Poor Kevin. I think he wants me to go back to work so that I can stop dreaming up all these crazy projects. It all started last night, as I lay in bed, thinking about our window shades.

But to truly understand my madness, you need a bit of history. We bought this house from the Weismillers who had lived in it about a year. They did crazy stuff like paint the dining room that deep, awful blue, and let the yard go to pot. Before the Weismiller, however, this home was owned by the Watkins. They lived here over 20 years and their mark is still felt. If you go down in the basement and flip our fuse box, each fuse is hand labeled. They rewired, reworked, redid this whole house from top to bottom so it’s pretty easy to see figure out what was a Weismiller change vs what was a Waktins improvement.

Hence my dilemma last night. For some bizarre reason, we have blood red carpet in the upstairs bedroom. See Exhibit 1.

If that’s not bad enough, we also have navy blue blinds which clash horribly with the blood red carpet. See Exhibit 2.

So while I lay in bed, wondering how to decorate our poor mismatch bedroom, I found myself pondering that infernal question…. why.

Why would the Watkins have laid red carpet and blue blinds? These people where good, they wouldn’t make a mistake like that. Now, the Weismillers, they might do that. But if the Weismillers put in the carpet, what was there before?

So the next morning, I awoke and saw poor unsuspecting Kevin off to work. (Well, in truth, I lay in bed and murmured something as he went out the door and awoke a few hours later.) I immediately set about the mystery of the flooring. Our top floor was an old attic so I wouldn’t be surprised in all we had was subflooring but you never know. I pried corners and pulled edges to no avail. Thwarted, I plopped down on the stairs and there was the answer, staring me in the face. See Exhibit 3.

Hardwoods! Nice thick hardwoods! Or at least the promise of it. In a frenzy of excitement, I managed to keep myself busy until Kevin came home and let him in on my discovery. We decided to take the plunge. We hate that carpet. Not only is the color horrid, it sucks up animal hair and dander like you wouldn’t believe. Even if the underfloor turns out awful, we can always re-carpet with something more normal.

So today, I started ripping. There is definitely hard wood flooring underneath, but it’s in pretty rough shape. See Exhibit 4. I’m quite determined, however that with a drum sander and some elbow grease, I can have it shiny and new.

I’m taking a break from ripping but so far, it’s quite an improvement. See Exhibit 5. Not really sure how big of a project this is but I guess it’s too late to turn back now, right? Stop back soon for more updates as they develop…..