He went to look at samples and brought home paint.
Well crap.
He and the children moved everything to the kitchen and prepared to paint. It was all finished in one day and it all happened so quickly I hardly had time to process what was going on.
The paint had hardly dried when he starts in on the carpet. To be fair, it was disgusting and he was so gung ho I told him to go to town. He asked if I was serious and I had hardly reiterated my stance when he gleefully started tearing up the carpet.
The house was filled with dust and the scent of a hundred years of dog, but the carpet was up and we were left with bare concrete. And after the stank had settled the air was so fresh! Fresher than it has ever been!
Here's the thing, though. I can't live in such shambles indefinitely (did that as a kid, didn't like it, won't do it again) so this happened when we went to "look" at laminate.
As we are a handy dandy (with a healthy dose of cheap) family...
Until finally...
I'm pretty pleased with the results as it saved us a metric ton of money, but it also was a great learning experience for the kids because it required working together while they learn something new. My one great parenting goal is to teach my children, specifically my daughters, how to be self sufficient.
It's working!
Mere minutes after completing this project, Mr.D asked if he could pull up the carpet in the classroom. I told him he totally could! In ten years. He said he wants it to be our next project and I nodded enthusiastically while repeating, "in ten years." He said he could always just pull the carpet up and force my hand. I agreed but reminded him he'd best be prepared to put floors in the next day.
He calmed down a hair. I don't think I can put him off for ten years, but maybe I bought myself at least one.
Now that we are seasoned floor layers I have a few notes.
1.When cutting wood one really should use the saw outside. Or in the garage or anywhere besides inside the house. This one should be obvious, but it was raining and Mr. D didn't want to walk to the other end of the house to the garage. I can't blame him for that, but also it wasn't the best idea.
2. Cover any surface you ever want to see again with some kind of drop cloth. We did not. Also, we moved the furniture to the kitchen where the cutting was taking place. So much dust. Everywhere. Miney wanted to make cookies for her Young Women's class, but we managed to talk her out of it. Which was kind of a tender mercy because while making cookies last night the element in the oven caught fire. Like flames and stuff. That would have been an unpleasant addition to the chaos already in progress. Also, now we have an oven shaped paperweight.
3. Protective eye wear and face masks are essential if you want to breathe and keep your eyesight. They also make it hard to breathe (Irony!) and impossible to see when the lenses of your glasses fog up. I couldn't decide which was worse, permanent blindness while suffocating or temporary blindness while suffocating. Well, at the time it was hard to decide.
4. Have a buddy available to check your work before cutting the boards. This really only applies when one began the project early in the morning, has come to the 2/3 mark of the project and it's nine o'clock at night. Mr.D mis-cut a couple of pieces. The look of dejection on his face whenever Meenie handed a board back with "it's cut wrong" was soul crushing and comical. However, everything is soul crushing and funny when you're exhausted and breathing sawdust.
5. Baseboards are nasty. Just gross. Also, cement floors are gross. Builders don't care what kind of yuck they leave on the floor because they're just going to cover it. It's like an appalling version of...it's just appalling.
And that's what happens when the man-candy has a week off of work.
