Call me a Carpenter!

As Gus told you a couple of posts ago, Kent and i are putting in hardwoods in our house. It's something that we have wanted to do for a long time and are finally biting the bullet and we started this past weekend. We found some at a great price at Southeastern Salvage that we really liked, so we bought it last Tuesday and let it sit in our front bedroom/storage room until we started on Friday night. Kent had to run to Lowe's and pick up a few more items, so I got busy moving the furniture. We are doing this ourselves, therefore, it is going to take some time since we are doing about 850 sq feet. I suggested that we just move the furniture from room to room since there would be no way that we would get finished in quite some time. So, while he was at Lowe's, I shoved all of our living room furniture into the dining room. It was a maze! Our couch is HEAVY! It's a sleeper sofa and has steel frames, but if you know me, I have a pretty strong lower body and heaved it in there. When Kent got back, he handed me my Valentine's day present: Green knee pads. How precious!

I will not scare you with a pic of the rest of my get up. I was quite a mess when all was said and done! Friday night, we just pulled up the carpet, cleaned the floor and laid the first row to get everything started. We didn't go to bed until about 1am and I decided that I wanted to sleep really well, so I took some Nyquil. Sat morning, Kent woke up around 8 and said that he was going to see his dad for a while and that we would get started when he got back. At 10:30, he woke me up again. I was zonked! I LOVE me some Nyquil!!! We got started and worked until midnight. We got a lot done, but when each row is only 3 inches wide, it takes a while!!! Plus the fact that we are amateurs at laying hardwood, we are teaching ourselves as we go. Kent is google-ing and I am asking all kinds of questions. Sunday, I got my lazy self out of bed at 8 and started early. The Daytona 500 was that day and my grandfather was coming over so we had to get enough done so that we could put some furniture back in there. We cut it close! We got enough done and cleaned up by 12:30 and Kent's friend came and helped put the furniture back in there. I feel a little bit crazy, but we forgot to buy some felt pads for the furniture so I had to go a little red neck and tear up a towel so that the furniture wouldn't scratch our beautiful new floor.

I love it!!! Gus, as you can tell from his post is not so convinced it was a good idea! Frankie doesn't care, she runs and slides like there is no tomorrow, Gus tip toes everywhere and sometimes needs a little nudge to get moving. Sunday night, we did finish up the rest of the living room floor. We still have to do the shoe mold, but it looks sooooo pretty! I am going to go shopping next week for a rug, so wish us luck that we can agree on something! I cannot have an oriental rug in my house. They are pretty, just not quite my style. I am more of a contemporary girl! So here starts the timeline. Hopefully I can do a little next week when I am off. Our goal is to have it done by summer, which I think is very reasonable for someone who works every other weekend! So the stop watch started Feb 13th. We will see!!!!

P.S. I did most of the work while Kent was trying to figure out the cuts around the archway and going to Lowe's again! It did give me a little bit of a rush when I used the power saw! :)