underneath

The carpet ripping up continues. We still have the den and the stairs to go and I'm hoping that the rain forecasted for the weekend will help us get the job finished. A combination of sunny days when no one wants to be inside working and soccer, which is taking over our lives, our week day evenings and our Saturdays has seriously stretched the project out. But in the bedrooms upstairs it's done. Yay! Thank goodness too because every time we had the wood stove cranking Evelyn's room smelled like pet birds.

The downside to having no carpet upstairs is that there is less noise insulation between the floors. With carpet we really couldn't hear the kids when they were upstairs romping around, and now we can, although it's not too bad. And better, by far, than bird smell.

The upside is that, under the nasty stained and smelly carpet we found that our bedrooms have, not plywood, but wood plank sub floor. It is, in fact, the top side of the living room ceiling except without the grooves between the boards. There is still plywood in the closets and right at the entry but the bulk of the space is surprisingly smooth wood which, except for the splotches of paint all over, looks pretty good.

So now the question is what to do with it. Paint? Leave it splotchy? Cover with rugs? I've been experimenting with aging wood which does a good job of covering the darker splotches which makes me think some light sanding to take off the worst of the lighter spots and then aging it might work. I'm undecided. What do you think?

On a related note, I'm kind of loving this chalkboard wall in the bedroom. I don't think Will will go for it and I'm not sure I could live with it forever, but it might be fun for a while.