face-lift

At long last, we have a new dining room and kitchen floor. All last week we poured the required blood, sweat and tears into the project. This involved ripping up the (extremely gross) carpet and (not so bad but i'm happy to see it go) linoleum, painting above the chair rail in the dining room so that it matches it's lower half in the "red red wine" variety, painting the kitchen the perfect shade of yellow, and putting in our "hardwood" floors.

Okay, so Andy did all the flooring. He and cousin Dean rocked it, and did a mighty fine job. I commandeered the painting with the help of some very kind friends. And all day last Wednesday (and naptime on Tuesday) I imposed upon some more kind friends so that Ella wouldn't lose her hearing and I wouldn't lose my sanity. If it weren't for everyone's help I think we would still be rolling up the (so disgusting I can't even think about it) carpet.

Projects are never really ever finished, though (at least not around here), so we have some trim work to do, and some painting on the cabinetry - but the bulk of it is finished, and it looks amazing. Ella is slipping and sliding all around the floor, and seeing just how much she can make her voice reverberate in the "new" space. The rest of us are slipping and sliding on the floor, and it's become a new favorite past time (for me, anyway). If you take a running start all the way down the hall, you can slide almost the entire length of the room. Good times.

It's amazing how fast things pile up in a week's time. I've done six loads of laundry in the past twenty-four hours, and have at least three more waiting. There are almost no provisions left in the fridge, so a massive grocery trip is in the near future. There are bills to be paid, and CDs to be shipped. There are bathrooms to be cleaned, and babies to be bathed (I didn't wait a week to bathe Ella, but she's due for another one). There's our Tuesday tradition to resume. Most importantly, there are nights to spend just hanging out, enjoying our surroundings and each other.