We grew up together in a town where our graduation class had just over 100 students.

One of his best friends from school is Dan. One of my best friends from school is Lois.

We are all from the same graduation class. Dan & Lois eloped the weekend after graduation. They are still married.

Jim & I connected through FaceBook & when I said I needed someone to do work at my house, he offered up his skills. I took him up on it … on a whim. I thought spending the weekend with him here was going to be strange. It wasn’t.

It’s like an old friend you’ve never known.

When her tail goes down like that, she is either upset or concentrating. She has been in that position since daylight watching the birds outside.

And … since her tail was docked, I don’t call it her tail. I call it her stub. She was very sensitive to me touching it when I rescued her.

What’s wrong Suzzie?

***bark bark bark***

You laying there like a big lump is not helping me.

***snort*** (Translation: The pillow is hogging my space.)

Poor you. Move it yourself.

***snort*** (Translation: Nevermind… I’m too sleepy.)

After a $400 vet bill, I was happy to see her sleeping like “normal”.

But … I did it in my own house. It just worked out that way with the timing of the availability of the guys to help me strip the floor and the guy I wanted to do the drywall work. I figured we could put down paper and drop cloths to protect the floor to during the drywall work.

That didn’t happen (because I decided to do it that way) and it worked out for the best.

After two coats of polyurethane … satin … on the floors, they turned out too smooth & slippery for my liking. I also need to fix a few spots where the poly dried a bit hazy.

I didn’t protect the floors for the drywall work since they needed to get sanded again anyway. They got a few more dings in them & heavy traffic with shoe soles full of drywall mud wore of the finish quite nicely. They are looking a lot more like that handscraped flooring that I originally wanted to go with. Once all of the drywall finishing & priming & painting are done, I’ll have them lightly sanded just to put on a thinned down coat of poly.

That hasn’t happened in ages.

Am I the black sheep … or just a casualty of technology?

If you want to see all of the pictures I posted to Facebook from my phone during the project, the album is here.

Today, the speaker holes were cut in the drywall. Friday (afternoon … 1st coat) and Saturday (hopefully morning … 2nd coat) of the polyurethane goes down.

PeeEss: The TV stand hasn’t even shipped yet. I wish I could get a confirmed ship date or have them cancel the order.

PeePeeEss: the cost…

oh so very tired & every muscle in my body hurts, but doing the math … my dream was to go with hand-scraped pre-finished hardwood (because Annie flips out on smooth floors). Cost plus installation would have been nearly $2000. Sanded the pine floors down using the roughest grit available & stained them myself. Sander rental $45 + sanding discs $10 + hand sander discs $10 + stain $30 + labor (included pulling down drywall & rehanging drywall to reroute speaker wires) $200 + LilBro as gopher $20 + dogsitting $50. Can someone add that up for me? I’m too tired. ‎1st new flooring in my house that Annie approved immediately … that’s priceless. Still need to add in polyurethane it next weekend ($20 for the poly & $30 for the dogsitter overnight).

I hope I can find someone to help me strip the floor soon. That sander is a monstrous machine. Once the TV stand arrives, I can have TV/audio wires relocated & then drywall finished.

I LOVE IT!

Annie not so much. She keeps walking around it to get to the couches.

I couldn’t decide. So, I did an image search on both rugs. The first one was no where to be found. The second one I found at Wayfair cheaper, plus some discount they were offering & another one I found online made it really cheap. I ordered a second rug with a similar print to what I liked in the first rug. I scored well … the total cost for both rugs (including shipping) is just $30 more than the price I posted about Festival 8773 Black. The second rug is called Optimum Machine.

I opted for two rugs because with as much as my dogs shed… one is going to be at the cleaners while the other one is on the floor.

And … the big decision of the day: what to do with my media wall.

I decided not to put the computer back in the corner. It’s going to be just a TV wall. This is the stand I ordered to go there… it’s almost twice was wide as the old stand so the TV has to get moved over 6″. In my mind, everything will balance nicely.

The savings I scored with the rugs were eaten up by this stand. I adore it … and that what matters … and glad I found it on ebay for just $50 more having it home delivered instead of having to drive to Utah to get it (because they only deliver within 250 miles).