You too can have a dust filled home! And a fabulous floor!

4/25/10

I don't have a big reveal picture yet for you since I'm going to be dusting from now until Kingdom come, but our floor project is mostly done! We (meaning Mark) gave our tile the heave-ho in our kitchen and are now the proud owners of "slippery floors," which Madelyn was bragging about today in Primary. It's been messy, loud and the house is still a wreck, but the worst part is over. Sorry about all the pictures--I documented the process as well as I could so Mark can always go back and revisit his three, nay, five days of misery!

Night before:

Her Highness is overseeing things. And no, nothing on this green earth can keep Madelyn off a ladder. The taller, the better.

Day 1 (Mark, after having attended an infant resuscitation training at the hospital for nearly seven hours, PLUS a staff meeting):

He christened the project by immediately slicing his thumb open on a sharp piece of tile and getting blood all over the place. After which he got his gloves and protective eyewear on.

It was my job to keep Madelyn out of harm's way. (Except that that's exactly where she wanted to be.) Goodbye boring, beige, hard to clean, rock hard, freezing, unforgiving tile!!

The remaining thin-set mortar that had to be ground off

Day 2:

....like this! Can't you just taste that dust?!? MMMMMMM! By the way, it was 35* degrees outside. Which made having the windows open and fans blowing and furnace off just that much more enjoyable.

Even though we had thusly sealed off the kitchen, tile dust got everywhere. Every stinking square inch of the house. It covered the dishes inside my cupboards. It covered the whole living room. It got into the bedrooms. It got inside the closed microwave, for crying out loud.

Trying to lay low with the kids in Madelyn's room...

Are you feeling sorry for Mark yet?

Day 3:

Green foam underlayment. So entertaining!

Dun-dun-dunnn....it begins. At this point, I had to leave for a regional Relief Society conference where Sheri Dew was speaking. The laminate we got is Lamipro Regal in Russet Olive. It was only $1.49 a square foot at our local Pioneer Floor Coverings. Although it took almost three weeks to get here because it had to come from California. Via railroad. I know--you didn't even realize people still use railroads for stuff.

...A couple hours later. A HUGE thank-you to Mark's brothers David and Paul and my sister-in-law Nikki for coming to help us. Mark said it would have taken him another three days to lay this by himself.

Thankfully, our garage didn't get blasted with tile dust. It got blasted with SAWDUST. One of these days I may be able to see my belongings without a thin film of particulates.

After many hours of hard work, determination, and a large amount of Talking Heads, Alice in Chains, Led Zeppelin (which, coincidentally, is excellent painting music) and pizza, the job got finished. With one board to spare--which was simultaneously awesome and quite scary.

Mark: (collapsing on the floor) "My knees!!" I want you to know I gave him back massages before bed two of these nights. With lotion and everything.

This is exactly how I like my living room. Look--you hardly have to go five feet from the couch to get to the fridge! How fun is my house right now?!

Madelyn apparently rolled off the loveseat in protest (grouchy and tired after an exciting trip to the landfill with Mark) and then just stayed there. We didn't know where she had gone till I spotted her feet sticking out between the couch and the loveseat. She was fast asleep. Looks comfy!

Today (Mark, after having stayed up till 1:00am trying to finish the trim and moving appliances and then "teaching" 10 deacons in church and wrangling the baby, who is teething again):

ZZzzzzzz

And that's all for now, folks.