All we own...

is in a huge box in front of our house. We are refinishing/installing hardwood floors in our house this week. By we, I mean other people whom we are paying to do the work. Apparently, HJ and I are the harriest people ever. Or, we have the worst vacuum cleaner ever. Either way, our floors manage to get completely matted with hair every week despite the thourough vacuuming we impart on them. I have gotten to the point that I walk around a pull the hair off the carpets by hand before attempting a vacuum. Pitiful as it might sound, I think our hair has been the major impetus for the new floors. As a I sit a look at the once-white-now-brownish carpets, I relish the thought that is less than 7 days, if all goes as planned (and it never does), we may actually have a hair-free, easily cleanable surface on our floors. Hurray! Even HJ is excited to see the hair-infested floors go. Also, we found that half our house had old (1920ish) heartwood pine beneath our carpet, so we didn't want to waste such a find. Part of the wood has another layer of faux wood floors on top. Why would you put fake wood on top of real wood? I don't understand. Anyway, sorry to re-enter the blogging world with such a random post, but I wanted to at least say that I am still alive. I have just started a new rotation and have slightly more time on my hands this month. I hope to post again soon. Here are some pictures of the project:

Sorry it is sideways. Here is our empty den:

One our our many hairballs...hope you don't have a hypersensitive gag reflex.
Fake wood over 1949 newspaper over hardwood
The future of our floors (minus all the paint)