Ripping up wood...

Well, the wood has been ordered and will arrive sometime this week. Hopefully I will have the foyer wood removed by the end of next weekend.

It's a little harder than I anticipated but starting to get a groove. It sure is hard to find the right tools for it. Flooring guy at Lowe's said either rent a floor ripper for a couple hundred a day or a mallet and wonder bar. Got the wonder bar but it's not as good as my big wrecking bar and brute force. Oh, and if you ever think about glueing down wood, DON'T. It's very mean to the poor fool who is going to have to remove it in the future.


I think I've found the perfect work plan though of you are a single girl doing it alone. Get plenty of rest and get up late. Fix a nice breakfast along with a nice big cup of caffeine. Watch HGTV while you gather strength and absorb any additional tips and techniques you can. Finally, start hacking away and take periodic HGTV breaks to ensure good technique. The only drawback at the moment is I'm not sure I will be able to move my right arm tomorrow. Better soak in Epsom salts tonight.

Watching HGTV at the moment learning how to demo tile. Never mind that I don't have any (yet).

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Taking a walk...

Our second girlie vacation day began with a half mile walk to see a waterfall and a few flights of stairs.  Going back up the stairs was the real workout.  Then back to the house for lunch and general napping.  It was a lovely afternoon.  Nice quiet time to catch up on some blog reading that I have been sorely missing.

Girl's weekend

I'm currently sitting on a deck listening to the rain and looking at the mountain views. The girlies and I are enjoying a weekend getaway that may or may not include some creative time. Two of us did take a little walk up the hill and managed to get back just before the rain. Ah, so peaceful.




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The floor saga...

Well, there is an awful lot of prep work for stripping concrete to get it ready for stain and looks like next step would be a big floor sander to get the dang glue line out of the middle.  I thought about paint but that would take a lot of work applying varied colors so it didn't look so flat.  So, now I'm looking at bamboo flooring.  After searching high and low for really good prices I've settled on iFloor.  They seem to have good customer service although the drawback is not being able to see any bigger samples.  I have a few more samples coming in the mail but I've narrowed it down to these three colors.  The first two are very close but the first one has a touch more red to it.  My dilemma now is do I go with the more brown tone (middle) that I like the best or do I go with redder one that almost matches the wood of my furniture.  Seems like that would be a bit much.  What do you think?  The third one's sample is on the way but seems like it might work better for not being so close to the color of the furniture and give me me brown tones.  We shall see.  It will arrive any day now.  I'm going to go ahead and try to do the entire first floor and hopefully the stairs and upstairs hallway.  Bedrooms will have to wait.  So more fun to look forward to of ripping up carpeting and the existing wood in the foyer.  Yay!

 

Scrapbook class...

I keep forgetting to mention that my awesome friend Rebecca is going to be teaching some scrapbooking classes at a couple local Michael's.

Starting July 27th, she's going to be teaching the core classes of "Scrapbook Design & You" at two local Michael's stores. Here's a little blurb from her blog about the classes:

SDU is a four week curriculum designed to teach the basics of scrapbooking including tools, photo organization, color theory, line, shape, writing techniques, and page enhancements.

Go check out her post about the classes and, if you're local... SIGN UP! You won't regret it!



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We have a winner!

My lovely assistant, Dwayne, pulled NatashaMay's name from the pile. Check out her lovely artwork on her blog.  NatashaMay, I'll mail it as soon as I have your address.














Honorable mentions go to the other lovely ladies who replied:

Rebecca
Rachel
Kimberly

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Giveaway...

I've gone and purchased a magazine twice (not the first time this has happened) and didn't make it back to the store in time to return it. Guess I'll just have to give it away. It's the spring issue of Somerset Memories. Just leave a comment that you'd like it and Friday, July 23rd I'll draw a name and mail it out.




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The floor saga

I must be the slowest renovator ever! That being said it does take a while when you have this huge table that has to be rolled back and forth and you have to wait for one side of the room to dry so you can roll it out of the way. I have the floors looking pretty good now except for this annoying glue squiggle going down the middle.

Yesterday I pulled out my little sander and determined I didn't have the right grit for the Jon so this morning hit it again. Working better but so slow. I may have to resort to renting a floor sander. Something to research this week. Anyone have experience sanding concrete?

Here are some pics of the progress.

This is called girlie sanding. My arm was getting sore and found I could more easily use the weight of my leg. And yes, I do my best work in my pajamas. ;-)








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Bare bones

Well, I thougt I'd have some pictures already from the classes I took at Donna Downey's Inspired getaway but I've been working on packing up my craft room, clearing out all the furniture and ripping out the carpeting. Let me tell you I was a wee bit sore from all that bit in a good way.

Now I'm just trying to figure out how to prep the concrete for stain. There's a bit of paint to get off around the perimeter. Tried some paint remover but looks like I'm going to have to get more aggressive. Word of advice though, wear gloves. Gave the palms of my hands a nice little chemical peel just from washing the brush out. My brother in law advised a good scrubbing as the next stage to see what else comes up. My ultimate goal is to get a variegated or marble look with an Eco friendly stain for easy cleanup. Worse case I'll hate it and will resort to laying a bamboo floor.

Any advice and lessons learned are welcome!





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Confessions...

Well, it's been a while since I posted and I have to admit I've lost my creative mojo. And I hate to post without having something to show even if it's just a photo I took (my camera is sitting somewhere in the house collecting dust at the moment). With my new position at work I've been putting in long days and by the weekend I've been useless. Unfortunately I'm a not so secret workaholic and trying to get back on the road to recovery. My paints are calling out to me and I still have ideas swirling in my head. It's the actual sitting down and getting to it that is the problem.

I think I am starting to get the itch again but I'm also in the process of packing up all my supplies so I can rip out the carpeting. My house is 12 years old now and sadly in need of a flooring makeover. I don't have the money right now but just can't take it any longer so testing the option of utilizing the concrete floor at least on the first level. I actually like the look which is more contemporary so trying to figure out if I need to use stain or paint and what color to go with. I have found a couple places that carry eco friendly materials so going that route as soon as I get the color thing figured out. It also has the advantage of being easy to clean up if I spill paint. My grand plan is to put down bamboo flooring one day throughout the house. Well, I digress.

I do want to say thank you to those who keep checking in on me to be sure I'm still alive. Your persistence is a great encouragement to me.

Next week one of my best friends, Rebecca, and I are going to Inspired Artist Workshops so hopefully I will post things from the fun classes we take. I have to say I'm really excited to get away and spend several days devoted to fun and creativity.

Again, thanks for not giving up on me. ;-)