Floor Plans

Ten years ago, we visited our parents for about 10 days in the summer.  While we were gone, our ice maker line sprung a tiny leak in the line going into the fridge.  That tiny leak caused major damage to our floors throughout almost the entire first floor.  It was unreal what damage a tiny hole, left unattended for 10 days, could do!  Our insurance was amazing, and we were able to refinish all the hardwoods that were damaged.

Ever since that incident, we have faithfully turned off our water when we leave for a trip.  Over Thanksgiving, we were gone about 48 hours.  We were ready to head out to go and my husband remembered he needed to run down to the basement to turn the water off.  "Do you really need to mess with it?  We're barely going to be gone!", I said.  He was adamant that it was necessary, and took care of it.  When we returned home from our quick trip, we noticed something was wrong with the hardwoods in the kitchen.  Even though the water was off, the water dispenser on the refrigerator had dripped (it had never dripped before. . . it must have waited to do it until we left). And yes, again, the hardwoods were damaged.  The area affected was much smaller this time, thankfully,  but they were very cupped and warped.  We called the insurance company and they were able to give us the green light to have the floors refinished.

Fast forward to today.  For the past week plus, this has been the scene in our living room, the one carpeted room on the first floor:

This room is housing four sofas, three chairs, a buffet (in two pieces), a piano, an ottoman, four end tables, a dining room table, a computer and table, and various other odds and ends that were displaced when one has to empty an entire first floor.  Our garage has the recliner and stove, and the refrigerator is in the laundry room (thankfully we have another fridge in the garage that we are using). All the chairs from the island and dining room are in various bedrooms and basement.  We have shipped Shadow off to a willing pet-sitting gal from our congregation, and it has generally been a grand ol' time over here!  Close quarters, no kitchen and regular life carrying on has made for some interesting days (and several of the kids, during this time of upheaval have asked to have friends over.  Whaaat??) We were lucky enough to spend one night at a hotel and the younger kids got to enjoy the great pool.

The floors are done now, though we can't move furniture and appliances in yet for a couple more days.  We are going to get some painting done while all the furniture is out, and my dream of gray is going to come true (super excited about that!!)  We are really happy with the floors - we didn't want them dark, and this color compliments our cabinets really well:

Only a few more days until we can move things back in and life will go back to normal.  Normal = loud, crazy and busy!  But at least we will no longer have to make lunches in the garage and do laundry while leaning around a refrigerator!