To home improve or not to home improve

We spent a part of today working on what was the cat room and what will become the baby's room. Because of my SO's allergies to cats (which we didn't know about until after we got the cats) we have to rip out the carpeting and redo the flooring. I washed walls, doors, windows etc. today so that we can put a sealant coat on the drywall. The folks who built our townhouse didn't do that and the paint layer is so thin that it rubs off. Once we seal the walls, we'll paint and put up the appliques that we have.

We went to the home improvement store today to look at flooring. We've agreed we don't want carpeting. With the allergies Kell has it is a real nuisance to keep the floors clean enough that they don't act up. Blinds fall in the same category and are going to go bye-bye. We looked at hardwood (our floors aren't strong enough for tile) and at laminate. Being on a budget, I think what we'll end up with is the vinyl tile that looks like wood.

Here is where the question comes in. I was raised in a do it yourself household. From auto repair to home repair, you did the work yourself unless you really had no choice. My first instinct is to do the intallation of the vinyl tile ourselves. It's not that hard. The problem is that my SO is the "call a repairman to change the lightbulbs" sort. I know going in that there would be little usable help in that direction. So the decision was made to have it installed for us.

Then I discovered that doubles the price of the deal. It is literally more per square yard for the installation than it is for the tile. I hate the very idea of that! But is it worth it to avoid the problems of self installation? The question, for me at least, remains up in the air.

I haven't felt like writing the last week. I've gotten very little done on my WIPs. I am getting my head together for a contest that will be coming up soon. It has a rather substantial prize and will mark the release of Lovers' Stone in just a couple of weeks. Details will be forth coming.

Don't forget to check out the blogs of people like Kelly Kirch, Anny Cook and Amarinda Jones. They always have something fun going on. Kelly's just had a new release with Marriage Plot at Resplendence Publishing and Anny and AJ are gearing up for their own July releases.