The girls and I just got back from Ohio. We went out there for two and a half weeks to help out my parents with a few projects--mostly flooring. We brought back stomach flu, but that's another story.

My main purpose, I thought, was to lay tile in the entryway. There was a pipe that burst near there a few years ago and some flooding. They ripped up the carpet and its been sporting some very retro linoleum while my mom decided what she wanted to put there. Finally it's time had come. But then, the day before I arrived, she called and said, "Well, I've got all the carpet ripped up in the dining room and living room, too!" So you see this Project Monster phenomenon is not just me. Others people's projects multiply until they seem to consume the entire house, too. So there. And, hurrah!, it meant I got to learn how to put down a floating floor.

We bought this Kahrs flooring from a tiny little local store there in Enon, OH (pop. 3000). It's an engineered hardwood that interlocks without any glue or nails. I was skeptical of the store and wanted to go somewhere more established, like Lowes or Home Depot, thinking we could get something similar for a better price. I could not have been more wrong. The floor we got was mid-range price, nothing extravagant, and it was far superior to more expensive options at either Lowes or HD. Twice as thick, with wider and longer planks. It was really beautiful and easy to work with.

Plus, the owner of this little store, Stacy's Flooring, was amazingly helpful. He answered questions over the phone, came by the house and personally measured all of the transition strips we would need, let us borrow his wet saw when it came time for tile, gave us discounts, and threw in a free bucket of grout. I think he was really intrigued that these two ladies were attempting all these projects. Maybe he thought he'd better stand by in case we needed rescuing, but in any case he was our hero.

All in all, we laid 850 sq feet of wood floor, 70 sq feet of tile, ripped out all the baseboards (sanded, repaired, repainted) and put them back again, took out three light fixtures and replaced two (third one arrived broken...but we didn't know until after we had hooked it up-argh!) and went through 6 gallons of paint. All during naptime and after the kids went to bed!

Before.

Can you see that awesome linoleum?

We put the table saw and the wet saw in the garage where it was only slightly warmer than the outside 6 degrees. We had to put a space heater out there just to keep the water in the reservoir from freezing. I wished it had kept us warm, too. We did all these projects with parkas ON. January is not the best month for remodeling.

100 sq ft of hallway took longer than 750 sq feet of living and dining room. So many crazy corners.

Dad got us this Paslode Cordless 16 Gauge Angled Finish Nailer for the trim. No cords, no hoses, no compressor. It has a gas canister as well as a battery and it makes a tiny explosion inside to drive the nail. So cool.

All in all it was a great trip. We got a lot done, I learned a lot of new things and the girls had a blast in a place with "actual winter." Thanks for having us, Mom!