Huge upgrade on a tight budget

When we moved into our house in 2013, it was pretty much all builder grade EVERYTHING! cheap laminate flooring, cheap carpet, and CHEAP laminate hardwood in random parts of our house. We have a small home (1,200 sq ft) so we knew we wanted to eventually lay new floors down to make our house A. look and feel bigger B. get rid of the nasty carpet/random laminte flooring and C. Make it easier to clean all of the puke/pee/poop/food off the floor. Nasty but true.

We chose laminate hardwood because I honestly don't consider our house "fancy" enough for real hardwoods. PLUS I don't care one bit about laminate!

We FINALLY got around to carving out a time when we could lay it down and sent the kids to Nonnie's for the night and went to work.
Here is the UGLY before:

We had Jonathan's uncle helping us some and we ripped the carpet out, scraped the glue off, Jonathan ripped out the nails, and we started laying our new floors down! YAY! It took us (Jonathan) about 2 days to finish it all. We layed it in our dining area, living room, and kitchen...so pretty much in our whole house except rooms and 1 bathroom.
Here is after pictures:

SO.MUCH.BETTER.

We bought the underlayment, laminate flooring, and quarter round all from Home Depot.

The laminate flooring was  $.99/sq ft!!! It's called Saratoga Hickory by Traffic Master.

 

We love the makeover so much! It makes our house look and feel so much bigger and the kids love driving their little cars around now! Our budget was originally $600 & we went over by $87 but still not too bad. Amazing what new floors can do! Next up....kitchen cabinets!! ;)

COST BREAKDOWN:
Underlayment: $196
Laminate Flooring: $441
Quarter Round: $50
TOTAL: $687