Last week, I also worked on the floors in the dining room. I would put a coat of paint on the walls and then work on the floors. If you remember, we had pulled up the carpet in the dining room only to find tar bordering our entire floor. It wasn't a huge deal, but we worried that the humidity during the summer would make the tar sticky. Sticky tar = unhappy homeowners. So, we set out to find a solution.

Thankfully, a friend of ours recommended a spray that is supposed to be fantastic for all things sticky and tacky. It is called Contractors' Solvent and had a wonderful orange smell to it. We were told to spray it on, let it sit for five minutes, and then wipe it off.

I sprayed it, rolled a coat of paint on the walls--while I crossed my fingers that the juice would work--and then proceeded to rub off the tar! Multiple dish towels and a few coats later, the solvent worked wonders! It took multiple applications and a bit of scraping, but our floors are now tar free. I'm sure that all of that elbow-grease will pay off this summer...my feet will thank me later.

Now, all we need to do is put down an area rug, set up our dining room table, and invite over some friends! Our dining room is definitely taking shape.

P.S. Don't worry about that dark border. The tar stained the floor in certain places. At least we were able to get up the sticky part!

We would totally recommend this product in the future! We were really impressed. Now, do you have any heavy-duty cleaning products you swear by? We use white vinegar and baking soda for pretty much everything, but sometimes you need to pull out the "big guns." What do you swear by? 

Mint Ice Cream

Mmm...mint ice cream. I have a hankering.

I guess I can wait, though, considering it is only nine in the morning!

Anyways, you know the color of mint ice cream? The light green, borderline seafoam color? Well, that was the color of our dining room rug. Yes. Ew.

The 70s called and wanted their rug back.

Plus, it was so ugly and so faded that it was hard to even tell it was mint green! We thought that the rug was a tan color, but upon further investigation, we noticed that it was mint green. You could see little hints of the color shining through where furniture had sat for decades. (See the subtle green color along the left hand wall?)

Plus, the rug was screaming "rip me out!" Not only was the color horrible and the rug really filthy, it also had that old-people's-house texture. Do you know the one I'm talking about? The one that looks like this up close: 

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Apparently "old-people's-house" texture is also known as "sculptured nylon carpet." Yea, sounds horrible. Sounds old. Sounds like something that I don't want to keep in our house.

So, on Saturday we decided to rip the thing out. It was the last rug left from the previous owners. One of the first things we did, when we first took possession, was take up all of the flooring in each room. And just like every other room in the house, the dining room floor had a layer of carpet, then a layer of padding, then a layer of linoleum, and finally a layer of newspaper. Basically, these people tried to make the floors as cushy as possible.

So, once again, we started with this:

First, Jonathan removed all of the thresholds from each doorway. There are six doorways in this room. Yea, SIX. One from the kitchen, the bathroom, the guestroom, the closet, the living room, and the sun porch. That is a lot of thresholds. Once those were removed, we each chose the middle of a doorway and started pulling the carpet up along the sides of the room. Once that was all up, Jonathan whipped out his handy-dandy carpet knife and cut the carpet into wide strips. Then, we rolled 'er up and took 'er out.

After the carpet and the padding were both up, we were left with this.

Beautiful linoleum flooring.

This is where I left Jonathan to do his man-work. Actually, he only had one set of tools for us to use, so he did the next part. He ripped out the tack strips and pulled up the staples. He is fast. Me? Not so much.

After an hour-and-a-half of work, he was ready for me to help him again. So, up came the linoleum and the newspapers that were under it. Thankfully, we were able to break the linoleum into smaller pieces and take it all right outside.

So the floor was looking a lot better! No more mint green carpet!!

Jonathan then proceeded to go around the room removing the rest of the staples and nails. We wanted to call the floor 'done' this past Saturday, but unfortunately, that just wasn't going to happen.

See that black border? Let's get a little closer.

Yea, it's tar. For some reason there was also tar under all of that mess. We aren't really sure why. But, alas, it's there. So, now we have to address that situation. We are going to try a floor gel that is meant to clean up tar and various other greasy messes. Our local hardware store owner (and friend of ours) recommended it to us. I'm assuming it is something similar to this.

I'm praying that it works. If it doesn't, I'm not sure what we will do. I wish the tar wasn't there, but we will figure something out! I'm just glad to have pretty floors under all that mess! 

So, tell me, have you ever pulled up carpet to find beautiful wood floors underneath? Anyone know how to get tar off of a wood floor? 

The Progression Of A Floor

I have my hopes pretty high today.

I am praying that when I show up at the house today, our bedroom floor isn't making me see red.

Last night I put the first coat of paint on the floor in our master bedroom! It is very exciting, but I'm a bit nervous.

I quickly snapped some 'before' pictures to show you how clean our floor looked before the whole paint thing. It's amazing that it went from this:

to this (covered in drywall dust):

and then, finally, to this:

Sidenote: Did you notice the place where the walls were in the above picture? See the wood that is exposed and doesn't have any paint on it? That is where the wall used to be that divided the two rooms. 

After much sweeping, vacuuming, and moping...she was all cleaned up and ready for a coat of paint. Jonathan had fixed all of the holes

and sanded down the areas that needed to be smoothed out. And she was all pretty and ready for some "makeup" so-to-speak.

I grabbed the paint that we wanted to use, Benjamin Moore's Floor and Patio in Country Redwood, and got to work.

First I cut in, under the radiator, with a brush. This was fairly straightforward. I just used a smaller paint brush and made sure to get as close to the wall, behind the radiator, as I could. Then, I made sure to go out around the radiator with the paint, so that when I rolled the floor I had plenty of room and  I wouldn't hit the radiator.

I didn't have to worry about edging the perimeter of the room, because the baseboard was going to cover it--as long as I got close enough to the wall. Also, I didn't have to worry about hitting the wall with the roller because the baseboard was going to cover that as well.



It was pretty fast work. The paint was very thin which allows it to really seep into the wood and spread fairly easily. I think I painted the whole floor in about fifteen minutes.

Here are some after pictures, prepare yourself.

The red is a bit more cherry than I was expecting it to be. I still need to put another coat on the whole thing, but I am hoping it becomes a bit more brown in the drying process. If not, I am contemplating taking some stain and rubbing a thin coat over the floors to get a darker effect. We will see. I just don't want our room reading too stars and stripes. Not my idea of a relaxing get away. I will keep you posted!

Have you ever tried to tackle something, only to fear that you made it worse? Any horrible paint experiences? Do you think the stain idea will help?

Let's Cut a Rug!

Well, maybe not. I'm not so sure you want to see my dancing skills...or rather, lack thereof. I sort of look like I'm trying to swat at a bee. I'm spastic and really uncoordinated...looks more like I'm attacking something.

Picture it. Then laugh.

Its OK. I'll laugh with you.

Want to know how I figured out that I can't dance?

I took Dance 101 in college. 

Yea. 

Bad i.d.e.a. 

Anyways, let's talk about rugs. Carpets. The things that cushion our feet. A decorative element in a room. Le tapis. 

Oddly enough I am really excited about the rugs that we have purchased for the house. You know, 'cause I'm in to things like rugs. 

Back story: Our entire house was covered in what we thought were area rugs. But, they were actually carpet pieces that had been tacked to the floor. So, we ripped all of those up, only to expose the sub floor. Thankfully, the sub floor resembles a hardwood floor, so they will be staying for now. 

Then we decided that we needed to purchase something to cover warm up the spaces a bit. Enter the idea of area rugs stage left. So, I went online to my favorite place to get big, inexpensive area rugs: rugsusa.com  Having purchased a few area rugs from them, about a year ago, for our current abode, I knew what the quality was like. I was skeptical at first, but the rugs have worn really well with two energetic dogs in our apartment. So I naturally turned to them for something to adorn our new home's floors.

I decided to get two of them. One for our bedroom and one for the living room. The ones that I already own will go in the guest bedroom, sun porch, and dining room. So I think we are covered :) Why don't we start with the bedroom? You already saw a glimpse of the rug in this post, but why don't we slide on in for a closer look.  

She is a beautiful 8'x11' rug that only cost me about $400!! For those of you who may not know, a rug this size should really cost about $1500. I am very impressed with this rug. Its 100% wool and very thick. I contemplated purchasing a pad to go under it, but I'm glad I didn't because this thing is so cushy without it! She is a bit more traditional than I usually go for, but I have a plan...you will just have to wait to see what it is. ;)

The second rug we purchased was one for our living room. Here he is...he is quite modern compared to his master bedroom counter part who rocks the traditional vibe very well. 

He is a little more silky than the other one and definitely not as thick. But, still a beautiful rug. Measuring 7'10"x11' 2" he only cost about $350!! So, in total we spent approximately $750 on the two rugs. Plus, to sweeten the deal, there was no tax and shipping was free!! Now, that is what I call a bargain. 

If you decide to purchase from them, I have a bit of advice for you: make sure you read the descriptions thoroughly. I didn't read closely the first time I purchased from them and bought an outdoor rug for our living room. It actually worked out great though, because we really didn't need an area rug for our living room and now I have a great rug for our sun porch in the new house! 

So, what are your favorite places to find a bargain? Have you ever taken a dance class? I would love to know I'm not alone in the unable-to-dance category!