New Projects!!!

As many of you know, owning a house means a lot of projects. One thing gets done, and there are ten more things that turn up.

Well, we started this project on New Year's Eve, and we're not even half way with it. However, when it's finished, I will be so happy! It will look beautiful. So, what we're doing is redoing our kitchen and hallway floors. This is a hard task for us, because first, we had to pull up the carpet, and guess what we found . . . 50 year old linoleum! Not only was it super old and disgusting, but it was hideous! It was tan, but it looked like someone stepped one shoe in green paint and the other in red paint, and walked all over the floor! It was horrible! So, we pulled that up as well. Underneath all those layers is hardwood floors. We have decided to refinish our hardwood floors, but it is taking a long time, because the paper backing from the linoleum was glued onto the hardwood floors. Now, we are in the process of scraping up the gluey paper. We COULD just rent a big sander and get it done, but that would create so much dust that we'd be cleaning up dust for months. So, for now, I spend 1-2 hours a day scraping the floor. But hey, I think it's worth it for beautiful hardwood floors. Plus, all this manual labor gets me in shape. :) So, after all the scraping and final sand job, it will be time for stain and then the polyurethane topcoat. Wish us luck that it will work out like we plan!

Lance is pulling up the horrible carpet. Seriously! Who wants carpet in their kitchen? That's just asking for mold problems!

I'm cleaning the hideous linoleum floor. This picture makes it look a lot prettier than it really is. I'm glad to be rid of it!

I'm scraping away!

Another project that I have been working on this week is a French memo board. It's kind of hard to explain, so there is a picture. Here is what I did: I got a big picture frame that I never use. Then I hot glued some cotton on it to make it soft and padded. Then I covered the whole thing with fabric (attached with hot glue, or you can staple gun it). Then I attached ribbon in a diagonal criss-cross pattern. I attached them only at the ends. I elected to sew it by hand, but you can also staple gun it. I still haven't decided if I want to attach buttons or not. It looks good now, but buttons might give it a better look. But I don't have enough buttons to cover it, so I'll have to buy some. It's really cute and super easy to make!

Finished product. Right now it's in my kitchen and I slip some of my favorite recipes into it to remind me to make them.

I'm excited for many new projects in the future!

-Michelle