Out with the old

The mauve carpet had to GO. I kept thinking I'd wait until I could get new carpet, and seriously couldn't decide on a color. I would go back and forth between Royal Blue and Apartment Standard Beige, then consider a floating floor, etc. It was never ending; so one night on our way home from KC, Ray and I discussed pulling up the carpet and just living with whatever is under it. I remember the wide pine flooring and the holes and discolorations and large areas of bad spots that drove me to say "carpet the whole thing" many years ago.

I really didn't care what the wood looked like, I just wanted the carpet out of there. We pulled in the driveway and Ray asked when I wanted to start this project. I don't think I answered, he just knew I wasn't going to bed until it was out of there. We started around 6 p.m. and had all the tack strip and foam and staples and carpet out on the front lawn by 1 a.m.

We traded rooms and made the living room the dining room and vice versa. I had Levi's stamp of approval on that decision.

Although the floor needs attention, it looks a lot better than I remember it.

We moved the flat screen down from the entertainment center to a library table top and it is working out nicely.

The end table Ray and I found at a used furniture store allowed me to display a family picture, a lamp and vase from my sister, as well as a teddy bear, clock and candle.

The green rug covers a square where a floor furnace probably was located and removed. Someone had put pine wood in as filler, but did not polyurethane it, just left it bare. It is also a darker pine than the rest of the floor.

The dining room floor was the worst. It had a 4' square of whitish stuff in one corner. A wood stove used to be in that corner, so I don't know if the white stuff was asbestos or just burned off varnish or the backing from an older rug, who knows. I suppose if we get mesothelioma in 50 years, we'll have solved the enigma.

After switching rooms, I decided to tackle the dining room floor and see if I could get the 4' square area to match the rest of the room. Nope. We only made that little area look
absolutely wonderful compared to the rest of the room. So, we emptied the furniture out of
the dining room (again) - taking the china out of the china cabinet, etc. - and polyurethaned the entire dining room floor. We also brought home a bookcase from work to hold our tapes and dvds and books/bibles.

Although there are big holes in the floor still (box staples removed?) the overall look is welcoming. Dining room done.

We will still need to remove the living room furniture (and that big t.v.) in order to polyurethane that floor, but the end result always outweighs the dreaded labor.