The Floor

Another pay day and Furlough Friday rolled around, and we turned our attention to the floor. We set ourselves a deadline of Monday, Oct. 5, to get the carpet up for the final estimate from The Art of Hardwood, which meant we had to finish painting over the weekend.

We had moved and packed somewhat leisurely during the week, thinking we would paint on Saturday. Friday was busy with errands and appts., and John was busy all Saturday morning. Painting got moved to Sunday but at least we managed to prep things pretty well.

Sunday morning I had to have some tea and paper time in the kitchen, figuring it was the last for a while. When we started painting it went faster than we had thought, and we were also running out of paint. Having a large open space with partial walls helped. John had to go back for more while I did the corners.

When he came back, I suggested we push on to finish the hallway. That done, John got ambitious and wanted to paint the ceiling in the family room, to complete the continuity and unify the rooms, even if the family room was not going to get finished for a while. The room looked like granny's attic but we managed to drape everything, including the plants, and then that was done and we wished we could have continued. We decided we could do one wall per furlough weekend, after the living room was back together, and rip up the carpet as well.

But it was time to do the nasty carpet. John cut and rolled it out while I started pulling up staples. The revealed floor was covered with paint and pet stains, but we could see the potential. It was another indication of how shlocky the sellers of the house were - they did the absolute quickest, cheapest cover-up possible, throwing down carpet instead of repairing and finishing the floor. It remains to be seen what the verdict will be. We figure we should stain the floor a darker color anyway, to complement the cabinets, and we're also going to add extra finishing for durability. With three cats, a big dog, two men and assorted friends, the floor needs to be tough.