Floors

I think my month of stress is winding down. It’s not over, just on the downward slide.

I don’t handle changes in my environment well. I’m a creature of habits. Rutts even. Living for a week with our entire living room and kitchen packed into our dining room really irritated me.

Half the kitchen counters were covered by tools that had to be taken out of Trystan’s reach (for his own safety as well as that of the walls!). The other half of the kitchen counters were covered by the junk that’s always there: mail, school papers, lunchboxes and purses, random toylettes (little toy pieces, not to be confused with toilets or toilettes), etc.

Cooking dinner was a royal pain. Eating it was worse. It was a huge relief when enough of the kitchen floor was done that I could pull the counterstools back in. Before then, my husband and I were sitting on the (sub-)floor, with kids strapped into booster seats (we have 2, with trays, in lieu of actual high chairs). Even with the stools, we had to shove all the junk aside to make room for plates on the island.

And the only place we had to sit in a comfy chair was the basement. I have decided that I don't like my basement. It's cold. That's great in July. Not so much in June. And I might just remove the slipcovers from our old sofas that live down there. Those things are an imperial pain in the butt (imperial pains are somehow grander than royal pains in my mind). They constantly shift and move and bunch and expose the couch that I'm trying to hide. Especially when little people are using them to haul themselves onto said couches, or are running across the seat of a couch or hanging over the back to drop toys.

I'm not used to sitting in a room for hours doing nothing but supervising small children. Normally, I can be doing dishes, cooking, doing laundry, or other small chores while the kids play in the family room. None of those options are possible in the basement, and every time I'd leave the dungeon for a chore, Trystan would follow me, fussing. Have I mentioned that I don't sit still well? And that reading a book is impossible while the kids play because I'm constantly being interrupted (or small hands are stealing my bookmark)? And that there's a limit to the amount of choo-choo train and dress up I can play (and I had very little energy or patience during the first couple days of the project, recovering from being sick. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.). I am beginning to loathe Dora's voice.

Ok, enough bitching. Or is it whining? This was supposed to be a celebratory post. Our floor is basically done! And we have furniture in all the right places, and access to our front door! We have no baseboards or casing around the French door. But we have threshold strips between all but one join with carpet/remaining vinyl (have to figure out the top of the basement stairs still). Did I mention the furniture's back in place?

If you're just dying to see photos, check out my hubby's blog. He hasn't posted a photo of the finished product with furniture. Probably will soon. He did an awesome job, didn't he? Seriously, I did very little of the hard labor--I mostly whined about watching the kids. He's the brains (and fingers) behind the lovely new floor. And, he did our taxes last night. The refund basically pays for the improvements (hooray!). I mean, its probably not the best idea for us to be giving the treasury department interest-free loans, but man is it nice to get a little bonus check this time of year :)