Thursday, May 1, 2008

The Real Distraction

So, what really kept me out of the studio as the entire month of April blew by? Hard wood flooring. Yes, yet another do-it-yourself project. Slightly large one though - 2000 sq.ft.: 3 bedrooms with closets, one bathroom, living room, dining room, entrance, hallway, kitchen, sun room, and yes, stairs! Whew! Can you say "CRAZY?" So, why would we attempt this on our own you might ask? (any sane person would ask this) Well.....because we can, I guess. Can't come up with a better answer than that. I'll blame this one on my dad again - that old "jump in and dig your way out" attitude I inherited. So, even though we don't have the foggiest idea how to lay hardwood, we figured - "how hard can it be", and in we plunged. What have we learned? It's relatively easy, like putting together a puzzle....when all the walls are square. We, however have angles galore and one room connects with another and the living room is sunken one step, etc. So, it can get a little overwhelming. We also didn't realize when we set out that just doing the flooring would lead to painting all the walls and replacing the baseboards (which also require painting) and then setting up all the rooms again. This means getting rid of lots of stuff we've accumulated over the years. And, I can't throw anything away (too much wastefulness in the world), so looking for places to recycle or reuse things is required. And on the project grows!
I think the bottom line is this - don't have any expectations on how long it will take. Accept that the daily accomplishment might just be completing one stair - we' aren't finishing carpenters after all. Here's a few shots of some of the rooms so far:

The boys helping to rip the carpet out of the living room.

"Yay! My room is done!" Kienan and his new room complete with his choice of wall color - "Kermit The Frog " green.

Our newly "Zen-like" bedroom.
So....while I'm out of the studio more than I like, I know it will all be wonderful in the end. It just would be nice if this project end would come sonner than later.

1 comment:

Michelle Wiebe said...

Beautiful!!!! The worst is over and soon you will have so much more time in the studio because your floors will look fabulous with little effort.

Still chuckling about Kermit the Frog green. :)

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