Flooring!

We have a new project lined up for tomorrow--installing new flooring in the bathroom. Then we'll have replaced all the floors in this whole place, and maybe we'll be happy then and leave it alone. Floor really suck as home improvement projects. Hard work. Anyway, we bought three boxes of vinyl tile and we'll probably be doing that tomorrow. We came up with a plan for doing it, and I have no idea why it didn't occur to us to do it as soon as we moved in. We're none too bright sometimes. I'm sure there will be pictures galore upcoming. On the other hand, we said that about the carpet too and we still don't have a single really good picture up. Oh well.

I think I've volunteered to help set up the Scandinavian people with a website in the semi-near future.. no known details yet though. There was a meeting tonight, which was nice. I took my smoked salmon rolls, and they went over pretty well. I don't think anyone knew what to do with the zucchini bread I took last time, because I ended up bringing most of it home. (And no, it was really good, thankyouverymuch.) We had a nice time at the meeting today, and also got several errands (indeed! even errands that I could cross off the list!) done. Course, that doesn't make things any easier if I keep adding stuff to the list (like flooring..)

Sweat Equity

We're done. We have officially refloored this entire place now. The kitchen was done in July of 2001, the carpet in October of 2003 and now the bathroom is completed in April of 2004. I can't believe we didn't do this earlier, actually. It looks soo good, and I'm so pleased with it. We're both worn out, but it was worth it.

  
Before (on the left) and After (center and right.)
I hope this is perfectly clear to everyone but I thought I should mention it.

My dad came down and helped us move the toilet, washer and dryer out. He was itching to line us out and tell us exactly how to do things, but he mostly refrained. I think it was very hard on him, but he kept saying that we would like it more if we got some sweat equity in it. We bought three boxes of tiles, which came to about sixty bucks. We're going to return almost one whole box though, which means that this whole project cost around forty dollars.. which isn't much at all, considering how much better it looks. I'm glad it didn't require the third box, though, because they were broken/bent, which was quite annoying. And for home improvement projects, we can't really complain. We started working at around noon and we were completely done and the mess cleaned up by around 8:30 (and we had a couple of breaks in there as well.) Plus, the work wasn't completely horrible.. not like that stupid carpet mess we got ourselves into. Oh, and we got one more of the useless vents covered up to boot! I'm so so happy.. perhaps you can tell. ;)

And now that it's all done, with our luck M will get a call Monday morning and be offered a job in Delaware or someplace and we'll have to move. just when we're getting things like we want them. M reminds me that I actually want to buy a house and if that happens (not that he has any leads in Delaware or anything anyway) it'll be perfectly okay to leave here even if we've put this much work into the place. I know he's right, but at the moment, I just want to sit around enjoying it all and never ever leave. :) I guess if you waved house keys under my nose, though, I'd leap on them without hesitation--let's not be unreastic here..no matter how much I'm liking the new look.

In other news, I also feel very pleased with myself because I remembered that the first Lynn Dudenbostel show was on television again tonight just as it came on. Dudenbostel is a very fine mandolin (and guitar) maker, and consequently M has been looking forward to this for months, and when it premiered last night, we completely forgot about it. Not that we were home, but we could have taped it. But it reran tonight and just as M was about to get into the shower, I yelled "Dudenbostel!!" The funny thing was that I had no idea when it came on.. I was just reminding him that it was the right night for it. He only missed about thirty seconds of the show, so I think I did alright.

This is where I put M when he's been bad.

This would probably be a good time to break off and find something else to do. I think I'll go erase "Bathroom floor" from my to-do list and then go stare happily at the new tile for a little while. Sounds like a good Saturday night plan..