I've been a busy beaver ever since the end of March. I did have a good week to ten days of down time, but that's about it. So much has happened in the last eight weeks. Scott and I got our tax refund...Scott let me do the one thing that I've been wanting to do for two years now...rip up the carpet and lay laminate wood floors. The least stressful and quick part was picking out the laminate style that we liked. From there...oh boy...it was insanity. In the process of deciding to have new floors installed, I realized that it'd be a good idea to repaint the baseboards and trim in the same rooms that would be getting new floors. If I'm going to paint the baseboards and trim, well might as well paint the walls and the fire place surround. So in a matter of three weeks time, I painted the walls, trim and baseboards in the family room, hallway, dining room, and computer room/living room.
In order to install the floors, everything had to be moved out of the rooms...and I mean everything. It was going to be easier to paint with everything out of the rooms, so we basically spent three weeks with the majority of the contents from the first floor either stock piled in the garage or the basement. After managing this small project and doing most of the manual labor myself, I have no desire to build a house...this was enough stress. Thanks to the help of our friends Vince and Karen, I didn't have to lift some of the heavier furniture pieces and I had a couple extra hands helping me paint for a few hours.
So here's the before, during and after pictures. I can now look back and say it was worth it, but in the midst of it, I wasn't so sure I would survive.
