This year has been…challenging.

On New Year’s Eve, we sat around my grandma’s bedside. Just after Christmas, she fell asleep and woke only to say things that made no sense. She didn’t recognize Mom or me. She only knew Eli, who was six-months-old at the time and like a child, she’d say E-wi, E-wi, E-wi when we sat him on the bed beside her.

In the months after Grandma died, my mom moved in with us as we began the long process of getting her on the organ donor list. Then she was denied transplant, which was another devastating blow after an already rough year. It’s all a very long story but I’ll just say, this has been a year where we’re all coming out on the other side very shabby.

Some days, the four of us- me, Mom, Ada and Eli- are home and just plain mad over our limitations.

Mom wants to do things her body won’t allow her to do. She gets tired quickly. Some days she can barely walk.
I am spread about as thin as I could go. I feel like I’m always scraping the bottom of the jar for energy, money…the last of the peanut butter to make one more sandwich.
Ada can’t reach all that she wants to reach. She drags chairs around and tippy-toes and still, she’s just short of reaching.
And Eli…he can’t find his words. He grunts and points and finally throws himself on the floor, angry that he can’t say what he wants to say.

Together, we’re a sad bunch some days. Bumping around this crazy house, trying to be.
Would you believe me if I said a flooring project changed that for us?

You see, half of our first floor was covered in tile that was about the color of a naked Barbie and the grout, which was originally beige, was stained dark gray. I loathed this tile. When you’re home all day, every day, things like naked-Barbie tile can start to peck away at your soul. I had invited two contractors to give me a quote on redoing the floors with hope that some day I’d be able to squirrel enough away to pay for a project like that and both contractors said they’d do it if, and only if, I did the demo myself because the tile was everywhere. In the kitchen. The hallways. The laundry room. The pantry. The bathroom. I explored installing the Exotic Tigerwood flooring from the living room and dining room over the tile but it was way too expensive.

I had all but given up; bested by the peach tile. Inspiration struck while I was at Lowe’s one afternoon. Mom was sitting in the car with the kids while I popped in for a few odds and ends. I saw the luxury vinyl tiles and grabbed a few. We hurried home and tried them out in the guest bathroom. They were perfect.

Mom was energized!
I could scrape the money together!
Ada found a job she could help us do! Giant stickers? She can totally rock stickers.
Eli…well, he was very excited by all of the hullabaloo.

So four sometimes-helpless souls wandered into Lowe’s and bought 24 boxes of vinyl tile. We didn’t need a truck or a contractor or a man with a strong back to carry our load. We put the baby in the front of the cart and let Ada sit on the boxes as we wheeled, triumphantly to the register.

And within an afternoon, we had covered most of the peach tile while listening to the Beatles and dancing as we worked. We all stood back and looked at the change we had made. We did this! We made this happen and we did it without power tools or babysitters or breaking the bank.

It’s our victory floor and you better believe it’s seen it’s fair share of victory dancing.

The Details:

We chose the French Gray Peel and Stick Vinyl Tiles by Armstrong. I cleaned the existing tile floor then peeled the backing off the new tile and stuck them directly to the old tile. For the cut pieces, I used a box-cutter to score then snap the vinyl tile. It did take me a few days to grout because I was doing it at night, while everyone slept. I used Saddle Gray grout for vinyl flooring. The vinyl tile looks more authentic than the ceramic tile we had before, which on top of being peach, looked like it had a printed pattern. These vinyl tiles have real texture and the color is beautiful. I would call this a miracle solution since it was so cheap, easy and made such a big impact in our home.