My husband is a champion and deserves many laurels. He is a smart man, the type who can research something and teach himself how to do it. That combined with some advice from our beloved friend Jon the Professional, allowed him to learn everything to successfully lay every one of these pretty planks by hand. To clarify, these are not laminate, vinyl, wood-look tile, or anything that snaps together. No, David installed real solid hardwoods with like, nails and whatever.
I will be done bragging on him now, but I had to for a little because he worked so hard and is generally just the best.
The feeling of having two whole spaces on the first floor normal and fully functional is extremely refreshing. It wears on you to feel like you are living in a construction site and having to warn friends when stopping in of heavy machinery and stray nails about. (Or remorsefully having to shoo friends off overall.)
The trim is not back up yet. We will do that when we are done with everything else. However, having some stable floors to walk across makes me feel like I live in an absolute palace. Please recall the following from three weeks ago.
Now, things look like this (moving into the dining room!)
And, I can take victorious (although we are not finished yet) photos like this.