adventures in flooring

So I’m back. A few days late, I know. But we JUST got the computers turned back on last night. They were unplugged for nine day mostly because on Monday when we went to move the desk back into place I suddenly decided it needed to be sanded and repainted. And back out to the garage it went. See, that’s the thing about DIY. One project leads to another project, which leads to painting something. And on and on.

And that’s the story of last week.

We took a three day weekend to install new floors in the living room and hallway. We’d talked about these floors for months and gone back and forth on different types and techniques, even considering the mother of all DIYs: ripping, building and staining our own floors from sheets of wood. In the end we decided to go the simple route with easy to install laminate. Thank goodness, because three days of flooring was pressing my limits on manual labor, concrete dust on every flat surface and the kitchen counter as a makeshift toolbox.

The boys were pretty wonderful. They ripped up carpet, babysat the measuring tapes and were incredibly patient with our diet of sandwiches and pretty much every vegetarian option in the freezer section.

Things started to get a little complicated after we finished the floors and began installing quarter round against the baseboards. It was then I discovered all the trim in our house is not exactly white. It’s more of a beige-y off-white that became grossly apparent as I went along painting the quarter round. So before I knew it we were painting all the trim in the living room to match. The baseboards, the window frames, the door casings… and all the trim in the hallway as well.

I like to paint, but really this was a nightmare.

I may have lost my mind just a little.

I’m still looking for it.