Billy the Kid…. May 17, 2010

When I set my mind to it, I am a hard and efficient worker…however, I was put to shame this weekend by Billy the guy who installed our new hardwood floors, he worked like his life depended on it. I admit, when I first met him I was unsure that he could meet my high standards of quality and attention to detail, perhaps it was that he was young or maybe it’s that I don’t trust people to do the job right. However, In the end we made the right choice, got a great deal on the floors and labor and are very, very happy with the results.

Let me start this by saying my husband was out-of-town for work and due back on Friday to help with prep work, etc for the floors, however bad weather in Texas keep him grounded. Cary didn’t fly in until 12:30 on Saturday and missed all the “fun”.

Thursday

Billy rented a jack hammer and we got to work on the tile floor in the foyer. He called me at work at 3:30 and I raced home like a crazy person to help. We had it knocked out in less than 1 hour. Piece of cake…..

BEFORE….

AFTER….

FRIDAY aka Hell Day

On Friday afternoon I found out Cary wasn’t going to be coming home until Saturday, no big deal I thought….

My mom skirted out of work early on Friday and Thank God for that. She came over and helped me move sofas, sweep, remove the rest of the carpet, remove staples, among other things. Not sure how late I would have been up on Friday night if I didn’t have her help…

Billy had to lay new subfloor in the foyer after he got off of work so as soon as he showed up it was off to Home Depot for supplies, which included 920 sq ft of hardwood floor.

Here are some photos of the floor before hardwoods. Yes, folks that is Cary in the background working. That was a photo from earlier in the week. I had to take a picture to prove that he actually does do some work around there.

So remember how I said it was no big deal that Cary wasn’t going to be home until Saturday afternoon? Here I was thinking, it’s fine I am the forewomen on this job anyway, and I am women I handle anything…(well actually I can, but somethings you just don’t want to have to do) like hauling in 920 sq ft of hardwood floor bundles at 10:00 at night after working all day and with no dinner.

Special thanks to my mom who took it upon herself to document this wonderful event….

Ok, so I didn’t haul in all 920 sq ft of wood by myself, Billy helped and for every load I almost dropped he carried in 3, but I am a team player so I helped the best I could. Oh BTW, don’t you just love my periwinkle garden gloves I have on, they are perfect for hard labor. I purchased some leather construction gloves at Home Depot the next day.

Saturday

I was told that at 7am on Saturday the guys, Billy plus two Brazilian men, (I was disappointed they didn’t look like hot beach volleyball players) were going to be there to start laying the floor. So I was up at 6:00 am after a night on a futon in the guest room ready to go. The crew showed up, and me and Godiva hid downstairs until noon when they finished.

Heaven

If I had known how happy these floors were going to make me I would have starved myself to save every extra penny I could to get them sooner. It feels so clean and fresh in our home now and we haven’t even had them refinished yet. I feel like there is a very small light at the end of our dark tunnel and someday soon we can have a housewarming party…

Sofa City Sweetheart…. May 13, 2010

Last night I slept on the sofa….

No Cary and I didn’t get in a fight over the best way to raise Godiva. Our house is now a full on destruction zone.

Between ducks in our backyard, our neighbors dog jumping the fence (twice) for a visit and dust on everything we own I am close to losing it.

Yesterday our floor guy came in a tore out subfloor and hardwood boards that needed replacing so now our master bedroom floor looks like a jack-o-lantern and since the new flooring and replacement boards aren’t going in untill Saturday I guess we didn’t see a point in moving our bed back into the room… yet again.

Now, you may wonder why we didn’t just sleep in one of our other two bedrooms? Where do you think we are storing everything?

Admitting you have a problem is the first step… May 6, 2010

Ok, I know I am not a very good blogger, I don’t update or write a lot of content…but I get busy doing other things like watching the Hills or Jerseylisous….

I have a ton of photos to upload from last week but in the meantime here is a sneak peek….

 

 The 1st photo is of the doorway we just had widened about 2 ft that leads from our foyer to the rumpus room. We think it is the best money we have spent so far. Every time I walk by it, it makes me happy, feng shui in full effect.

The 2nd photo here is of the new patio slider we had put in from our master bedroom. It was a must and i do like it but practical is not always exciting. We have yet to put our drapes back up and surprisingly the neighbors have not called the police.   

 Next on our plate is repainting the living room black, again. The 1st color was not quite right and I know I will love color number 2. We also are in the process of moving all unnecessary furniture downstairs to the basement in preparation for….drumroll….our new hardwood floors! Although we will have to wait on getting them refinished for budget reasons, I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and just celebrate the fact that we can finally rip up the dog piss carpet. Yea!!!