They're hand-scraped hickory, and they're only downstairs and on the actual stairs (upstairs is still manky horrible carpet).
And I love them. I love that they are all distressed and mis-matched, like crappy old wood that we just found rotting in a pile somewhere and decided to put on our floors.
Even though they show, like, every single speck of dust. As you can see by these photos. Fortunately daughter H's OCD has kicked in and she's sort of obsessive about Swiffering them (when she's home, which she wasn't when I took these photos).
UNfortunately, in getting these floors we broke the dog's brain. He has only two speeds: OFF and 11. If he isn't sitting/lying perfectly still, he is running around like a crazy thing. So, he slides on the floors. Which makes him afraid of the floors. Which makes him want to run across them even FASTER. Which causes him to slide. Which makes him afraid of the floors. Rinse, repeat.
We have a bunch of rugs thrown around everywhere and he kind of hops from one rug to another like he's playing a game of Frogger. It would be funny if it weren't driving me absolutely nuts. I'm not sure which one of us needs sedatives more, quite frankly.
Apart from the floors and the dog we are our usual busy selves around here. I found out one day before the first rehearsal that son C was going to be in a week-long musical performance for school, so that was fun. We're still in the midst of that now, and since it's at night and I can't see to drive in the dark, husband P has been ferrying him around while I stay home to help H with her homework, which seems to involve an awful lot of glue and colored sand lately for some reason.
Speaking of homework, son C is supposed to be reading Jane Eyre just now, although I don't think he actually is, and since I hadn't read it myself I thought it might help if I did, and so I am. (It's appalling how many classics I haven't read considering I minored in English in college.) I am enjoying it quite a lot and trying to convince C that he will too, but he's too busy playing Skyrim. Oy. Meanwhile I have ordered a paperback copy, even though I don't read real books anymore, of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and am very much looking forward to reading that as a followup, assuming I even remember how to read real books. We shall see.
Prior to starting Jane Eyre I read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which I also hadn't ever read, and now that I have I'm thinking that could have been a MUCH better movie in the right hands. Just sayin'. I read TWWoO because H and I have tickets to see a Broadway Across America production of Wicked in a couple of weeks, and I was thinking I might re-read the Gregory Maguire book before seeing the musical and that it might be nice to have a frame of reference before reading the book this time, only now I've decided NOT to re-read the book beforehand and instead just to enjoy the musical for what it is without the need for comparisons. So. I'm glad we got that all worked out.
Let's see, what else is going on? I've had the same weird, nebulous crud that I get every year around this time, which I always assume is some sort of flu that my body is fighting off owing to having had the shot back in October. (Except this time it might actually be dust/cedar poisoning. Hard to tell.) I'm trying to beat it back with naps, hot toddies and lots of sriracha. That usually works.
My hair, which I shaved off in May 2010 and have been growing back for a little over a year, is making me completely insane but I am not going to let myself shave it again because boy howdy, that was a pain to maintain. Assuming I didn't want to look like a Monchhichi, which I did not.
I recently read this article and loved the concept of setting seasonal goals rather than annual goals, so I promptly resolved to make more homemade granola, take more photos and drink more chai tea this winter. So far I've made ONE batch of granola (coconut almond -- it's OKAY, but not worth sharing the recipe until I've tweaked it), taken ... the three photos you see in this post, and consumed not a single cup of chai tea. Heh. I even suck at REMEDIAL resolutions.
Yep, that's about all I've got. Enjoy your weekend.
Jane Eyre is one of my all-time favorite books!
ReplyDeleteYour floors are beautiful, and you will love them more and more as time goes on. I like to use a dustmop but Dale likes to vacuum the floors in our house.
Love your floors. My cats skid across the few sections of hardwood we have - it's pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteJane Eyre's not my favorite - I love anything by Austin!
Kathy, how/where did you live while the floors were being installed? I've been thinking of having ours refinished but yeah, how would we endure the process, not to mention decorate the sticky varnish with decorative footprints.
ReplyDeleteThose floors are gorgeous. When we added on to our home, we put wood floors in the new part. We have a friend with a standard poodle, and he spends his time ice-skating on their wood floors.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the book Wicked, but after hearing the music for the musical, I realized that it was only just barely based on the book, so I can see how you might not need to re-read that book. And it's a loonnnngg book.
Sarah, IT WAS SO HARD. Fortunately (a) it's engineered wood, which is pretty easy to install apparently, and (b) the installation crew was freaking fantastic and got it all done in about a day and a half. We sent the dog to daycare for those two days, the kids were at school, and I pretty much camped out at the mall. P stayed here and managed the whole thing. We could walk on them as soon as they were down -- refinishing existing floors would be a whole 'nother animal, I think!
ReplyDeleteWizard of Oz -- LOVE the book, CAN'T STAND the movie. I know, I'm one of only 23 people in the world who doesn't like that movie, but they made so many changes from the book. The worst change of all that they made was that in the movie, it was all a dream, but in the book it really happened. Plus too many other changes to mention.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I've always hated the movie, too. It traumatized me at an early age, which is why it's taken me this long to read the book!
DeleteI HATE the Wizard of Oz movie, but read all the books. Those flying monkeys, munchkins, but worst of all: I think Judy Garland played Dorothy like a little whiny whimp. Covering my head for the stones to be thrown....
DeleteIt took forever for our old dog to acclimate to our new wood floors, legs sliding out from under her and she'd go swooshing on her belly in sort of a pitiful tailspin. It took a good month or so, but she figured out how to walk on wood floors without sliding into doors and your dog will, too. Enjoy - they're beautiful floors! And feel better, too.
ReplyDeleteLove, from a fellow English major who survived on Cliff Notes...
J'adore le new floor!
DeleteAnd the image of your dog running around and sliding is too precious. Sorry.
I know it's mean, but I can't help laughing out loud at the vision of your pouch jumping from scatter rug to scatter rug. We have hot air heat with grated vents in the floor. The big dog, who will take a slice of pizza out or your hand when streaking by in a flash of light before you even know he is there, will not retrieve a piece of steak if it lands on the Scary Horrible Floor Grate.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. Get out the wine.
Oh, and now I am just stalking your comments, sorry - don't bother to read Wicked. The story is fabulous, the songs amazing, the costumes are OUTRAGEOUS. Seen it twice!
ReplyDeleteWhat Loretta just said. I never read the book. My ADD
Deleteson said "TOO MANY characters and plot lines" but I loved the show.
I LOVE Jane Eyre. LOVE. And also enjoyed Wide Sargasso Sea -- you should be prepared for a very different experience, though. It's beautiful, but a substantial departure from the inspiration (which is largely the point). Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteMy 70lb dog slid on pergo flooring when we moved to a new apt years ago, she never got over it and I had to have throw rugs for the rest of her life. Can you say pain in the butt? She iceskated on her toenails whenever she saw hardwood. Maybe buy her/him rubber sneaker booties?
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