This was hardwood floor refinishing week at my house. Here's what the bedroom floor looked like once it had been sanded, filled, stained and covered with one coat of finish. I should have taken a "before" picture so you could really appreciate the difference.
Here's how it looked during the sanding phase. You can see the original finish (such as it was) around the edges:
I believe it's now almost finished except for buffing and the replacement of the shoe molding.
I worked from home part of that first day, and on my way back to the office I stopped by City Hall to start the process of getting a building permit for my replacement windows. Red tape-o-rama. I think I've done everything I can do and the rest is up to the contractor. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll all get sorted out by the time the windows arrive from the factory.
My husband and I have agreed that we'll wait to move back into the bedroom until everything is finished. We've gotten used to sleeping in the living room and it'll be more satisfying to put everything in its place when the room is completely ready.
While I was cleaning out my husband's closet in preparation for the closet floor refinishing, I noticed that there was a small paper bag stapled to the dry cleaners' plastic draped over a pair of black slacks. I tore it open and discovered the iPod Shuffle that I'd lost a couple of years ago. Makes me wish I'd been more observant when I was putting away that batch of dry cleaning way back when.
Once the floor is adequately cured, I'll be ditching those robin's egg blue walls in favor of a chocolate shade and probably going with a cream color for the trim, door and closet doors. I still need to get with our buddy who sells blinds and order some window shades, and I have a piece of artwork I bought from May that needs to be framed. We could probably use an area rug or two as well.
At this rate, it looks like we'll be moved back into the bedroom by mid-October, barring any unforeseen problems. Once we no longer have a huge bed in the middle of our living room, I'm looking forward to inviting people over to meet Toby.
Speaking of Toby, here's a quick update on him. We haven't finalized his adoption yet, but we probably will next weekend. Here's how he looks in his fall jacket on cool mornings:
And here's his first exposure to the new winter coat I got him. He has a few doubts, but I'm sure he'll appreciate it when it gets colder: