One Man's Floor is Another Man's Weekend

Last weekend was one of those rare times when we get a day off for a holiday that requires no action on our part. No baking of class cookies, no purchasing of presents, no preparation of a giant meal or out of town guests. So we decided to celebrate in the way that Home Depot suggests - by putting in a new floor.

Here is the before shot. Notice the slightly pinkish linoleum. What the pictures don't show is the scarring that has come from eight years of living with said linoleum. It was a treat for the eyes, let me tell you.

This renovation idea was all well and dandy until the day before our project started. I got a miserable cold. But in our family, we don't let that kind of thing stop us. So while the cold was killing my nasal passages and stalking Chris, We tore out the unsightly linoleum. There now. Isn't this better?

Then we covered the entire floor with orange wires that promised to keep our cold feet warm even on the worst winter day. 

Then we covered that with some orange junk. Something about uncoupling the tile from the subfloor and independent movement. I'm just the unskilled labor here.

                                      

Finally, Saturday night saw the laying of the first tile. It was considerably later on Saturday night than originally planned and we were both really starting to feel the effects of that darn cold virus. 

Nonetheless, we worked all night. From the placement of this picture, I can tell you that it was about 1:00 a.m.. We worked until 3:30 a.m. when we realized we were officially too stupid with exhaustion to measure tile anymore. I heartily apologize to the next owner of our house in the event they tear out the trim behind the fridge and realize the tile is cut a bit short. I was tired. Mistakes were made. Mostly by me. 

But by Monday night, we once again had a functioning kitchen. This is my favorite moment - the dishwasher being replaced. Let me tell you, after 5 days of cooking on the grill and in the microwave and having to resort to doing dishes in the bathroom sink, this was a beautiful sight.     

                                

And then we were done. Kind of. There's still a bit of trim work for us to do. And by "us" I mean "Chris". I am after all banned from caulk products since the Harney Street bathtub incident of 2004. But we won't talk of that.

Here's our lovely new travertine floor with a marble medallion. (And by the way, those orange wires under the floor are delightful).

Thanks, Chris for an adventure in tiling. Also, thanks for making everything an adventure.

A Chilling Tale

This past weekend requires documenting. Unfortunately, the only pictures that exist are a couple of overly backlit cameraphone shots that could be either of us or bigfoot. It's impossible to tell.

Chris and I like to get away for our anniversaries. Even if it's only one night. Even if it's two weeks after the fact. This year, we found ourselves more stressed out than usual. I was long on work and short on vacation time. The prospect of driving 450 miles to get away for 36 hours seemed a bit daunting. We almost decided not to go this year. But we did it anyway. Why? Because it's important. Because we have the kind of marriage that's worth putting effort into.

We dropped off the kids with my parents (thank you so much Mom and Dad! We owe you BIG!) and went to Salt Lake. We froze our butts off in single digit temperatures trying to catch some of the downtown ambiance. We drank not one, but two, hot chocolates within an hour so that we didn't die of hypothermia. We ran to our dinner reservation after we discovered that running restored blood to our limbs. We ate over-hyped mediocre yet trendy food while we laughed at the uppity couple sitting next to us. We finally gave in to the demands of our frozen fingertips and noses and drove to a movie that was less than a mile away. We end-of-season clearance shopped our hearts out on the way back to RS and we ate a number of Mrs. Field's cookies which shall remain undisclosed.

We had a fantastic time. Thank you Chris for being the kind of person that makes every trip to the outlet stores and every meatloaf sandwich an experience worth remembering for the rest of my life. I love you!