I can’t say it better than Caitlin Lowry already has: “For [years] I have been struggling with the idea of a “blog,” wrestling with it, chewing on it, chasing it around and stamping it out like a pesky ember on the forest floor, but it won’t go away.” I have stacks of things I meant to blog about, things I mean to still blog about, and even a good share of half written posts.

In my mind there are lots of arguments about what the ‘first post’ will or should be. This was not one of them. Never made it to the list, wasn’t even on the horizon. It’s cutting in line. While I’m still wrestling with what to post first, I have decided that the best place to start is usually where you are right now and this is where I find myself. So here we go. If I go back and blog about those other things, booyah! If not? Well, my Grandfather’s Mother always said, if you forgot what you were going to say-  it must’ve been a lie.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie was a brilliant book. Not for actual subject content as much as for moral of the story lesson. I’m not going to look it up, but I bet it was written by someone involved in a home improvement project at the time trying to figure out how to teach their children the dangers of DIY.

What they wanted to write was if you give a Mouse-wife (or husband, you know they do this, too! but since I’m a girl I’m going with the feminine pronoun) a home improvement supply, she’s going to ask for some tools but will quickly realize that more supplies are needed, so she’ll ask for a trip to the home improvement store, whilst there she’ll see something that inspires her and will put it on the ‘project list’. After returning home, of course she’ll need to eat before beginning the project. Eating will allow her time to realize that while we’re working on this, we really ought to do that as well since we’re tearing apart this room anyway.

I’m pretty sure you get the idea.

So what brought this on? We got married and bought a house. hahaha, actually it happened the other way around. My then, soon-to-be husband bought our house and moved in ~21 months ago. Then spent six or seven months involved in some other time consuming projects. Then we finally set the date for the wedding and got married. Four.months.later.

We had already been engaged for three years so while it was a heroic effort, at least we weren’t crazy. For the last eight months we’ve been blissfully enjoying married life; adjusting to living together (and without our parents), surviving Murphy’s ‘everything that can go wrong, will’ law, and embarking on home improvement projects of our own. That’s where this blog begins, with our ?th home improvement project: new floors.

Last week was spent making a snap decision about our next home improvement purchase. We were casually pricing out options for what to do about the floor. Refinish it? Lay down new? What could we afford? What is the best option here? We were NOT planning to make any purchases yet… and here comes the big fat BUT… but we ran into a floor on clearance. Le gasp! Solid oak hardwood floor, pre-finished, beautiful color, co-ordinates with our existing trim. *head desk* Who wants to make that kind of decision?! So we calculated everything and checked it twice then said okay, I think if we use the last of the wedding money we can DO this.

Say what? We’re buying floor?!? Oh yes we did. Brought it home in 3 trips and spread it out all over the house, cause if we stacked it all together, it’d fall through to the basement! It weighs 2,728 pounds!!! Yes folks, that’s over one ton (short, metric or long).  I.think.I.might.die.now. Each box weighs 62 pounds. I was surprised that I could lift them so well without really straining. By no means were they easy to lift, but I could do it. Repeatedly. Tim carried most of it but I tried to bring in about 1 box for every 2-3 he carried. SO.much.weight.

Then of course because why not, we got two dump truck loads which is 3 TONS, of gravel and raked that back and forth all over.

What were we thinking? I’ll tell you what we were thinking, no more parking in mud! YAY! Truthfully it just happened to work out to be this weekend by accident. Tim’s Dad fantastically offered us the gravel and use of his truck like a year ago. It’s just taken this long to get a day where the truck was available, Tim was available, the gravel place was open, and it wasn’t raining. Besides, we need projects to keep us busy while the floor acclimates.

Which brings us to the next “cookie”. Since we’re emptying our bedroom should we refinish the walls? It’s not that we own that much stuff yet folks, and certainly not much furniture, but who wants to try to wrangle our king-sized natural rubber mattress out of the bedroom, through the hallway and into the next room twice???

Such is the nature of home improvement projects. This blog is for my sanity. This post is for our dear friends who just bought their second house and are starting this game all over, and our mothers who are still waiting on long ago promised projects that they’re now just hoping they live to see completed.

I leave you with the only photo I have of the flooring project so far and a promise for more to come. Before and after photos. Someone please remind me to take the before shots this time?

Giving thanks to God for the struggles that bring us closer together and help us grow stronger.