New Floors

So I'm a little anxious to post about our floors, but I'm still not totally prepared for this post. I haven't gotten any sufficient 'after' pictures, and I never got any after pictures when the rooms were empty. Now I'm kicking myself a little, but not that much. It's not like I missed one of my kids doing something monumental, it's just freakin' floors already!!!
Okay, I'll start at the beginning. When we moved into this house many years ago, we ripped out the wall to wall carpeting that my Grandmama had installed in the 80's. At that time, the floors really should have been redone, but I didn't have the means or the wherewithal to figure out how to make that happen at the age of 22. So the floors were put on the "someday" list, and they slowly continued to erode over the years from use. Until one day recently when I could hardly stand to look at them for one more minute. I mean, I have original hardwoods - white oak - they should be gorgeous! Instead I have this discolored, rough, worn mess all over my house. We contacted several floor guys, and we settled on the nicest man with the best price. He said he could start two weeks from the time we met, so that gave us two weeks to clear out the house and find somewhere to live. It was decided that if he started on a Monday, we could move back in on the following Saturday.
Plans began to take shape. We ordered a mobile attic pod thing that landed in the front yard 24 hours later. We called our friend Joe over at Two Men and a Truck to arrange for boxes and muscle. Our friends Pete and Katie offered us Pete's parents apartment that they keep in Auburn for long term visits. The new furniture consignment store picked up our old dining room set that we have been looking to sell. Within the two weeks, our living room, dining room, foyer, hallway, master bedroom, and all the closets in those areas were completely emptied (we did not have the kids' rooms done - too much at this time). And I mean EMPTIED. We removed the pictures from the walls and the curtains from the windows. The books and knick knacks were boxed up, and the jewelry and silver was securely hidden. Then began the massive exodus across town to the apartment.
Those of you with babies know what a major deal it can be to travel anywhere. You can't just pack a bag and run out the door - there are tons of things involved. There's bottles, diapers, wipes, port-a-crib, sheets, blankets, formula, breast pump, bath tub, and on and on and on..... And that's not including anything we needed for Jacks! We needed to be sure to get his swim toys, sun screen, dvd's, important toys, and so on.... The move was kind of major. Once the floors got started, there was no going in the house to retrieve anything. We mostly filled laundry baskets with everything we needed, there there were duffle bags and totes. All in all I think it took Joe about 8 trips to and from the car to get everything in and out. I tried to travel light, but it became too difficult. It was almost easier to take everything. After all, whatever we took was one less thing to pack up and store for the floor duration.
After being in the apartment for a couple of days, we packed up and headed to Lake Harding for the 4th of July. Our dearest of dear friends Heather and Race have a lake house over there called the Shack. Race's family built the Shack in the 20s, and it is full of history and memories. They have completely renovated that house recently so that they can live out there full time while building their house in Opelika. We ate barbecue and flag cake and homemade ice cream. We swam in the lake and took a late afternoon boat ride. We watched as Race and Heather's dad shot fireworks off of the dock. All in all it was a fabulous holiday. Then it was time to load up and haul the group of us back to the apartment.
At this point in the process, I felt like a band of gypsies moving from place to place but never settling down. And more than that, I was homesick!! The apartment was so nice and lovely, but I wanted to go home. But, the week had not even begun. I was miserably homesick on Sunday evening, and the floors didn't even begin to be worked on until the next morning.
Over the next week it was determined that Two Men would move us back in the house. After watching the guys move us out, we were pretty sure that most of our furniture was way too heavy for either of us to handle. We booked them for Monday the 12th - one week to the day from the start date on the floors. It was two days later than the day we could actually move back in, but do you think I'm paying weekend rates? Hell no......this thing was already ballooning into a major financial burden, and my parents were even helping us out!
So, after all that, we are slowly getting our house back to normal with one exception. Normally, our floors were atrocious beyond belief. That has changed. They are now amazingly gorgeous. I cannot get over it. Many of you will come into my house and never notice a single change. So, for those of you who think floors aren't that big a deal, check out the pics below. The difference is amazing to me.

Here are some before shots - notice the darkened spots where the finish was completely worn away.....And these after shots aren't so great - they were taken with my phone after the first coat of polyurethane. Plus I couldn't get good angles because I was confined to the kitchen - no walking on wet floors!!!! But it gives you a good idea of how they look now....

Overall, our experience wasn't so bad. We were so lucky to get so much help from our friends, but transporting ourselves with an infant and a toddler along with all of our stuff all over town became a little difficult. And we couldn't behave as if we were totally on vacation - we had swim lessons to make, doctors appointments to keep - life must go on.

We are making several changes to the house in the organization of things and the layout of the rooms. So, I'll be sure to post some better pictures of our new and improved rooms soon. I will say this - Clean House on the Style Network is the greatest show EVER!! We watched hours and hours of that show while we were at the apartment (it seems like it's always on!), and it has served as inspiration to declutter and streamline our house. I hope the improvements make a difference!!
One person who doesn't love the new floors is Jacks. He liked this house so much more when it was empty with bad floors, because he was free to do most anything in here.
Dorothy hit the nail on the head when she clicked her heels together and said, "There's no place like home." Maybe I'm a homebody, but I'm so happy to be back on home turf. Stay tuned for more pictures of the finished product with furniture and some new design.