Sunday, May 29, 2011

Wedding Bells ringing in Washington

Just over a week ago fellow ITA and CXC member Brian Gregg and I were married high above his parent's house in Winthrop, WA. The entire day was incredible and having so many friends and family there was the best part of the entire event. I got to reconnect with people who I had not seen in years and share the most important day of my life with both Brian's family and my own. My sister was my flower girl and even though there is 16 years between us and we do not get to see each other more then once every 3-4 years, we bonded and became great friends.


Sunday, May 8, 2011

Refinishing hardwood floors!!!

After our new house closed on Wednesday Brian and I decided to start work immediately. The house has no shortage of projects to yet Brian and I do not have a ton of time. We quickly realized that we had a deadline of Monday morning looming over our heads as we prepared to conquer the hardwood floors in the living room and bedroom. While I was outside with Lahti, Brian yelled excitingly for me to meet him in the kitchen.  Brian was kneeling down over the linoleum peel and stick tiles with one of the tiles lifted up at the corner. Underneath the tiles was a  very dark brown linoleum floor. We looked at each other and began to ripped the tiles up one after another.

After we had taken most of the tiles out I couldn't help but be overcome by the noxious odor. The tiles were stuck down to the wooden floors with a sort of glue that smelled absolutely terrible and the left the floors incredibly sticky even after the tiles were removed. After scrubbing the glue with all kinds of solvents and using a ton of elbow grease we were able to "bust through" the layer of glue with a hand sander that we had rented!


It's now been over 30 hours that Brian and I have put into the floors at our house. We were able to rent the sanding equipment for free from the neighborhood association and we saved thousands of dollars and increased the value of the home. Here are the after pictures that show what the new place looks like.
Same kitchen but different angle. This is the floors before the oil-finish was added!

Beautiful! Phew, I am tired!!!