One Big Wonderful Mess....

Greetings and Holykisses,

Thanks for the sweet comments for my Trent! That kid sure touched my heart yesterday. He found me out back doing chores in the evening and asked if I remembered that "happy song."* ??? -- for the life of me... I couldn't. Then he asked me to come inside to hear it. He thought I might want to put it on the blog. Knowing my son acquired that "writing desire"... I encouraged him to blog it himself and lo and behold, he did!!! I sat with him and told him what to do, and he caught on so fast. I encouraged him to start a blog of his own and I'm not sure but I think his expression held a spark of interest?!

Did you notice what's happening in the picture above? Yeehaaa- it's really happening!
Yesterday, I emptied all the knicknacks and dishes from the curios and china cabinet. Then we moved all the furniture to other rooms in the house. Goodbye stained and ugly carpeting! Adios!
Our house is old, but unlike most older homes, it does not have hardwood floors. We've tried to trace it's history and we're pretty sure it was built by a brave clan of doityerselfers. This olde farmhouse is so crooked, that I highly doubt the builders even used a tape measurer. Instead; I think they were eyeballers. (It takes one to know one you know.) I'm talkin about me, not my dear husband. He; on the other hand; has a tape measure permanently afixed to his hip pocket. He measures everything. So trying to rebuild, and fix things around here are... ahem... difficult. Having to cut something to fit, and cut it crooked on purpose to line up to everything else crooked nearly kills the man. I just smile and nod... alot. Hit Replay on that Happy song son!) -- and please turn uP the volume!!!!!!!!!

I can't tell you how good it was to pull up that carpet and pad. But I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the back of it. GROSS! I knew we had pet stains... I knew there were alot of spills over the years. But it was worse than I could have ever imagined.
This is the old linoleum thats still stuck on the floor under the pad and all of that brown stuff is dirt yall. We just "think" we are cleaning our carpets when we vac and use a carpet cleaner. But the dirt and sandy stuff falls through and just lays there. I vac'd the bare floors after we carried the pad and carpeting all out and emptied the canister 4 different times. I think if I'd have swept it all to a pile on one end, and turned the water hose on the other side... we could have created our very own private beach.

Tonight we're going to Lowe's to pick up some plywood to put across the whole top. Then while the guys do that, I'll be painting all the baseboards white so they'll be ready to put in after the new laminate is down. We can hardly wait to have it all finished! My only worry is that the dog's toe nails might scratch the laminate. Has anyone had any experience with it? I've heard people say, that it doesn't scratch that easily, but we do have three indoor dogs. This morning, when we opened our bedroom door to take them potty outdoors, they all three took off running down the bare hallway and clicking the loudest pitterpatter all the way to the door. They were like three thoroughbreds out the gate. A run for the roses... or rosebush more like it. lol Hopefully runners and throw rugs will help in the high traffic areas.

I'm looking around right now, and don't quite know what to do with myself? There's little I can do until we start again this evening, and no point in cleaning anything at the moment. --There is however a large mountain of padding and carpet outside our kitchen door. Think it's time to go to that mountain and tell it to MOVE! (rolling up my sleeves of course) Afterall: Faith without works is dead ya know.

"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

Have a wonderful day!
Hopefully the next pictures you see from our house will be of our Thanksgiving table, with a shiny new faux-wood floor in the background!