When I was a teenager, I loved the movie Sleeping Beauty. I didn't actually own the movie thanks to Disney's irritating "in the vault" marketing scheme which, I will admit, is kind of brilliant but as I said, irritating. But I baby sat every Friday night for a little girl who did have the movie, and I watched it almost every week after she had gone to sleep.
There's a moment in the movie, near the beginning, when Rose comes down to find the Fairies plotting for her birthday. "And what are you three dears up to?" She asks (like she doesn't know)
"Up to?"
"Up to?"
"Up to?" They reply guiltily.
That's how I feel when Will calls while he's away on a trip. Because, let's be honest, I'm always up to something, but when he's gone I tend to go a little nutty on the projects. Last fall, was the 4 day bathroom overhaul. This winter I tackled (although didn't finish) the mudroom and now? Well, I've got a few different things on my "to-do" list for the week.
Project one involves the floors. When we moved in I really wanted to re-do the floors before we moved but between the kitchen and the shortened move in date, we weren't able to get it done then. And since we've neither had the time or inclination to do it ourselves, not the money to have it done.
The wood itself is in pretty good shape, but the finish is non-existent and the stain is blotchey and faded. I hate cleaning the floor because no matter how hard I scrub, they still look grotty. But a few weeks ago I tried rubbing some stain on part of the floor under the dining room table while I had the rugs airing out on the porch (that sounds faintly ridiculous, but my vacuum sucks so every so often I hang them over the railing and beat the crap out of them to get them clean) And wow, stain, huge difference.
So that's the plan. No polyurethane, no sanding, just stain. Not strictly kosher (although I did get some floor wax to seal it so I guess that's a little more by the book) but I really, really want to get rid of the splotchy, stainy look. So far I've got the living room done and it looks much better, in fact, it looks kinda awesome. If I can get these kids to sleep at a decent hour I'll move onto the dining room before I hit the sack tonight. And if I can figure out where I put my camera down last night when I was taking in process photos, I'll post some before and afters. But I promise, it looks good. (yay!)
What else is on the list? Well, there's the wheelbarrow full of lilitrope that I dug up out of a friends yard this evening (with permission of course) and the new flower bed at the front of the house, and the giant pile of mulch that doesn't seem to be getting any smaller no matter how many loads I move.
And then there's this (a Habitat find), which is totally ugly, but for which I have big plans.
I think.
If I can get the floors done.
And the plants in.
And I don't fall off the ladder.
Wish me luck.