What's up?

Yes, I know, it's quiet around the blog. It is still not quiet around the house. Painting bedrooms (more on that some other day) and renovating floors have been the order of the day.

A long time ago I asked Ray if I could just paint the floors. He was... less than enthused. Then we priced the hardwood we wanted (eek). Then we priced **cheap** laminate (still eek, and ich). Then I helped our friend replace her kids' bedroom carpet with "hardwood" made from ripped and painted plywood. Then I showed Ray this and this. Suddenly, he was on board. Now just everyone else thinks we're crazy.

Two weeks ago we pulled all the furniture out (don't ask how our living room looked). E helped.

Sort of.

Here's the beige carpet looking its absolute best.

I pulled the carpet and pad (yay, the carpet layers weren't paid per staple they put in and the pad wasn't nasty),

Ray filled and sanded (boo, the builders had used the floor as their workbench), and I laid down black floor paint and the border. Ray laid down the two coats of (low odor, water-soluble urethane) and we had this:

BEST SOCCER FIELD EVER!

E quickly learned to be careful about the size of the toys he chose.

The next weekend we started in on the hallway. Sadly for Ray, this carpet pad was in way worse shape. But look how pretty the section that is done looks! (E was fascinated with the carpet seam.)

Annnnd - here we are! We still need some trim, but looking much better. (also: what happens when you ask E to "stand over there and look cute")

Again, we need to hang some trim and transition pieces, but this is much better! You can see the border I added (at Ray's suggestion) here as well. (If you're curious: go here (AHRA) and click through on every picture from Granite to Canyon City. E is next to Brown's Canyon in the shot below.)

Return the carpet and vacuum:

...and back in business! (We put the couch on the section that had a week to dry, so it's a little cramped and will expand.)

For comparison:

I like it soooo much better, (not just because it's not full of 3-year-olds). It's warm like a wood floor and a lot smoother than I expected. It's loud without the furniture/carpet in to suck up the noise, but pretty nice when everything is in (just harder to play soccer on). We'll see how it holds up, but for now, it's great!