Running & Wine-ing: note to self: buy socks with the little grippy things on the bottom...

Here’s my pitch to the DIY network for their newest show: “Scot And Maggie Renovate A House” (title is up for negotiation). “This reality show follows a central Florida couple as they watch Youtube for instructions and then tear things apart and attempt to remodel their home. Previous projects include 2 bathrooms and 2 guest bedrooms. The first episode has them ripping up carpet and busting up floor tile to install 900 square feet of wood flooring- Scot leads the way and Maggie ends up injuring herself every half hour, which through the magic of television looks like every 3 minutes…”

On second thought, the show would warrant an “MA” rating for strong language and probably end up on Showtime at 11pm.

But anyway, this was the big project we’d been planning for! It took 9 days and we used up every single piece of flooring, save for ONE. How’s that for calculations? We broke a hammer, a screwdriver, wore holes in 2 pairs of gloves (then tried to duct tape over those holes but just ended up taping our [meaning, MY] fingers to the gloves), and on the home stretch of the project, Scot finally broke the tapping block. If you’ve ever put in a wood laminate floor before, the tapping block is kind of a VERY important tool and the damn thing broke on a Sunday night at 9pm. Tools and I don’t get along very well- I beat myself up with the mallet and never did get a handle on that pull-bar thingy that you beat with a hammer to snap all the pieces together. I’m really good as supervising and sweeping, ok?

We had some great friends to help us out along the way- Doug came by to assist with the demo: moving furniture, pulling up carpet and padding and busting a bajillion square feet of really grody tile. For 4 days, the fridge and stove were occupying the living room and we were both really sick of take-out by that time. Our friend Justin came by on the second day to help us chip away all the mortar from under the tile because apparently whoever lay the tile thought they were icing a damn birthday cake and it was so thick all we could do is tap a chisel into it with a hammer for 8 hours straight. After that, I was back at work and Scot worked all day at the house putting down the actual floor. When I got home, we kept working. And the next morning, we did some more. And the day after that. And the day after that… Good god when did 900 square feet get so big??? Then I realized- yeah that’s bigger than my old apartment. This is actually really HUGE project. There was so much dust in the air that all I did during the week was *cough cough cough hack cough cough.* It sounded really pathetic.

Finally, yesterday when I got home from work- it was magical! Like walking in on a surprise home makeover show! While I was at work all day, Scot finished the entire project- floors done, baseboards done, furniture moved off the back porch (oh just ASK me how ghetto THAT felt to have everything on the patio for a week!) and everything was swept clean and dusted, with a scented candle burning to top it all off…AND...AAAAAAAND…Dinner in the oven!!!!!

I love this guy J

So we’re living with it now and it looks fantastic! The cat is still adjusting, it’s pretty funny when she tries to run and slips and can’t quite make the sharp turns she could on the carpet. Heh heh.