Late last week we finally began installing our hardwood floors at the new house. The work is going well—we’re doing it with our own hands—but it’s proving to be more time-consuming than we expected. That’s not ideal when you’re on a tight schedule: we’re scheduled to move in this weekend and need to finish four bedrooms and a long hallway before then. Once we’re a bit further along and breathing easier, we’ll write a detailed play-by-play of the process. For now, enjoy this slightly dusty photo of the first room we officially completed: our master bedroom (we still need to install baseboards and quarter round).

Even before the first plank was laid, the project gave me more anxiety than anticipated—starting with simply getting the wood home. Lumber Liquidators called to say our order was ready for pickup. Clara was napping, so Sherry stayed home with her while I went to rent the recommended $19 truck from Lowe’s. The order was large and wouldn’t fit in our car, and renting a truck from a home improvement store was cheaper than delivery. I stopped at Lowe’s first to buy the quarter-round molding we needed for the bedrooms and hallway (Lowe’s requires a purchase to rent a truck), then headed to pick up the flooring.

I expected a lot, but I was still surprised to see a massive stack of boxes being moved with a forklift. Seeing all of it at once was nerve-wracking and made me very glad I’d rented a truck. Then they began lowering the load into the truck bed and I noticed one tire sagging slightly under the weight. It wasn’t flat, just a little lower than the others. That was enough to make me nervous, but the crew adjusted the load so the weight was less concentrated on that tire, and we agreed it looked safe enough to drive the short three miles to the house—slow and cautious.

The three-mile drive felt endless. The load was somewhat unbalanced and the boxes were stacked high and not strapped as tightly as they appeared. Every turn made the stack lean, which kept my focus tightly on the road and the shifting load. I drove slowly with my hazards on and stuck to the right lane, trying to correct the balance as I went.

After a few turns I got a better sense of how to keep the stack centered and finally relaxed a bit, convinced the rest of the trip would be slow but uneventful. Then it started to rain. What began as a sudden downpour instantly raised my stress level—dozens of cardboard boxes of hardwood were exposed in the truck bed. Fortunately, a previous renter had left a large plastic drop cloth in the truck. I pulled over, covered the load, and continued, though the detour and additional turns felt nerve-racking.

The rain stopped after a few minutes, but wind picked up and the drop cloth began to flap loose. I pulled over again, removed the cover, and pressed on. By then I’d barely gone a mile, but eventually the remaining two miles were uneventful and I arrived at the new house with the truck and materials intact.

Unloading was another challenge I hadn’t fully considered. I arrived alone—Sherry and Clara were still at home—and didn’t have a forklift or extra hands. I began hauling the boxes off the truck and into the house, one by one. There were 50 boxes in total; later I learned each weighed 56 pounds and measured about five feet in length. Moving them from the truck bed, up a few steps and through a narrow garage doorway into the dining room for acclimation took about an hour.

Carrying that much weight and maneuvering awkward, long boxes through tight spaces was exhausting. I stacked them to acclimate before installation and left the heavier lifting to be done another day. After nearly giving myself a panic attack driving the load home and then hauling roughly 2,800 pounds of wood inside, I felt I’d earned a break.

The next day, Clara was already enjoying the new flooring space, sitting and playing on the boxes. Our goal is to have the floors fully installed and the rooms move-in ready soon, so we can enjoy this space properly. For now, the work continues: measuring, cutting, fitting and nailing the planks in place. It’s a slow process, but seeing the first room finished made the long pickup and unloading day worth it. We’re excited to share more about the installation process once we’ve completed more rooms and can offer clearer tips and observations from our experience.