Shower and Floor

One might think that that is a DIY title, but the shower does not refer to the one in our home but rather the bridal shower for one of our good friends' daughter.  She loves the color pink and there were pink daisy-like flowers on the wedding invitation so I used my daisy die to create my own flower from the new Strawberry Slush CS.  I had to add this portion of a die cut doily to the back because I apparently wasn't as careful as I thought and got ink on the back of the card base.  You know what they say about mistakes being the opportunity for embellishment!

As promised, I said I would show before and after pictures of our floor project.  You will see that we have an open layout plan of the main part of our first floor.  This is the view from the dining area to the living room area.  The double-hung windows open up to the front porch.  The rug is a very faded shade of dark rose and you can probably see where the furniture was by the difference in the color.  (And the wall are not pink, they are painted with several shades of tans (biscuit and bagel are the names) and I used one of those split rollers that blends the paint, or rather, makes it look like very soft sponging.) 

This is the same view with the wood floor unfinished.

And now the finished floor.

This is a more angled view which shows the stairway to the second floor and the new opening for the kitchen mid progress.

And the finished floor and stair treads from this angle.  We will have to paint the risers on the stairs to match the trim.  (Hopefully this will be done before too long!)

This would be the view from the living room to the back of the house (the dining room) and on the right is the kitchen with the two half walls.

I wanted the half wall to the dining area eliminated and we are contemplating putting in a kitchen island instead of having the two tables again (the kitchen and dining room tables so close in proximity are really a little redundant).

It opens up nicely to the kitchen now and the lower portion of the walls will have to be refinished.

Here the floor is finished but the trim in this picture is not yet up.  It has since been done.

If I were standing at my sink and looking into the rest of the house, this is what I originally saw.  (The floor was linoleum.)

Looking into the kitchen before (the stove doesn't normally stick out like that, we were waiting for someone to come help disconnect the gas line so we could take it out).

With the unfinished wood floor.

And with it finished.

I love it.  I don't love the smell of the finish which is still lingering, but I love the floor.  It's a 1000% improvement on the faded floor and time-worn linoleum.  The floor extends to the hallway which you don't see in these pictures, the stair landing, and the upstairs hallway also.  

We've brought in the furniture (which will hopefully be replaced soon if I can decide on what I want to replace it with) and have lots of incidental "stuff" to go through.  That is the overwhelming part.  I had just gotten to the point in the stamp cave where I had some free space and it wasn't as cluttered, but there was a small folding table that was in the dining room where the wall is no longer and under that table were storage boxes full of, wait for it, ................craft supplies.  They had to be moved upstairs and I will be going through all that stuff to see what I should be keeping and what just has to go.  I don't think I have enough hours left in my lifetime to use it all.  

Gotta run for now.  Hoping my creativity mojo will be back with me come July as I have a lot of catching up to do!