Prefinished and raw wood are not comparable as to install point. Like yours soonermagic, he put our heart pine in as soon as the sheetrock was done. He then covered all of the floors with heavy duty corrugated craft paper and I watched them (the subs and the floors)like a hawk. Tile guys made a bit of a mess but not too bad and GC had their stuff cleaned up and new paper down right after they finished. Old fashioned but the best way to get the proper look with trim and doors etc. I have been sweating bullets though b/c this stuff is hard to repair in the middle of a floor. I have rescued them from turned over drink bottles/cups, food...you name it. I finally told the GC to tell the subs no eating in the house if they could not get it in their mouth and not on the floor. Hind sight being 20/20, I might have done things a bit differently. I was going to chalk out the cabinets and let them lay the floors about 2 inches inside the line (to be safe). Floor guy said "Lets lay them all the way to the walls in case you ever decide to move any of these cabinets." At first I thought, great idea! Now I realize, I will never move those cabinets (in my lifetime) and I now have about $2,000 (at least)of flooring under the cabinets!

Since my DH spent most all of his Labor Day working on our DW repair instead of relaxing in the most beautiful weather California's Central Valley has had for months, I wanted to share a tip with you. Don't install tile or new flooring up to the edge of the DW, but make sure the DW is pulled out and the flooring laid under it. A glass shattered in the DW on Friday, and since it broke into lots of big chunks, we thought we shop-vacced it all out. But Sunday a.m., the DW wouldn't drain. So DH set out to remove the DW to take it apart. (I'm going to leave out searching for the manual, trying to get online help, and all the muttering that took place while he was hoping not to have to pull it out.) Anyway, first thing he found, was that the granite guy who installed the new DW in March '04, had bent the top hinges somehow so that it wouldn't come loose from the top. (I know. I don't understand these things.) Then, he found that the 1/2" tile laid up to the DW made moving the little leveling feet impossible, since you couldn't really get to the feet so they could just roll the thing out. So, after doing an hour or so with wrestling those front feet, he finally got them up and over the 1/2" tile. But then, the back feet were well and truly stuck. That's why I now have a man-sized hole cut in the side of my cabinet under the kitchen sink, where he crawled his head & shoulders through to adjust the back feet. After that, wheeling it out to the garage, turning it upside-down and cleaning out the remaining glass from the pump got my LG working again. But it took all day and he wasn't a happy camper. He admitted that if he had been home when the floor went down, he might not have thought about the DW either! For a few minutes on Monday morning, I thought we were going to have to break out some of my pretty tile floor to do this thing. Red

Can you take 2 weekends to do it? I'd do the fridge hole first--besides, it's a good test spot to hone your skills--then move the fridge into position and do the part that shows the next weekend. I do think it's important to do the fridge spot first so that visible tile won't be at risk from you moving the fridge. If you accidentally mess up tile under the fridge by putting the fridge on it too soon, it won't be as much of an issue.

Floor elf is one of the only recommended sites online! Do not start from any door way unless you want to walk all over the tile you just laid. Figure out your room dimensions then figure out square footage of tiles you have. Plans on were you want your cut pieces if they are plank tiles then staggered 6-12” from the seams. Start from the farther point and work your way out.