What a weekend. I got so much done. Geoff had to go to Morgantown on Friday for work, so he dropped Celeste off with her Fairmont grandparents on his way there so I could have the weekend to myself to work on the new house.
Mom went with me on Saturday, although her going with me involved us first hitting a bunch of yard sales and having breakfast at Goody’s in Poca. (If you’ve never eaten at Goody’s, I highly recommend it. It’s run by the same guy who used to operate Mykonos in Charleston. The menu is different, but he has a lot of the old favorites on there, and the breakfasts are the best and cheapest around. It’s right next to Rock Branch Elementary in what used to be an old Hardees.)
Anyway, not long after Mom and I got to the new house, the people we’re buying the house from (it STILL hasn’t closed) arrived to get some things they still have there, and we ended up gabbing (while helping them carry boxes) for about 3 hours. After they left, I took up the carpet from the stairs to the basement while Mom took down curtains and cleaned out the kitchen cabinets.
The floors are so pretty. I can’t believe the shape they’re in, especially the stairs. We still have to get them sanded and refinished because of some patching that needs to be done, but if it wasn’t for the patches, we could leave it just like it is.
I wish I’d been keeping track of the staples and nails I’ve pried out of that floor. My fingers have multiple punctures and my back is killing me, but it’s SO worth it. This is the kind of work I love to do. Wish I could do it for a living.
April 24th, 2007 at 11:04 am
oh, WOW!!! those floors are gorgeous! Amazing that physical labor gives you a “good” tired rather than the kind of tired you get from banging on a computer or crunching numbers all day. Murry looks like he’s right at home (great floors for sliding, I’m sure).
April 24th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Those floors are fabulous! How lucky you are! I know what you mean about loving to do that kind of work.
April 24th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Murry and Chewie love it at this new house. I can’t wait until we get the yard fenced in, although that’ll have to wait until we sell our other house. I wish all that was over with so I could really concentrate on this new place.
I am so happy with the floors. I used to refinish antiques and was attracted to these really awful pieces that had layers upon layers of paint. The feeling I’d get when removing that last layer and finally seeing the wood was always so wonderful that it would erase all the hours I’d just put into scraping. This floor was like that. I know I’ve pulled thousands of staples and nails, but it’s so worth it.
We went shopping for carpet for the bedroom today. No hardwood there (it was added on). We need to tile the bathroom and do something with the basement floor. Probably linoleum. Not certain yet.
Ooh! Idea. I’m going to post a picture of my back porch on here and see if anyone can give me ideas. I’m clueless what to do with it.
April 24th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Nice floors indeed. Maybe for the basement instead of linoleum there are things like “tile laminate” (looks like tile, literally snaps into place, no fuss no muss) that would be very durable and easy to maintain. I could browse the home improvement warehouses for hours any day of the week, the new products that make home renovation easy amaze me.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Just this afternoon we picked up a sample of a “floating” floor like what you just mentioned. We had it on the floor this evening next to the linoleum and it was much better, and only about 10 cents a square foot more, although with linoleum, we’d pay to have it put down and with this, we could do it ourselves, so we’d end up saving on installation.