she first did it, but it had begun to look…and smell…pretty bad. You know all about my wandering dogs, right?
They’ve both had a walkabout since we moved here, disappearing for days and coming home scrawny and tired. I think they’ve learned a valuable lesson in their adventures (that there’s no place like home), but I was so heartbroken and distraught over their separate absences that I put a big, fluffy dog bed on my screened-in porch and started locking them in it at night. I needed them close, and I needed to be able to see them. I can see them, and we can smell them, too! Carpet holds everything…doggie odors, a couple of spilled drinks, rain water-turned-sour…it was time for the carpet to go.
Coach and I went to Home Depot and grabbed some of this wood underlayment.
You can click the lovely image for the details. We only needed 3 sheets to cover the whole floor, so it was around $39.
We already had a little bit of vinyl tile squares left from when we had our master bathroom remodeled, and it was enough to get us this far.
It’s only $20.70 for the whole box, which we’ll need one more of, plus about 15 loose tiles. So, even figuring in the dollar amount of what we already had leftover, we’ll spend roughly $35-40 on tiles. We only have about $8 worth of nails in the whole project, so we actually are coming in well under $100!
It looks so much better already, and we’ll have it finished up by the end of the week.
I keep saying “we” and “us”, when actually, I had nothing to do with it. Coach and the girls did this project together, and I’m super-impressed with how well they’ve done so far!
Pooh and Tigger can’t wait to finish it up, and I can’t wait to see it finished so I can brag on all of their hard work!
So, that’s how we they floored the screened-in porch for under $100! Thanks to The Home Depot, a little child labor and a pretty day, we no longer have smelly, dirty carpet to contend with. I think the dogs will even like it better, once they get used to it!
What home improvement projects do you have going this spring? Many of you have followed along on our progress here at Big Creek, and know that our next major project is restructuring several floors inside the house…that will cost significantly more than $100. Maybe that’s why the screened-in porch project was so exciting, that it was do-able in a day, and was very inexpensive! I’ll show you the real “after” once we get a chance to pick up more tiles and our child laborers get them stuck down…it’s going to look awesome!
X,O,X,O, Martie
This post is linked up with Pin Worthy Wednesday, Wonderful Wednesday,Create, Link, Inspire, and Merry Monday Link Party! 🙂
March 23, 2016 @ 9:07 am
You neglected to mention my assistance with this project.
March 23, 2016 @ 9:55 am
Whoops….um…which was…what? I seem to have forgotten.
March 23, 2016 @ 9:52 am
Why for you take my carpet. Y’all my take our carpet but y’all will NEVER take our iPad!! It does look good so far though. Sorry if you can’t read this good, not having thumbs makes this a little difficult.
March 23, 2016 @ 9:56 am
Sorry, boys! If you guys would play in mud puddles before you come in for the night, we might have been able to save it! ??
March 23, 2016 @ 9:53 am
Nice work! My bit of spring cleaning yesterday was to get rid of expired sauces and condiments in the fridge–amazing how they accumulate, mostly left behind by house sitters. I wonder what I’ll come home to this July?
March 23, 2016 @ 9:57 am
Hmmm…now you have me thinking about cooking in your pretty kitchen! Do you have wifi so I can share my adventures here on the blog???
March 24, 2016 @ 8:59 am
You are a person after my heart. When I have Project, I look at what’s. On hand. I love incorporating the old into the new.
March 24, 2016 @ 10:41 am
Shoot yes! It saves money, time, and decision making! And my floor is looking great! 🙂 Can’t wait to get everything put back and take some good after pictures!
April 19, 2016 @ 7:15 pm
I really love rhe vinyl you chose. When we did our basement weused carpet squares but over time they held a bunch of mold and we had to rip it up. I may give the vinyl a go. (Everytime my husband got mad at me he went down and worked on that carpet. Only took him a weekend!) Thank you so much for linking at #overthemoon! I look forward to seeing what you share every week. Please come back for #WonderfulWednesday or #ThursdayFavoriteThings. Don’t forget to comment your link #’s so I can be sure to visit. Pinned and shared.
April 19, 2016 @ 8:54 pm
I’m so glad we replaced that nasty carpet! The vinyl squares are so easy to put down, and so far they are still looking great! Thanks for being the hostess with the mostest! See you tomorrow at Wonderful Wednesday! 🙂