Chaos

It's been an entire week since my last post, but since there has been so much activity in this house I have loads to say today. Actually, I think I'll let my pictures speak for me.

Our floors in the bedrooms desperately needed refinishing before we put the place on the market, so we had to bite the bullet and pay the $2500 to have the work done. Monday morning, two mysterious Russian men came to the house to begin work. I never got their names and one of the men never said a word to me. The younger guy did all the talking -- which is not saying much. A few months ago, I pulled up carpet in our bedroom to reveal that the previous owners had left terrible stains and paint on the floors before covering them with the carpet. I really looked forward to seeing what -- if anything -- could be done to make the floors like new again.

These two guys set to work and, except for all the noise, never bothered me. The dogs handled it all pretty well and stayed with me in the basement all week. Maggie didn't like the noise much, as it threatened her beauty rest, but none of them seemed scared or worried about all the activity going on above us. The two mysterious Russians sanded the floors, stained them, and slathered three coats of poly over them in four days. Tonight, Len and I get to move from the basement back into our bedroom.

In the meantime, the house is a wreck, with the contents of both bedrooms and the three affected closets piled high in our living room. I just noticed last night that you can see the piles through our front window. The piles of stuff, and the fact that folks are still coming by to buy things Len posted on Craig's List must make our neighbors really wonder what the heck we are doing over here. When we put out the "For Sale" sign in the yard this week, the neighbors will understand -- and probably be a little grateful to see us strange folk go!

The Russians finished the last coat on Thursday morning and now, two days later, the stench from the coating has all but gone away. At one point it was so strong upstairs that my throat hurt from breathing in the fumes. That's when the hounds and I went for a walk in the neighborhood for some wet, fresh air. In any case, the floors are complete, and they are magnificent. I can still see a couple spots where the stains were too deep to sand off, but I think that's only because I know where to look. The floors look new. The stain is nearly identical to the color in the rest of the house, too, so the floors don't look out of place. We are very pleased with the results.